ATAR Notes: Forum
Uni Stuff => Universities - Victoria => University of Melbourne => Topic started by: AsianNerd on February 06, 2014, 10:27:18 pm
-
1. Is there a formal date where we get a booklist or something? Or do we have to research the book ourselves and buy it from a uni bookshop?
2. I have looked at the "Co-op" bookshop but the prices are so expensive... Can someone recommend a cheaper uni bookshop? (One which would have the Biomedicine degree books)
3. Also are textbooks mandatory to succeed in a particular subject?
Thanks :)
-
I asked one of the lecturer about books during the AAD, and he advised me actually not to buy books too early before the course started.
-
1. Is there a formal date where we get a booklist or something? Or do we have to research the book ourselves and buy it from a uni bookshop?
The Handbook listing for the subjects lists the recommended texts.
2. I have looked at the "Co-op" bookshop but the prices are so expensive... Can someone recommend a cheaper uni bookshop? (One which would have the Biomedicine degree books)
Try Gumtree and eBay. Gumtree is a lost cause if you don't get in before O-Week/Week 1 though.
3. Also are textbooks mandatory to succeed in a particular subject?
It depends on the subject. In first year, text books are often fairly redundant and you are to a degree 'spoon fed' all the information you need through the lecture notes and slides. This is not a hard and fast rule though and I've heard for some subjects that they are super useful.
[/quote]
-
Thanks... Very helpful!
-
The Handbook listing for the subjects lists the recommended texts.
Crap, I didn't realise this until now! I was waiting for a formal booklist or something... >_<
It says for Biomedicine that many of the subjects also require a lab coat and safety glasses... how do we go about buying this? Also, there's mention of a 'molecular tool kit' or something... :S
-
Crap, I didn't realise this until now! I was waiting for a formal booklist or something... >_<
It says for Biomedicine that many of the subjects also require a lab coat and safety glasses... how do we go about buying this? Also, there's mention of a 'molecular tool kit' or something... :S
Co-op book store
-
There is a second hand bookshop for biomed students which will probably start in the 2nd week of commencement
http://www.bssunimelb.com/events/
Scroll down and it will have the 2013 Booksale club so just stay tune :) Remember to get there as early as possible!!
-
Textbook Exchange is useful for all of your general textbook needs, and is usually much cheaper than the Co-op.
-
First years:
If you wait for your first lecture to hear whether or not your lecturer recommends the textbook and THEN go out and get it, be prepared to wait 2-3 hours in a line at the Co-Op bookshop.
Either get your stuff now (lab coats etc) because they also sell out, or wait until a fortnight into semester. Or purchase elsewhere.
-
I wouldn't buy books from any university bookstore, you'll get charged through the nose. Try your university selling boards (if UoM has them), also try http://www.booko.com.au and textsbooksexchange.
-
Thank you very much for your help. I guess I'm lucky since my scholarship will easily pay for the cost of books, so I've decided that I'm going to buy them all ahead of time for first year and see how I go. If I can though, I'll try to purchase them online. However, the lab coat, safety glasses and molecular tool kit must be bought through the university book store, right?
-
Thank you very much for your help. I guess I'm lucky since my scholarship will easily pay for the cost of books, so I've decided that I'm going to buy them all ahead of time for first year and see how I go. If I can though, I'll try to purchase them online. However, the lab coat, safety glasses and molecular tool kit must be bought through the university book store, right?
You can get them elsewhere but they are pretty cheap at the bookstore. I think the coat is like $10.
-
Thank you very much for your help. I guess I'm lucky since my scholarship will easily pay for the cost of books, so I've decided that I'm going to buy them all ahead of time for first year and see how I go. If I can though, I'll try to purchase them online. However, the lab coat, safety glasses and molecular tool kit must be bought through the university book store, right?
I really would recommend seeing if you can purchase *cough* the books online. I'm in the same situation with the scholarship, but I still don't see why I would spend that money on textbooks which I may end up needing only for a single paragraph or diagram. I plan for the scholarship to cover some college fees, but mostly to be my coffee fund. Every textbook I buy represents ~30 coffees that I don't consume.
Maybe look around in the subject reviews to see if any of your textbooks are particularly useful, but I wouldn't buy them all.
-
I really would recommend seeing if you can purchase *cough* the books online. I'm in the same situation with the scholarship, but I still don't see why I would spend that money on textbooks which I may end up needing only for a single paragraph or diagram.
Maybe look around in the subject reviews to see if any of your textbooks are particularly useful, but I wouldn't buy them all.
Yeah, that's exactly what I'm doing. ;) :P
-
I asked one of the lecturer about books during the AAD, and he advised me actually not to buy books too early before the course started
SAME. Wait until you get into the first week, most students I know have ended up buying hundred dollar books only to discover that they'll need a few pages from it.
-
Would laptops be helpful during lectures or classes etc?
-
Would laptops be helpful during lectures or classes etc?
I'd say so, I'll be bringing mine.
-
Would laptops be helpful during lectures or classes etc?
I think this will depend a lot on the degree tbh (and well general preferences). I know some people in the more rote learning orientated sciences that used them during lectures to type up notes and such. For me in engineering or maths/physics, it's not as helpful as engineering/maths notes seem to end up as a mess of diagrams, something that you can't do quickly enough in a laptop during lectures.
For tutes however, it's a different story. For engineering/maths they do come in handy, if you need to run a quick simulation using matlab/mathematica or do something in solidworks. or have the textbook on your laptop so you don't have to cart it around for questions.
So I think it would really depend on the degree and subject. I'm not in biomed, but those I know who are seem to use them a bit for lectures.
/me
-
Is it possible to get electronic forms of most books?
-
You can get them elsewhere but they are pretty cheap at the bookstore. I think the coat is like $10.
I have my labcoat from school (it's dark blue). Can I just use that?
-
I have my labcoat from school (it's dark blue). Can I just use that?
Yep. You don't have to buy one at all if you're willing to wear the communal ones, you just have to give them your student card for the duration of the prac.
-
Is it possible to get electronic forms of most books?
It depends. For all 3 of my psych classes thus far, I've been able to torrent the textbook PDFs. However, I couldn't locate the PDFs for chem and bio classes. Upon purchasing the textbooks it was clear they wouldn't be torrent-able because the textbooks aren't accompanied by a CD digital copy.
I Google the titles and hope something turns up, and there are master posts like below floating around.
http://pinkieblues.tumblr.com/post/45268012761/free-textbooks-master-post
Disclaimer: I have never torrented in my life and the content of this post is purely hypothetical in the interests of intellectual curiosity. Any discussion of torrents or webpages regarding ebooks is to assist in instruction of which webpages to avoid, and facilitate awareness so that persons can immediately cease and desist aforementioned online activities upon recognizing said activities.
-
Yep. You don't have to buy one at all if you're willing to wear the communal ones, you just have to give them your student card for the duration of the prac.
In your experience, do people usually buy them and bring them, or do most people wear the communal ones?
Also, is it necessary to buy the safety glasses, or are these supplied in the same way as the labcoats are?
-
Students generally buy their own lab coats, and purchasing your own safety glasses is strongly advisable as it would be no fun to show up to borrow a pair, only to find everyone else did the same and there are none left. :(
If you wear glasses, please buy the large safety glasses. I spend a semester and a half with safety glasses balanced on top of my reading glasses and affixed with bobby pins/hair ties/bubble gum/safety pins and they eventually fell into a beaker of ethanol.
-
^zumdahl wasn't hard to find if you were happy with the previous edition;;
biology an australian focus on the otherhand was downright impossible to find. :<
Q___Q safety goggles are my hugest woe; they never stay on my face. being asian, my nose doesn't exist so they slip off as soon as i look down. clearly i'm not genetically cut out for science. </3
-
You would never try to locate Zumdahl though, because we are upstanding citizens who don't torrent!
Hahaha same. And if students are purchasing their first lab coats, try them on thoroughly in store first. I returned my lab coat twice* because their size 'petite' is equivalent to size 18. Extra petite is uncomfortably billowy and large, and the store didn't accommodate below that. Thank you to manufacturers for providing as much flammable material attached to my person as possible in a laboratory.
*The first time was because I accidentally purchased a dental hygienist coat, that wasn't their fault um :-[
-
LOL also, get in early if you want "small" labcoats. they ran out super quickly last year. also also, coop gave out free $20 vouchers during o week last year.
#excitedtobuydiseaseplushtoys
-
LOL also, get in early if you want "small" labcoats. they ran out super quickly last year. also also, coop gave out free $20 vouchers during o week last year.
#excitedtobuydiseaseplushtoys
so say I head in on Monday...is that early enough?
-
it'd actually be a pretty good idea, you'll be cutting the 1 hour queues.
-
Last year we tried to see how many people would fit into a size 'small' lab coat. Five. Five fully grown adults.
-
First year book aren't really needed unless the subject itself revolves completely around the book e.g principles of Business law. Lecture slides and going to the lectures should be more then enough. I only recommend buying the books for a subject if you really enjoy it and want to understand more then is required which isn't bad at all as it may give you into insight into which fields you would like to pursue :)
-
Last year we tried to see how many people would fit into a size 'small' lab coat. Five. Five fully grown adults.
oh my god this sounds amazing.
-
LOL also, get in early if you want "small" labcoats. they ran out super quickly last year. also also, coop gave out free $20 vouchers during o week last year.
#excitedtobuydiseaseplushtoys
when and where