Is it possible to get through uni without buying any textbooks?

[uservvv]

Hi! I'm just curious about current/past students' experiences with buying textbooks for uni. I'll be doing BCOM so my question is specific to Commerce but feel free to answer the poll and add your two cents even if you're doing/have done another course. 

If you did get through without buying textbooks, I'd love to hear any tips you might have!

[pi]

Another course, but I definitely could have. Having said that, I'd either be relying on a few library borrows or some pdf versions from dubious corners of the internet

[keltingmeith]

I have literally used one textbook in my time at uni, and I survived by library borrowing. I did, in fact, later buy the book because I loved it so much, but that was a personal choice made near the end of the semester. I also bought another textbook thinking it'd be good to have - then proceeded to never use it ever, so clearly didn't need it.

It really depends on what units you choose to take, but by and large, you can usually survive without buying anything. If they want to assess you on something, you'll see it in lectures, after all.

[spectroscopy]

im doing comm at melb and yeah you pretty much don't need the textbooks because the lecture slides substitute for them
BUT a fair few of the people i know who are elite students still buy and use the textbooks for extra work/questions etc. but these are people that do all the homework and then look for more questions to do because they are bored. also with some subjects like intro macro i personally found the textbook taught the content in a really fun and accessible way as opposed to the lectures which were rather dry (i loved the lecturer though), but yeah i used the textbook as my guide for the subject (basically just read the whole thing and made notes on it for swotvac took 5 days) LOL

in general though - people use lecture slides and lecture recordings to learn content in commerce
so im going to say: yes, you don't need to buy textbooks to do well, except.....

the only thing with commerce at melbourne is MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT SUBJECTS. most of the lecture slides in these areas are VERY empty and are mostly just cue's for the lecturer when he gives a lecture. the kids who do well in these pretty much always have the textbook (or google the shit out of stuff) or they basically write out heaps and heaps of notes during lectures basically transcribing what the lecturer says.
this is because the lecture slide might only have 1 dot point saying something like "elaboration likelihood model" and a cute photo of a puppy, but then he will spend 20 minutes talking about it and what it is. in these cases and subjects you just cant use lecture slides and really you either have to listen to and relisten to what the lecture said in that time period for your notes/knowledge or just look at that section in the textbook lol.
it might sound a bit silly but it makes sense because alot of the ideas in these subjects need to be explained with examples and are hard to articulate concise definitions for them and their attributes, so interactive lecturing by asking questions and probing the audience to discover what it means is a more effective way to internalise the knowledge.

TL;DR you might need to buy them for marketing/management subjects if you wanna do that but otherwise you're all good to not buy textbooks

[uservvv]

Thanks everyone for replying! I guess I'll see how it goes - hopefully I wont have to spend too much on textbooks! 

For those that are interested, Sheldon inadvertently answered my question in the unimelb General Chat + gave a useful tip:

I find that generally the library will stock a few copies of prescribed textbooks, but usually, the current edition of the required text is restricted to two-hour or overnight loans. You can probably get away with borrowing an older edition, which is usually pretty much the same and often available as an 1-week loan, which can be renewed multiple times (up to 10 I think).

PROTIP: Get a CAVAL card (just ask at the desk at any unimelb library), which will allow you to borrow books from any university (including Monash and Deakin, for example). Often the textbook which is prescribed at Unimelb is available at another uni, but is not a prescribed text there. So, they will often be in short supply due to low demand, but also allow longer borrowing periods for a current edition text (not restricted to overnight), for the same reason.

Furthermore, if you borrow at Monash Uni, your books will be automatically renewed, until you are not allowed to keep renewing (10 times is the max), which means you effectively have an 11-week loan and you don't have to worry about constantly renewing your books every week.  This is much better than at Unimelb, where forgetting to renew your books on time even once means you have to return your books (you can't renew it again) and face a fine.

[asianguy22]

How do you guys who study commerce NOT need text books?

- Business law etc = need text books
- Other subjects the tute questions come directly from the text book so text books are required.

[Zailiner]

Are we allowed to discuss these certain "dubious corners" of the internet? 
I don't mind saving a few dollars.

[heids]

Are we allowed to discuss these certain "dubious corners" of the internet? 
I don't mind saving a few dollars.

I'm sure we should be allowed to discuss our Googling skills (after all, they're very important skills indeed in education!) - on a strictly hypothetical level, of course.

[Zailiner]

I'm sure we should be allowed to discuss our Googling skills (after all, they're very important skills indeed in education!) - on a strictly hypothetical level, of course.

Sweet, anyone have any tips to hone my Google-fu then? filetype:pdf "textbook" doesn't work out for me at all. Would be too easy that way I guess... 

[Hasti]

Hi! I'm just curious about current/past students' experiences with buying textbooks for uni. I'll be doing BCOM so my question is specific to Commerce but feel free to answer the poll and add your two cents even if you're doing/have done another course. 

If you did get through without buying textbooks, I'd love to hear any tips you might have!

Hi! Well I'm doing English Literature/Philosophy, so I don't need any textbooks per say, but I need to buy novels (for English) and course readers from the uni for Philosophy. Having said that, there was one subject for English where I needed to read a novel a week and I read none of them (used online summaries/resources) and still managed to get a credit. However, for another subject I did in English (it was a Shakespeare subject), it would have been pretty hard to get good marks if I hadn't read most of the plays we were looking at (there were roughly 5). I kind of knew I couldn't get away with not reading the Shakespeare texts because in class we were going really in depth, so use your discretion! For one of my Philosophy subjects, I did the entire subject without reading online uni notes, buying the course reader, and still managed to get a distinction (but I did go to all my lectures and tutorials).

So really, if you just don't want to buy textbooks, wait a couple weeks and see how the subject plays out. If it's a really slow paced course with minimal reading, you could probably get away with not buying textbooks. However, this being said, lectures and tutorials are your primary source of information anyway. If it's a really fast paced and strenuous subject and you find yourself falling behind in the first few weeks, then definitely buy the textbook. You can always sell it after you're done with it anyway! If not to the book shop in your uni, then online for students who are looking for second hand textbooks.

Lastly, don't buy textbooks before you've had a look online for their PDF form! So many textbooks are available online, as well as in your uni library. Even on your uni website, there will be heaps of books/novels/articles that you can use in essays or in your subjects, so browse through before splurging on textbooks.

Good luck in uni!

[bennieboy]

I'm doing Biomedicine at Melbourne and just got to my second year. So I wouldn't say I'm in a position to make any definite statement! But I got through my first year just fine without buying an actual textbook. I mean you can 'find' some of the textbooks 'online' and I also have electronic copies of them from my friends or senior students. So I do have textbooks by one means or another. But actually buying, none!