Prescribed books vs recommended.

[Xavier1234]

does anyone know if the textbooks for quantitative methods is necessary?

From my experience, yes I needed to buy it. I'm quite sure your lecturer would even stress to buy the latest edition as it supposedly teaches the material in a much superior manner than the previous one. But as others have already suggested, wait until your first introductory lecture as things may change.

[Xavier1234]

So I'm doing Chem Fundamentals:

Chemical Principles / Organic Chemistry / Molecular Model Set for Organic Stereochemistry / eBook Printed Access Card

Are those ^ 4 separate books? and should I get them? Seems the same as the books for Chem 1.

Chemical Principles

^ Is that fundamentals only? And there's a study guide with it.. should we or should we not get recommended books??

Also, I know how most poeple are saying to wait until the 1st lecture, however if we do, will 2nd hand books already be all sold??

Chem principles and the organic chem book are 2 different books, and the model set is more like a building block kinda thing that you mess around with. I've never encountered the ebook access card, and usually they're inside the book you buy. You use them online and they provide you access to digital resources that help you revise.

I've definitely come across people who didn't buy all 3 and came out fine, considering you use the same books for fundamentals/chem1/chem2. Also, study guides are usually only recommended. I suggest you buy them only if you really need help with the material and your tutor isn't making it any clearer.

[Asx4Life]

For chem for biomedicine, theres is 1 student workbook and laboratory manual that costs $0, what does that mean? Then there's a textbook which costs $200 and a study guide not to mention solution manuals which costs around $80. Can these be found anywhere in pdf form on the internet? I tried searching for them and couldn't find anything. I don't want to end up paying $350 dollars for 1 subject...

Also doing Intro microeconomics, calculus 2 and bio. Thoughts on which books I should/should not get?

Do I need to buy the bio textbook? I haven't done bio in vce and it says that it is "recommended" that you do a prelim reading of "nature of biology" if you haven't done bio in vce. Will I be behind if I don't have any bio background?

Appreciate if someone could answer some of my questions, all these textbooks are confusing me.

[Xavier1234]

For chem for biomedicine, theres is 1 student workbook and laboratory manual that costs $0, what does that mean? Then there's a textbook which costs $200 and a study guide not to mention solution manuals which costs around $80. Can these be found anywhere in pdf form on the internet? I tried searching for them and couldn't find anything. I don't want to end up paying $350 dollars for 1 subject...

Also doing Intro microeconomics, calculus 2 and bio. Thoughts on which books I should/should not get?

Do I need to buy the bio textbook? I haven't done bio in vce and it says that it is "recommended" that you do a prelim reading of "nature of biology" if you haven't done bio in vce. Will I be behind if I don't have any bio background?

Appreciate if someone could answer some of my questions, all these textbooks are confusing me.

If the textbook is labelled as "recommended" then it is up to you whether you buy it or not. There should be clear advantages if you buy the said text, but it shouldn't disadvantage you if you don't buy it. "Prescribed" texts usually would contain readings that you are required to have prior knowledge of before a tute or a prac. These are usually the must-haves.

I could only really speak for intro Microecon, and having taken it last year, I would say the textbook+case studies bundle are really handy to have even if you've done economics in the past. If you haven't done vce econ, then you MUST get it. The $123 price tag for the bundle is smaller compared to most med/sci texts, but if that's still a bit high, there's always the second-hand versions that go from as low as $25 for the textbook (down from $120 standalone) and $20 for the case studies.  I was at the bookshop just yesterday. They had about 6 copies of these in the economics section at the very back.

[Asx4Life]

Thanks, I just went to melbourne uni today and just bought the econ textbook pack thing for $122.
Any ideas where I can look for second-hand books at uni? Is there like a place where people can advertise their stuff or something?

[Edmund]

Thanks, I just went to melbourne uni today and just bought the econ textbook pack thing for $122.
Any ideas where I can look for second-hand books at uni? Is there like a place where people can advertise their stuff or something?

The Melbourne Uni bookshop usually has a few second hand books and they are labelled on the front cover. You have to get in quick to pick the best ones and they sell pretty fast. Otherwise you can get them easily on Textbook Exchange:

http://www.textbookexchange.com.au/content.php/25.html

[Asx4Life]

Thanks, I just went to melbourne uni today and just bought the econ textbook pack thing for $122.
Any ideas where I can look for second-hand books at uni? Is there like a place where people can advertise their stuff or something?

The Melbourne Uni bookshop usually has a few second hand books and they are labelled on the front cover. You have to get in quick to pick the best ones and they sell pretty fast. Otherwise you can get them easily on Textbook Exchange:

http://www.textbookexchange.com.au/content.php/25.html

Thank you!

[nagato]

if your hesitating on getting the textbook, you can always borrow from the library and renew as much as you can...thats what i did for chem.

[jinny1]

if your hesitating on getting the textbook, you can always borrow from the library and renew as much as you can...thats what i did for chem.

are you allowed to borrow textbooks (prescribed and supplementary) for a whole semester??? if not whats the maximum length before you have to renew it?

[paulsterio]

Depends, some books are 3 hour loans even. But no, unlikely that you're checking out a book for a whole semester.

[Russ]

It's perfectly possible, I do it every semester. You just can't get the high use copies.

[nagato]

the newer editions used are like a day only loan.
but if you borrow like a few editions less or even just the 1 lower, they can be like a month of loan, then just keep renewing materials were the same for me between editions really, just a few brand new pictures and some colour here and there...

[Massofbubbles]

For 1st year biomed I didn't use any texts except the one for Physics 2 Life Sciences (same text for Fundamentals, I think), and I also read the sugars chapter from the organic chem text in the library. The lecture notes and workbooks are more than enough to get you H1s.

[Russ]

the newer editions used are like a day only loan.
but if you borrow like a few editions less or even just the 1 lower, they can be like a month of loan, then just keep renewing materials were the same for me between editions really, just a few brand new pictures and some colour here and there...

If you play it smart, you can get the current editions

[jinny1]

the newer editions used are like a day only loan.
but if you borrow like a few editions less or even just the 1 lower, they can be like a month of loan, then just keep renewing materials were the same for me between editions really, just a few brand new pictures and some colour here and there...

If you play it smart, you can get the current editions

Teach me *bows down*