Questions about my P1 booklist

[crazybob]

I'm not actually putting a list of my books. But I do have some questions.

1) Did you guys buy your books online or at the bookstore of your schools before classes started?

2) I've talked to one pharmacy intern from my school who said that the only book he bought his first year was for Calculations since he had good notes from his classes.

• So what does that mean other than him saying that he didn't need a book for most of his classes?
• Are books really just there for further reference or are some professors good at explaining things so that you only have to pay attention and take notes and not have to read the text very much?
• Or does that mean some people study together and use only one book or one set of books for the whole study group?
• Did you buy all of the books listed (required and recommended, if there were any) or just the required ones?

3) I noticed that for some classes, there were no books listed.

• Does this mean that my professor might give enough handouts and stuff to print so that we don't necessarily have to buy a book?
• For some of my undergrad courses, I had one or two books listed for a class, but my professor gave us many PDF files to print and bring to class for assignments. Would it be sort of similar to that?
• When I was an undergrad, there were some people taking Advanced Biochemistry (biochem II) and they had no textbooks listed. In that class, they had powerpoints and their professor gave them the powerpoint files to study with before exams and such. So could some of my pharmacy classes be like this if I don't have a textbook listed for that class?

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[WVUPharm2007]

I'd try to get more opinions from people at your school. That's the type of thing that varies from place to place.

 

[GoldfishPharmD]

Yeah, check with other students. At my school, I talked to a few of the older students and they told me only a few books were necessary, and you can pretty much get all the info you need from the lectures/powerpoints.

 

[rxtiger]

I agree with the above two posters. It varies from place to place, so you will want to check with other people from your school. At my school, some of the professors only reference the book occasionally, and they recommend reading the text for further explanation/clarification as needed. Others, however, pull a lot of questions from the text. It really just depends on which professor is teaching the class.

As for buying books, I usually find them to be cheaper on Amazon (or whatever site you use) compared to buying through the school.

 

[Sparda29]

The required books I buy either from Amazon or BN. The recommended books I rent from Chegg.

 

[Pianopooh]

The required books I buy either from Amazon or BN. The recommended books I rent from Chegg.

Great sites listed above. I also like going to www.half.com (Ebay) for textbooks.

 

[Farmercyst]

If I need a book I usually wait til the bookstore's 25% off sale. I've never tried AmazonUK or other international sites, but I've heard that even with shipping they can be cheaper than their US counterparts. Of course it could be as reliable as a yahoo article on the pharmacy profession, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

 

[confettiflyer]

I barely bought any books last year, just a few select ones i knew I wanted to keep. Check with upperclassmen with which books to buy and which ones to skip. Our library keeps textbooks on reserve so books that I'd need "once in a while" I get from the counter.

 

[Eviscerate]

Try to buy international books online, they're way cheaper.

 

[confettiflyer]

So I diligently bought my pharmacology/therapeutics book last month online, then I got an email saying they're making the text available for free via our class website. Freakin' a

But i resold it on half.com and since the semester is coming up, I think I made a profit. Supply and demand baby!

 

[Pharmavixen]

I'd second WVU that checking with other students is the best way to find out these things. And I'd also be careful about finding deals; you might get something half-price, and it turns out to be the wrong edition (or the wrong book altogether; there are several books with "Applied Pharmacokinetics" in the title, for instance).

 

[Sparda29]

So I diligently bought my pharmacology/therapeutics book last month online, then I got an email saying they're making the text available for free via our class website. Freakin' a

But i resold it on half.com and since the semester is coming up, I think I made a profit. Supply and demand baby!

I bought my books like 1 month in advance last semester, including Goodman and Gilman's and DiPiros, and then I get an e-mail telling us not to buy them and that we can view them online for free.

I mean, for P2 though here, most of the books are the same from P1 asides from some kinetics ****.

 

[ForcedEntry]

Overstock.com also has textbooks and is worth a look. I picked up The Handbook of Non-Prescrip Drugs for $20 new. It was $60 everywhere else.