Previous Edition Bio Text

[Emerica]

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The "old" Campbell's Bio textbook (8th ed.) as an international edition is extremely cheap, less than $50! That is not the case for the new 9th edition which I haven't even been able to find an international edition for. I am really tight on moola this semester, so do you guys think it would be wise to go for the 8th edition? Will anyone else be doing this? Do the chapters match for the most part? I worry about the chapters matching because my school assigns "WebAssign" homework assignments and I want to make sure the information I need for those assignments will be in the older edition textbook.

I realize there are other threads about using old textbooks, however, there aren't any threads specific to these two editions of this textbook. I appreciate your reply.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Ask your teacher, but I would say different editions are rarely that different. So it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

 

[mystifire]

emerica,

when i was in bio 1/2 i was using campbell/reece edition 7 when we were on edition 8. i had no problems whatsoever with the class or webassign.


also, i cannot believe they are already publishing a 9th one!? edition 8 was out in 2008 only!! didn't one of those authors die recently? how could they keep writing more? clear greed.

 

[Emerica]

Hey mystifire!

Yes these greedy biologists are at it again. The 9th edition was just released Oct. 2010 and on the textbook requirement section of ISIS I see that the textbook requirement has a publication date of 2010. I'm going to get the 8th edition.

 

[fletch575]

Hey mystifire!

Yes these greedy biologists are at it again. The 9th edition was just released Oct. 2010 and on the textbook requirement section of ISIS I see that the textbook requirement has a publication date of 2010. I'm going to get the 8th edition.

TERRIBLE DECISION!!! The page numbers will be off! (riddled with sarcasm) 🙂

 

[apumic]

Honestly, go with the 7th Ed and it'll be even cheaper. Frankly, nothing is going to have changed in the past 10 years that you'll be dealing with at that level. You could probably get away with a book written in the early 90s for most of the course, esp. if your prof is a decent lecturer. Even for upper level courses (e.g., cell bio, human phys) you'd likely be fine w/ a book that was 5 yrs old. The reality is that the research in a textbook is at least 2-3 yrs old as-is, so a prof has to supplement the book regardless if s/he wants to incorporate current or nearly current research.

 

[rxlea]

Alternatively, you could ask the professor to put a couple of the texts on course reserve in the library. I did that for biology 1/2, cell bio, and gen chem. Not only did it force me to study because I couldn't take the book out of the library, it saved me the 100-200 bucks on each new text. Just an idea...

 

[mitchlucker]

Just go to every lecture, take notes and then look up the things on the slides. Don't need a book to tell you what google scholar or wikipedia can't...

What a lot of people don't realize is that for a professor to test out of a book (and a "new" book) is that the professor has to go through the book himself ... which he/she probably doesn't want to do... so they'll just use the old texts which they did read or just their notes...

I haven't bought a book all semester and I'm looking at a 3.85+

 

[Emerica]

Alternatively, you could ask the professor to put a couple of the texts on course reserve in the library. I did that for biology 1/2, cell bio, and gen chem. Not only did it force me to study because I couldn't take the book out of the library, it saved me the 100-200 bucks on each new text. Just an idea...

My school does this automatically, but since there are so many other people looking for the copies on reserve (especially close to test time) most times the copies aren't available. The international 8th edition is $40, that seems like a pretty good deal to me for a bio text that can cost $150+.

 

[theWUbear]

The "old" Campbell's Bio textbook (8th ed.) as an international edition is extremely cheap, less than $50! That is not the case for the new 9th edition which I haven't even been able to find an international edition for. I am really tight on moola this semester

http://tinyurl.com/3424wkm
my post winz

 

[Emerica]

http://tinyurl.com/3424wkm
my post winz

HELLLL YESSS YOUR POST WINNS! Thanks theWU!

 

[captainkitten]

My school does this automatically, but since there are so many other people looking for the copies on reserve (especially close to test time) most times the copies aren't available.

I have the same problem at my school so what I do is take out the reserve book once and compare my older edition. If I have a syllabus with assigned pages I'll mark down the chapter or page numbers for my edition, and look for any major changes in the main text. Usually the changes are just to update the little real-life examples they throw into science texts.

Since I like to have hard-copy, color illustrations and such I'll usually buy a book but I'll go even further back than the last edition to get something really cheap. For intro texts it doesn't matter. I also agree about using the internet instead of the text, but if a prof uses test questions supplied by the publisher it's good to know the 'official' take on things.