University & College - Ways to cut spending....

[mavenu]

I often found it best to buy one edition prior to what the lecturer's said if I needed the book and could not get a good deal second hand (though our second hand bookshop was really good (most books half price - I think I only had to buy 2 new text books in 3 years).

Anyway, back to the main point. Most text books seemed to publish an edition every two years and for my purposes as a student all that was different was the page numbers and the occasional extra chapter (normally on something irrelevant) several times I saved about ?10 doing this.

<a class='bbc_url' href='http://lifehacker.com/5334002/get-your-textbooks-for-free-or-cheap'>other ways to save on your textbooks</a>

Gamble

I call this "textbook gambling"?that is, with this method you're not even going to try to find a book until the moment you need it. A lot of the time you'll find your professor has added at least a book or two to your syllabus that you never once crack open for class. You'll get half of your books for free by not buying books you never use.

Sometimes, teachers will cut a book last-second or the university syllabus requires a certain book for College English, but your teacher doesn't use it. Sometimes, the teachers' lectures cover all of the reading material and there's no need to read at all. These variables can eliminate a lot of your books?so if you've got the guts for it, skip buying books in advance.

It's a little tricky; at any time, the teacher might deploy a surprise reading assignment. Until you can obtain a permanent copy, ask the TA to make copies of the first few assignments (tell them you added the class last-second).