has anyone used a different edition textbook for a course?

[skim milk]

this course I signed up for uses the 2004 version of a textbook which costs $120+
ISBN 0205409334


the only edition of this book I can find is the 2003 version which costs about half that price.

Would it make that much of a difference to use the older version?

 

[purbeast0]

it ALL depends on the book. i have had some that basically NOTHING is changed, I have had others that everypage looks 100% different.

 

[DAGTA]

Not a good idea to use a different version. If it's a class with assignments out of the text, you may have different problems/questions. If it's a class that depends strongly on the written material of the book, you may be missing entire sections that were added in the update.

 

[Ticks]

What class? Talk to people in your major who may have had that teacher/book before. Find out how important the text is to the class. Then make your decision.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Talking to the instructor seems like the best idea to me.

 

[Goosemaster]

I took calc II without a book and without a calculator for the msot part. For Calc III I borrowed someone else's book after the first week because I had no $$ again :|

But I gota B in both, so if you work your tail off, it is definitely doable :thumbsup:

 

[duragezic]

Originally posted by: DAGTA
Not a good idea to use a different version. If it's a class with assignments out of the text, you may have different problems/questions. If it's a class that depends strongly on the written material of the book, you may be missing entire sections that were added in the update.

Yep... just get the right version, online if u wanna save some $$$.

 

[SportSC4]

depends on the class.
I used a previous edition book for Cell Biology (no work out of the book, the book was meant as a supplement to the course) and it was nearly identical except for a few questions at the end of some chapters and a few better diagrams.
In Genetics, one of the chapters was moved to the end of the book, some new questions, better diagrams. Other than that, essentially the same.

It just depends on the class.

 

[ActuaryTm]

Not certain how other school bookstores function, but at the end of the semester, typically the unversity bookstore would sell the last year (one generation older than the current version in use) edition of a number of texts for $1.00 to $2.00. Built up quite a library of mathematical reference texts by taking advantage of these sales, at a fraction of what text books typically cost (and have kept nearly all of them as references).

In several cases, the text would end up being the same used for an upcoming class. Would specifically not purchase books for this class, and then ask the professor (either after the first class, or the first opportunity during office hours) if the older edition of the text would be acceptable. In nearly all cases, he/she would indicate it would be, and a number of professors even offered their notes on which exercises/examples would be the suggested homework (one even photocopied their entire set of notes in reference to that particular version of the text).

In short, would definitely advise asking the professor.

 

[Cat13]

I have used previous editions in some classes with no problem, while other classes I couldn't. For the most part the information is the same, maybe just presented different. The main problem I ran into was the assignment. If the Professor assigns the questions straight from the book, they usually either change the questions completly, or just a few variables. The only way I could get around that was to get the assignments from someone else, once I had them, I could get by.