do i need to buy books?

stacerz17

or is renting them from the library adequate?

Doctor Strange

Well, there are other methods *cough*torrents*cough* to get them. But depending on your course, getting them from the library will most likely do. The only problem is that some books are in limited stock, so they go quick.

endacl

Has the JP2 library started renting books?!? They used to loan when I was there.

stacerz17

Unforgettable _ Fire wrote: »

Well, there are other methods *cough*torrents*cough* to get them. But depending on your course, getting them from the library will most likely do. The only problem is that some books are in limited stock, so they go quick.

lol never thought of that, one main book would be ok though and then taking notes? i dont have much disposable income

Doctor Strange

stacerz17 wrote: »

lol never thought of that, one main book would be ok though and then taking notes? i dont have much disposable income

Well, most lecturers require you to know your notes and expand on them using books/papers.

I can only speak for science here, the core textbook for Biology is next to useless beyond first year and there's specialised ones for each module, and there isn't a core text for maths, rather one for each module.

Just do a search on sites like Project Gutenberg and other free e-book sites.

mickstupp

Last year I saved hundreds of squids through PDFs... magical PDFs...

But besides that option!
There are online resources through the library too. A lot of useful books can be found on ebrary, for instance. There are very few books you really really need to buy.

PictureFrame

stacerz17 wrote: »

or is renting them from the library adequate?

I bought books for 1st year Psychology this year and it was completely pointless apart from the odd flick through whilst I was bored on the way home. What course are you hoping to do?

stacerz17

PictureFrame wrote: »

I bought books for 1st year Psychology this year and it was completely pointless apart from the odd flick through whilst I was bored on the way home. What course are you hoping to do?

im going to be doing social science

PictureFrame

stacerz17 wrote: »

im going to be doing social science

Ok well if you take Sociology the lecturers will be CONSTANTLY telling you to buy 1 book per module. YOU DON'T NEED TO. I didn't buy any books for it, just listened into the lectures carefully and I got 1:1's in every exam!

Definitely look out for PDF's and 2nd hand copies in the SU shop if you really think you need them though!

Kiwi_knock

Really depends, if the whole course is based on the book I would normally buy it. Sometimes you only need a few chapters from a book so it might be easier to just photocopy the pages in the library.

It depends on your finances as well, I was spending so much on Law books that I stopped buying any books for Politics.

Paczini

Kiwi_knock wrote: »

Really depends, if the whole course is based on the book I would normally buy it. Sometimes you only need a few chapters from a book so it might be easier to just photocopy the pages in the library.

It depends on your finances as well, I was spending so much on Law books that I stopped buying any books for Politics.

ekhem imo the only law books that arent waste of money are nutshells

XxMCRxBabyxX

Paczini wrote: »

ekhem imo the only law books that arent waste of money are nutshells

I don't know. They're definitely expensive but I have never regretted spending my money on my law books. Nutshells are all well and good but you will need the extra information that comes from books, particularly for some lecturers who know the nutshells well enough to make sure that you can't just use them. They're also handy for if you plan on doing the FE1s or Inns.

We had a "book hider" in our class so having your own book was much easier, you could never find them in the library. You can also always split the cost with a few classmates.

Paczini

XxMCRxBabyxX wrote: »

I don't know. They're definitely expensive but I have never regretted spending my money on my law books. Nutshells are all well and good but you will need the extra information that comes from books, particularly for some lecturers who know the nutshells well enough to make sure that you can't just use them. They're also handy for if you plan on doing the FE1s or Inns.

We had a "book hider" in our class so having your own book was much easier, you could never find them in the library. You can also always split the cost with a few classmates.

Maybe it's just me and few of my friends but we actually find law books extremely hard to understand, not to mention that they were way to expensive for us. I used nutshells for 2 years now and I've to say that I passed everything and I would actually get good grades if I started going through them a bit earlier than the day before the exam but yea, everyone is different I'd say.

XxMCRxBabyxX

Paczini wrote: »

Maybe it's just me and few of my friends but we actually find law books extremely hard to understand, not to mention that they were way to expensive for us. I used nutshells for 2 years now and I've to say that I passed everything and I would actually get good grades if I started going through them a bit earlier than the day before the exam but yea, everyone is different I'd say.

They are definitely hats to understand but are pretty important to use. Nutshells don't contain enough info to properly cover any subject.