Textbooks editions.. the infamous problem.

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What do you think? Go with the older ed or stick to the newest?

This seems to be a bigger problem with fall semester. I'm looking at 700+ if I buy all new from campus.

Here are the books with muptiple editions in question..

General Chemistry .. Raymond Chang

Essentials of Sociology: a down to earth approach

Living with Art

Infants, children, & adolescents.

Human AP... tortora (I'm using the one with the heart on the cover but there is an even newer one..)

I need to buy today!

Any input????

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I found the spring '08/summer 08' syllabus from my school, and in my case the older edition and newer edition were both options. I opted for the older edition for my courses (only taking two), which turned out to be a savings of over $200. :eek:

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You can always rent your books from chegg.com, they normally have the newer editions and they are about 20-50 for the semester. I rented my chemistry book, but my A&P book I'll buy that cause I'd like to keep it. My grandmother was a nurse, and when she got sick before passing, the first thing she did was pull out her old A&P book. But my general ed classes, I'll def rent those.

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I always buy the edition that is recommended, always. If I find it used, I buy used, if it's only available new, I buy new.

There were students in my class that didn't, and sometimes there are information that is missing or has changed.

The biggest is when they give assignments asking you to read "page 207" or a range of pages...b/c in a different edition, it's not going to be the same.

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You can always rent your books from chegg.com, they normally have the newer editions and they are about 20-50 for the semester. I rented my chemistry book, but my A&P book I'll buy that cause I'd like to keep it. My grandmother was a nurse, and when she got sick before passing, the first thing she did was pull out her old A&P book. But my general ed classes, I'll def rent those.

Wow..there is a place that RENTS them?

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Buy older editions if you can get them for very low cost. If it does turn out you absolutely need a new edition of one of them, you'll still have saved money over buying them all new. That's my theory, anyways.

I can tell you that there were very minimal changes between the current edition of the Tortora Microbiology book and the edition I was using (2 editions back). Most of the changes were slight changes in wording to the review questions, and the page numbers weren't exactly the same.

Chemistry is the one where you're most likely to run into problems if the teacher assigns, collects, and corrects homework from the book. Living With Art might be a problem if you're being given lists of page/figure numbers to memorize and those have changed between editions. Sociology and Infants, children, and adolescents are unlikely to be a problem.

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I would buy older textbooks edition for all general ed courses. The newer edition is usually the same, except a few enlarged pictures and increased font sizes. I got an A- for A&P, I was two editions behind. I also did extremely in Microbiology using older editions. For nursing, I probably would buy new editions because sometimes there may be new diagnostic tests, new nursing diagnoses etc...

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Specializes in Emergency Department.
Wow..there is a place that RENTS them?

I was going to do Chegg.com for Chemistry but found the edition I could use for cheaper than the rental on eBay. My pharm book was written by the instructor and published by the school so I couldn't use them, and my algebra books were bundled and special school editions... but I will totally keep this in mind for future classes!

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Wow..there is a place that RENTS them?

Yup its like the Netflix for textbooks.:chuckle

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I just purchased the new edition of the A&P Tortora ....it was required, along w/the Lab book....which my Prof wrote...Allen/Harper....I'll keep it....I try to buy used for general classes as well....I did buy the new Chem book & may keep that to refer back to down the road when I decide o move forward in the Sciences.

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General chem and general ed stuff does not really change from year to year. The higher level stuff is more subject to new research. I bet you could go back 10 years on a inorganic chemistry book.

As for the page numbers not lined up, you can just take someone else's new edition, and rewrite the page numbers at the front of the book to match chapter headings. That should take all of 10 minutes.

And yes, I wish I could have rented by general ed stuff. A good general anatomy is nice to have on hand, but inorg chem, soc, living with art? (lol)?

Now, as for nursing books:

The essential books for nursing are recent drug guides (that do change importantly from year to year), med surg, patho, disease handbooks, NANDA, etc. With the exception of the NANDA and drug guides, I wouldn't bother keeping the latest ed's of those either, though I would always have all of the above in my book shelf (or in my palm as I choose to go).

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Shop around. You'll find that for example amazon is substantially cheaper than your college bookstore.

It's possible to make do with older editions but that also puts you in a position where you have to do your own research/editorial work to find updated information when needed. If your time is money then it comes out cheaper to buy the latest edition.

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