ATAR Notes: Forum
Uni Stuff => Universities - Victoria => University of Melbourne => Topic started by: TheAntiSocialist on February 16, 2014, 08:06:16 pm
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Hello everyone!
Do you guys know whether it is necessary to buy the books from the bookstores in Melbourne? Does the ISBN matter much?
Also, to those who are doing Calculus 1, is it necessary to get the "differential supplement" that comes with "University Calculus Early Transcendentals 2nd edition" "packaged with a differential equations supplement from Hass, Weir, Thomas Calculus, Pearson, 2012. This is the last textbook I still have yet to get and I am juggling between buying the actual textbook with the supplement vs. getting it online minus the supplement (it is one of the most expensive textbooks out of the bunch I have to get....that's why I have gotta be a cheapskate)
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As far as I'm aware, you may as well just get a copy of a Specialist 3/4 textbook (Essentials is good). Calculus 1 is the same as the Specialist course, minus a few extras at the end (kinematics and mechanics stuff that you don't cover in Calc 1).
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The general rule of thumb is textbooks is go to a lecture or two to see if you absolutely must buy it. You likely won't need some of the textbooks that have been recommended.
When you do buy one try to see if you can get it second hand, I think if you join melbourne university on facebook there's a facebook group called textbook exchange, and you can always try the student vip website, it generally doesn't matter if you buy a previous edition of a textbook.
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It is very unlikely that you will need or ever use the Calculus 1 textbook, but given the higher complexity of the course problems and more mathematically-focused teaching when compared to VCE Specialist Maths, doing problems from a VCE Spesh book will only help so much (the exam for Calculus 1 is very difficult without a large amount of preparation, despite quite simple concepts). If you are good at keeping on top of study consistently and have time at the end of semester after doing literally everything else you can do for the course problem-wise, the prescribed subject textbook would come in handy. However, it is more likely that it will be of no use to you for things other than extra problems (which are good to have in this subject; in 2013 the exam questions were -mainly- harder than the assignments, tutorial sheets, lecture questions and problem book questions). Either way, for the price, this book isn't worth buying, but if you can get your hands on a discounted copy and feel like you'll find time to use it I would definitely suggest it.
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I have been looking up online for the book, and have come across "University Calculus, Early Transcendentals, Single Variable" while others end with "Multi Variable". Does anyone know the difference and does it matter?