4 ms·

>One aside on new editions... This is definitely true in the vast majority of cases. They take advantage of the fact that there are subjects like molecular bio

>One aside on new editions... This is definitely true in the vast majority of cases. They take advantage of the fact that there are subjects like molecular biology that change significantly from year to year, even at the undergraduate level.

goostavos 13y ago
As a guy still in school, a field changing has absolutely zero to do with book editions, and everything to do with squeezing more money out of the government money backed students. Undergrad topics are not only stable but almost completely isolated from change. A bleeding edge discovery in physics is only relevant to a Ph.D. It doesn't, for instance, upend classical mechanics on an undergrad level. That small change will never (for the most part) ripple its way all the way back to classical mechanics in a way that warrants a new book. So what changes from edition to edition? The ordering of the chapters, and the questions they contain. It is fundamentally bullshit. When I took my first year civics course, I mistakenly purchased the previous edition. Upon realizing that the table of contents in my book didn't match the course syllabus, I sent a quick email to the professor explaining my mistake, the fact that money prevents me from getting the correct edition, and whether or not I could get by with the old one. Sure enough, the (awesome) professor explained that the only things that were different were the order of the chapters and their respective titles (she even gave me a mapping of old title to new). As a further point of cool-professor-ness, she acknowledged the bullshit of the new edition, and explained that the book choice was out of her hands. That was the last time I bought a current edition (sans a few classes which had custom books). Every semester begins with an email to the professor asking if the previous edition could be used, and almost without fail the answer is yes. And the people who make the books caught on. If students know nothing changes from edition to edition, there's no incentive to purchase the new edition. So, what the current model for text books? Required Online Access codes. New editions come with the book, PLUS the online portion where you can actually submit your answer to the book's questions. Lucky us. Did you pick up a previous version of the book? No problem, just purchase this $70 access code so that you can submit your homework. It's bullshit all the way down.

goostavos 13y ago

As a guy still in school, a field changing has absolutely zero to do with book editions, and everything to do with squeezing more money out of the government money backed students. Undergrad topics are not only stable but almost completely isolated from change. A bleeding edge discovery in physics is only relevant to a Ph.D. It doesn't, for instance, upend classical mechanics on an undergrad level. That small change will never (for the most part) ripple its way all the way back to classical mechanics in a way that warrants a new book. So what changes from edition to edition? The ordering of the chapters, and the questions they contain. It is fundamentally bullshit. When I took my first year civics course, I mistakenly purchased the previous edition. Upon realizing that the table of contents in my book didn't match the course syllabus, I sent a quick email to the professor explaining my mistake, the fact that money prevents me from getting the correct edition, and whether or not I could get by with the old one. Sure enough, the (awesome) professor explained that the only things that were different were the order of the chapters and their respective titles (she even gave me a mapping of old title to new). As a further point of cool-professor-ness, she acknowledged the bullshit of the new edition, and explained that the book choice was out of her hands. That was the last time I bought a current edition (sans a few classes which had custom books). Every semester begins with an email to the professor asking if the previous edition could be used, and almost without fail the answer is yes. And the people who make the books caught on. If students know nothing changes from edition to edition, there's no incentive to purchase the new edition. So, what the current model for text books? Required Online Access codes. New editions come with the book, PLUS the online portion where you can actually submit your answer to the book's questions. Lucky us. Did you pick up a previous version of the book? No problem, just purchase this $70 access code so that you can submit your homework. It's bullshit all the way down.