uni textbook fees (1 Viewer)

[arielbelle]

hi guys,
i was wondering how much you spend on textbooks per year for whatever you're studying at uni. i'm thinking of paying my own textbooks fees and let my parents pay my hecs but don't know how much to save up for it. give me an approximation for your course. thanks a bunch.

 

[Survivor39]

Why don't you tell us which course you want to do to see if we can help you?

Science? Arts? Engineering? Commerce? Medicine?

 

[hipsta_jess]

At my uni, we have the 2nd hand bookshop, which is awesome, get some really good bargains in there, as well as a 'new' bookshop, we don't have any joining fees or anything like that, but if we show our studentcard we get a discount of some form.
Anyways, this semester doing 4 2nd yr science subjects, I'm up for about $370 for 3 books (one book hasn't been listed yet)

 

[lukebennett]

i imagine science could get quite expensive

 

[omg_a]

Do you have to get all the textbooks listed? i was looking at some of the law subjects i'm supposed to do and some of them have 2 listed. Also, when are you supposed to read the books listed under preliminary reading? i don't think i'll have any time. does anyone actually do the preliminary reading?

 

[babydoll_]

You can try looking law textbooks up in libraries, but they are in pretty high demand

Preliminary reading is a good opener to your course, so if you have time then do it, if not try and skim it and get the gist of what's going on

 

[Survivor39]

i imagine science could get quite expensive

yep they are. i think Usyd uses the same chemistry textbook as UNSW. Silberberg Chemistry cost $101.65 after 10% discount at UNSW bookshop. Not to mention the additional cost for lab coat and safety glasses.

 

[foxydena]

Yeah, we also have a place at my uni called "The Fishbowl". They sell second hand textbooks and stuff.
Try also going to textbook exchange- im not sure of the web addy tho..if anyone can tell me

Here the website for textbook exchange
http://www.textbookexchange.com.au

 

[lukebennett]

yep they are. i think Usyd uses the same chemistry textbook as UNSW. Silberberg Chemistry cost $101.65 after 10% discount at UNSW bookshop. Not to mention the additional cost for lab coat and safety glasses.

oh that sucks balls . at least my parents are paying for them but that doesnt really make it a whole lot better. its more the number of textbooks which im worried about

 

[hipsta_jess]

^ Generally at least one per subject x 4 subjects per semester x 2 semesters per year x 3 years
=at least 24 textbooks

(considering most uni textbooks [for science, anyway] are several inches thick, storage space soon becomes an issue)

 

[lukebennett]

i guess i can store them away somewhere after each year when i wont need them

 

[Bob.J]

oh yeh,
luke as you're gonna be doing adv science
first year you'll need to buy a chem textbook ($100)
prob the bio book too (100-120)
physics textbook - 110
maths textbook 100

but of course there were plenty of people who decided to be cheap and not buy any books at all. You can always goto the library and borrow them.

 

[lukebennett]

oh yeh,
luke as you're gonna be doing adv science
first year you'll need to buy a chem textbook ($100)
prob the bio book too (100-120)
physics textbook - 110
maths textbook 100

but of course there were plenty of people who decided to be cheap and not buy any books at all. You can always goto the library and borrow them.

id want my own cause it highlight heaps and scribble through all my textbooks

 

[Lainee]

Has anyone tried working out if borrowing a textbook from library (or friends) and going to photocopy at Officeworks (7c a pg) would be cheaper than buying the book? Yeah I know, copyright issues and all that but... no one has to know right?

 

[hipsta_jess]

My friend did that with bio last year, the book was about $90, but she photocopied it for like $30 or something.

 

[Lainee]

Cool. As long as we don't have to bring the textbook to class or anything I think that I'm going to try that out. It'll look pretty doggy (and blatantly illegal) if I take out my photocopied book in class though.

 

[hipsta_jess]

I never once had to take a textbook with me. No-one takes textbooks.

 

[absolution*]

I did that for modern history last year. Saved a bundle. And also generally carrying paper photocopies around is not so heavy and you dont feel so bad about scribbling notes all over it.

 

[daiana]

photocopying books are a lot cheaper (since the tbooks are like $100+) but it uses up so much time!

does anyone know what textbooks are used for Japanese at uni?

 

[babydoll_]

photocopying books are a lot cheaper (since the tbooks are like $100+) but it uses up so much time!

does anyone know what textbooks are used for Japanese at uni?

at UNSW for 1st and 2nd year, you buy NAKAMA which is ~$120 for the textbook, workbook and a cd or cassette