Using Prior Edition Textbooks?

Bicster · Aug 12, 2008

find out from your professor. they will be most familiar with the books and updates between editions.

missjennmb · Aug 12, 2008

the teachers at my school are "strongly urged" to encourage us to buy our books from the bookstore. With that in mind, they're not very helpful regarding buying books elsewhere at all, much less a prior edition. I won't see the instructor until the first day of class either, and I don't want to risk having an assignment due and not having my book.

I guess I'll just get the current edition instead of leaving it to chance.

casi, ASN, RN · Aug 12, 2008

My A&P instructor told the class that he had a book he recommended, but any A&P book could do. It's not material that really changes a lot.

I would go for the older edition and save yourself some money.

mommy2three2 · Aug 12, 2008

Sometimes they do add things or rearrange layouts so my concern would be making sure that the reading assignments I was doing were the reading assignments I was supposed to be doing.

You could always go with the previous edition for now and compare pages to make sure you are reading the correct material with someone in your class.

Sorry to hear your profs are not being very helpful re:books

Pinkster · Aug 12, 2008

I know a few people who used a later edition, if its just one edition off, not much will be different, and if you have a friend who has the up to date edition to compare to when studying you will be fine I would think.

I mean you have class to go over your lesson and you will be able to spot the differences there. Most things that are going to be different are drug names, perhaps an update on a disease, layout, and pictures.

I just finished A& P with a teacher who didn't even like the book we were assigned and gave us his own notes to study from a completely different textbook. there was no way I was buying 2 books for that class lol

Lovely_RN, MSN · Aug 12, 2008

See if you can find an international edition of the book. I did that for my micro class, it was the same book but in a softcover and it cost 40% less than the hardcover U.S edition that my classmates bought.

For developmental psych I bought a previous edition and it cost me $10 vs. $110 for the current edition. Guess what? The only difference between the older and newer edition was the cover.

benegesserit · Aug 12, 2008

I used a prior edition for Physiology without problems. There were a few minor changes (which the teacher pointed out), but they weren't anything that had an actual impact on me.

Same would have been true in Anatomy, but I didn't actually have the textbook for that (the lab book was quite detailed and sufficient overall - I did have a previous edition lab book and used that without trouble).

In Micro, I ran into a few problems. The teacher assigned homework from the review questions, and very occasionally there would be a minor change. I didn't get marked off for it when that happened, though (I'm not sure he even read carefully enough to notice). There was a section (a few paragraphs, not a whole chapter) where the teacher stated that previous editions had it all wrong. But for the most part, it worked fine, and I don't think it negatively impacted my grade in the class.

Review questions, figure numbers, and page numbers seem to be the most common differences between editions, so that's what you want to look out for when using older editions.

AdrianLU · Aug 12, 2008

I always use old editions and have no problems. For pharm. last semester I used the old edition and we were required to list page numbers where we found our answers in our assignments. I never got points off. What my book was missing (very little) I researched on reputable websites. This was also an internet class which relied heavily on the book and self-teaching.

This semester I have spent $20 bucks on two old edition books that would have cost me $250 dollars brand new.

I've been in college too long to buy into that "the new edition is better" saga.

natrgrrl · Aug 12, 2008

The only thing that was different in my A&P book between the new and old edition was the pictures and page numbers. Get the old version and make friends with the person you sit next to so you can check page numbers and double check any assignments from the book. If you know which instructor you will have, give him/her a call and just ask if it matters to them which version you use.

My micro book was the international version and only cost me $15 on ebay. It was exactly the same except for the picture on the front cover and the ISBN was different.

Jules A, MSN · Aug 12, 2008

For subjects that I knew wouldn't be difficult for me I always bought the older editions but for subjects that I was worried about being weak in I would get the new one just to be on the safe side. Good luck!

VenaKavaRN · Aug 12, 2008

I just started my sixth college semester, and I have always bought the next older edition if it was at all available. I have never regretted it. I think maybe twice I was missing a table or graphic but they were always on the powerpoints the lecturer gave anyway. Also, a lot of textbooks will have some verbose introduction where they tell you all of the 'important' improvements they made. Check that out and see if you even care about what they say they did

If you're needing to resell your textbooks at the end of the semester then obviously you don't really have a choice but to buy the newest one since the bookstore will NOT buy back older editions. Also, if you like the CDs and companion websites (I hate them, personally) you'll want to get a spankin' new version to be sure somebody hasn't already used the code.