How much have you had to spend on books for your course?

studentphil

I have roughly had to spend about 250 GPB on books for each year at a redbrick university.
My friend has got all his course materials provided by the university at no extra cost to him (new university)

DrFluffy

Thankfully nothing, as I do freelance work for a couple of large publishing houses and get text books for free

If I'd had to pay for all my books, I guess I would have spent around £800 in the last 2 years - and I have £400 of credit remaining!

annie-c

Don't forget to make use of your library - most will let you reserve/renew books online and it's free!

lisa_75

I honestly don't buy books. My personal tutor has told me not to. I use the uni library and my local library and I do fine. If I had to buy all the books I used last year (about 60) it would cost me over £1000! You get much better marks anyway if you don't just use the core texts for your essays and use a wide variety of sources.

nikkif_3

when i went to uni my parents brought me all the books on the list the university provided and it was handy having them there to had, but the uni library had loads of copies of all of the books, I wouldn't recommend buying any, just use uni library, thats what it is there for.

yankee_rower

You can't always depend on the uni library though as some don't have as many copies, and have very short borrowing times. For instance, a week on quite high demand texts and a 30p fine for each day it is overdue. This quickly adds up if you have out 5 books that are a week overdue.

I think if you're using the book a lot, and having to renew it all term, you might as well trying getting it used through Amazon.co.uk, or one of the other outlets that sells used texts. You can always sell it back when you are finished.

DrFluffy

Try overnight loans with 50p an hour fines

To be fair they are on high demand texts, and you only need to rely on them if the week loans are out - and the 50p an hour ensures they are returned near on time, which is better than nothing...

bestpud

This year, I will only be buying the reading list books that are in the short-loan section of the library, as tutors usually make sure there is a copy of the most useful book(s) in there. The rest I will borrow from the library. I think I spent about £100 in my first year, but with the value of hindsight, that would have been reduced to around £40!

Hope that helps,

Bestpud

eenu

i bought a few but to be honest i never used them!

I used the uni library and the internet and it would have therefore cost me £0

pavlovs_dog

i dont know whether it is a blessing or a curse, but a lot of the books i need for my course are out of print. we either get given photocopies from the uni, or i copy the releveant bits myself from the library copy.

with regards to literature, they often put a collection of poetry on there, only for us to study half a dozen poems. it seems pointless buying the book for this. added to which, i loathe writing on books, it just feels wrong. i am much happier borrowing the book to read and then copying the sections i need and will actually use. as a result, my notes and all-singing, all dancing and im not preventing others from using the book in the library.

the biggest expense for my course has been the dictionaries and grammer books. fortunately i had the vast majority of the relevant booksi needed because i had accumilated them during my a level years.

a handy hint if you live in a university town is to keep an eye out at charity shops and second hand bookshops. i am fortunate enought to have an oxfam bookshop in my town, where i often find course texts for a third of the RRP, often in unused condition. this has the added plus of the money going to a good cause :beer: