Where Should I Buy My Textbooks For My College Or University Course?

In this the latest extract from the textbook I wrote to help students like you called 'The Secret Guide To Academic Writing & Study' I seek to consider the importance that many schools, colleges and universities place upon detailed reading lists and establishing core texts (i.e. the teaching of the course you are studying will largely be based upon those books your teachers feel provide a suitable accompaniment to the subject you are studying) for your course for improving yours studies. Therefore, this article seeks to offer some general hints and tips on purchasing the textbooks that you need to enhance your chances of success.With this in mind, whilst it is undeniably unfortunate, the reality is that when looking to obtain your textbooks you need to appreciate schools, colleges and university libraries only ever stock a certain number of textbooks by any given author for any particular subject. As a result, it is quite likely a textbook that your subject teachers look upon as being of particular importance for any assessment will be in great demand as deadline day approaches so as to only further emphasise the importance of starting your coursework assignments early.On this basis, you may find it worth your while to invest in the most important of these textbooks either at the student bookshop on campus at your college, university or at a retailer like Waterstones. However, this does not mean your budget for the semester or even the entire year needs to be completely drained overnight. Therefore, a good starting place for purchasing your books, particularly the further you go in higher education, is the university bookshop that may offer prices marginally lower than the high street and specialise in your university's subjects.Your college or university Student Union may also offer students like you a textbook exchange service where, once you have finished with a textbook, you can then sell these textbooks on via your college or university Student Union who will take a small cut. Moreover, purchasing textbooks on-line has also become a major growth industry as both Amazon and BOL ('Books Online') allow you to buy second-hand books which is great for students at college or university, whilst AbeBooks also allows you to buy or sell a book directly at a fixed cost which is very good for your bank balance on both counts (found on Google or any other search engine)!In addition, if you choose to purchase second hand books from any of the sources I have identified, please BE AWARE that your subject teachers at your college or university may want you to have the most up to date editions because the information in earlier editions may be out of date. Therefore, I would advise you to check with a teacher before you consider purchasing any second hand books for your college or university course.However, if you do purchase books from a first-hand retailer, do not be afraid to ask for a discount if you are purchasing a number of educational titles for your college or university course - you will usually get up to 10% OFF with your NUS ('National Union of Students') Card in the UK - and you may find that if the price is still high you could get a further discount if you pay with cash by saying something like -"I want these books, but on the Internet I could save £X, I want to buy them now, can you do the same?"REMEMBER - It is ALWAYS a good idea to ask because you could save money since academic books are NOT usually most book stores biggest sellers!