Textbooks for 1st Year?

[LOLs99]

Hi ! 

I'm doing the following subjects and would like to get some opinions on whether to get textbooks...

Sem 1

• Engineering System Design 1 1
• Physics: Fundamentals
• Calculus 2
• Japanese 1

Sem 2

• Engineering System Design 2
• Physics 2: Physical Science and Technology
• Linear Algebra
• Finance 1

Thanks!

[emiinaaa]

I can say that for Calculus 2, you probably won't use it. I had a pdf version and I looked at it once, and that was while I was doing Calc 1

[MelonBar]

can't speak for other subjects but as someone with nil knowledge of the world of commerce, i found the textbook for finance 1 quite useful for clarifying different topics, especially because the lectures are not recorded. some of the tutorial questions are lazy carbon copies of end-of-chapter exercises with slight changes. it also discusses ideas that are relevant but unmentioned in the lectures, and sometimes goes beyond what is officially covered, which i suppose can solidify basic material in a retrospective fashion. if you're on top of lectures and whatnot you probably won't *need* the textbook.

[scribble]

you definitely don't need the textbook for calc2, linalg, or either of the esds. (why are you taking esd1 though, id seriously encourage you to reconsider that decision lmao)
im pretty sure you wont need the physics one either.
not sure about the others.

[LeviLamp]

You will need the Japanese 1 textbook; this is very normal for languages. (I know you'll need it due to having friends who took Japanese, I promise I'm not being presumptuous.)

[tomash95]

See you in Japanese and math! B)

... Although, is there a reason you're taking Sem 1 Japanese? The course goes up to level 8 so I decided to just stick with the subject every semester. I doubt anyone would get much out of one semester of Japanese.

[LOLs99]

can't speak for other subjects but as someone with nil knowledge of the world of commerce, i found the textbook for finance 1 quite useful for clarifying different topics, especially because the lectures are not recorded. some of the tutorial questions are lazy carbon copies of end-of-chapter exercises with slight changes. it also discusses ideas that are relevant but unmentioned in the lectures, and sometimes goes beyond what is officially covered, which i suppose can solidify basic material in a retrospective fashion. if you're on top of lectures and whatnot you probably won't *need* the textbook.

I heard the lecture notes for commerce subjects are good enough without the textbooks though

you definitely don't need the textbook for calc2, linalg, or either of the esds. (why are you taking esd1 though, id seriously encourage you to reconsider that decision lmao)
im pretty sure you wont need the physics one either.
not sure about the others.

I can understand it is not necessary to get those maths textbook. But does it help if I get the textbook for ESD 2?
I don't know what subject I can replace ESD 1

You will need the Japanese 1 textbook; this is very normal for languages. (I know you'll need it due to having friends who took Japanese, I promise I'm not being presumptuous.)

Yeah I am definitely getting textbooks/workbooks for Japanese 1 or else there's no point taking the subject because they really teach from there.

See you in Japanese and math! B)

... Although, is there a reason you're taking Sem 1 Japanese? The course goes up to level 8 so I decided to just stick with the subject every semester. I doubt anyone would get much out of one semester of Japanese.

Heyy  we can just go to the same sessions then !
I learnt a bit Japanese before and thought it would be interesting to take a breadth as Japanese and see how it goes.
Level 8 ?? Does it mean I have to study for 4yrs? Yeah I know so u taking Japanese for both sem?




Hmhh.. Does anyone know how long can we borrow textbooks from library? Are there a few or a lot of the same textbooks?

[Dismounted]

You won't need the textbook for Calc 2 or Lin Alg (notes are pretty clear as long as you take them down in lecture and there are plenty of problems provided by the Department). Also, the textbooks for ESD 1/2 are more than useless.

Personally, I found the Physics (by Knight) textbook extremely helpful, provided a lot of good explanations and worked examples. Sometimes the slides for Physics can be a bit bare.

[Erixe]

The first year physics textbook is definitely worth buying since a lot of the material (especially in second semester) needs to be self taught. The book does an excellent job of showing the derivations of the formulae you learn.

[MelonBar]

I heard the lecture notes for commerce subjects are good enough without the textbooks though

do whatever you want just giving my 2c

Where'd you buy the Finance 1 textbook and how much did it cost you?

i bought mine off co-op, the on-campus book/merch store for $95. if you snoop around you might be able to get it cheaper, not sure though. the main reason i bought it at the start was cos there's no pdf

[tomash95]

Level 8 ?? Does it mean I have to study for 4yrs? Yeah I know so u taking Japanese for both sem?

Pretty much, yeah, the full course goes for 4 years if you're starting from scratch, otherwise you start at a higher level if you do well in the placement. It just seemed like the type of breadth you should do every semester, you know?