The single thing I hate most about college...

[Dingo Jellybean]

...is the textbooks. Especially Math textbooks. There are only a few(like, 1%) textbooks that actually get to the point. There's so much useless information in these textbooks that you'd think the author included them in their just so that his/her textbook can have x amount of pages to be respectable to other textbooks.

I'm looking through my Calc 3 text book and it's over 1100 pages long not including index and prefaces and such. I'm thinking...WTH would I need 1100 pages of math in one semester? The book weighs like a large baby and it has so much filler that it's ridiculous. Like the vectors chapter, it shows that i+k = i+(-k) and then proceeds to do an entire example of 6 vectors such as 3i+5k = 3i + (-5k - 3i) + (3i + 10k). I'm like...what the f***?!! That's like trying to show the many ways of getting the number 2. 1+1 = 2, but so does 5-3, and 150-148. It's implied already you moron...no need to show COLLEGE STUDENTS how it's done. Jeezus christ.

Not only that, most of the examples are only valid for the "easy" problems at the end of the chapter. The author goes on to lengthy descriptions that are just absolute filler. He makes the simplest calc problems look like rocket science because of all his stupid explanations that are clearly filler.

Not only that, authors have these stupid "editions." I've read many editions of the same book and I must say...there is little difference between them. Even the problems are the same. And the author talks about how he added all these additions...and I'm wondering "Oh, I didn't know that adding a thank you to your wife warranted another edition...making my current book useless to sell at the book store." Ass.

Oh well...I'm sure you folks have other things you hate about college.

[Logan]

I'm not in college, but when I am, I'll be sure to make a list of things I hate.

[-N-]

Yes, textbooks do suck. That's why I don't buy them.

[Meow]

Or there's English, for which you instead buy scads of old, thin "classics" still just new enough for the expensive exclusive publishing rights. And then you learn that ol' Holden and poor Esther can't speak and misuse similes, respectively, and come out with a degree that grants you the ability to express the existential boredom of counter work at Blockbuster with lyric genius.

[Yamaneko]

I buy my books online. Last quarter I got all the books for my classes for less than $30 that way. As for the classics, they usually have them online as PDFs. But that's the thing I hate most about uni. It's the professor's fault more than anything because they talk trash about the publisher, but at the same time make you buy the newest edition.

[Dr Unne]

Most books seem to be designed to be used for more than one class. My calc book could've been used from calc1 through calc4 I imagine. But the professors often don't agree on which book to use, so you end up buying the same material twice, by different authors. Some of my professors DID agree though, so that was nice. Buy one huge book and use it for two or three classes.

In Japanese class we'd buy a book and go through literally every single word of it eventually. Not a page wasted. That was nice too.

[Dingo Jellybean]

Most books seem to be designed to be used for more than one class. My calc book could've been used from calc1 through calc4 I imagine. But the professors often don't agree on which book to use, so you end up buying the same material twice, by different authors. Some of my professors DID agree though, so that was nice. Buy one huge book and use it for two or three classes.

In Japanese class we'd buy a book and go through literally every single word of it eventually. Not a page wasted. That was nice too.

The Calc 1 and Calc2 book is the same as my Calc3 book...with one exception. I had to buy a new edition EACH SEMESTER. The book is hardcover and costs a whopping $130. Luckily I got a dirty-used-torn-written paperback edition for $4 each time. But I pain to those who actually go to the bookstore and pay full price each time.

[Dr Unne]

Keeping everyone on the same edition actually serves a purpose though. In one class (physics I think) the teacher foolishly allowed people to buy an old edition of the book rather than the more expensive newer edition. And then every class ended up being "OK, look on page 141. Errrrrrr... page 175 in the old edition. Do problems 1-10. Ummmm... problems 2-12 in the new edition, skip number 7."

[Dingo Jellybean]

Keeping everyone on the same edition actually serves a purpose though. In one class (physics I think) the teacher foolishly allowed people to buy an old edition of the book rather than the more expensive newer edition. And then every class ended up being "OK, look on page 141. Errrrrrr... page 175 in the old edition. Do problems 1-10. Ummmm... problems 2-12 in the new edition, skip number 7."

Most editions are just renumbered problems. The actual numbers in the problems don't change, it's just like you said: #3 in the 2nd edition is now #5. Paul Tipler is by far, the worst authored Physics book I've ever had...both from an educational standpoint and ethical.

His books are usually utter garbage and often sugar coats examples. Not only that, the numbers in his book from each edition are totally f-up. I was using the 4th edition of his Physics For Engineers and Scientists, and in almost every chapter, my teacher(who used the 5th edition) told me to do problems 13-20, 5th edition. In the 4th edition, 13 was #8, 15 was #29, 20 was #45, 17 was #47, etc. It was so damn frustrating...all because I wanted to save $90 from having to buy a new edition. I think the author actually planned this out so that students would have to buy his overated textbooks.

Not only that, the $95 textbook I bought was only chapters 1-21. He had another $95 textbook for chapters 22-40 something. Then in the back of his book he advertises how he made it easier for students by dividng his 2 volume set into a 4 volume paperback set at the cost of $65 each. I hope his fat ass falls into a great pit in hell...if there is one. Doing that is a clear indication he has little interest but to pad his wallet(and his belly). Authors like that make me sick.

[fire_of_avalon]

Last semester, I used this search engine developed by this guy I met called carolinaswap.com. Basically you register a user name and create a list of books you have avaliable for sale/barter. Then you search for the books you want with their engine. It searched the user database, used textbooks at Amazon.com and a few other places. It was great and cheap.

I don't think many Professors consider cost efficency in planning their cirriculum. They stink.

[Shlup]

I don't often read my text books.

What I hate far, far more is the people that work there.

[nik0tine]

im not in college and this thread makes me not want to go to at all.

[eestlinc]

just don't read them. i hardly had any textbooks anyway since I was a music major. The ones I had were generally good, too. Even witty at times.

[Edgar]

Wierd, I find textbooks better than teachers here. I can listen to teachers for 2 hours and have no clue what an alkane, alkene and alcohol is. The textbooks sorta makes everything easier.

Of course, Maths is a different matter. I would read Loci for an hour straight and have no idea until my teacher tells me what would the exams ask for.

[Rainecloud]

Chances are, most of the information you read from the textbooks won't be in your final exam, but you can never be too sure. That's why it's always best to revise as much of the information as you can, just in case it appears on your final paper. Eg - my History exam required me to learn the backgrounds of three very different people who had influenced society in some way. Only one of those people would actually be appearing on my exam paper, but I had to study them all nonetheless.

But you're right in saying that a lot of the information in these textbooks is totally useless and won't even be considered during your study course.