A few days ago
Anonymous

How do I know what textbooks I need for my college classes?

I’ve already got my schedule ready for the semester. I have Eng 103, Soc 101, ISP 120, and Discover Chicago. However, my schedule doesn’t say what books I actually need for the classes. How do I find out this information?

Top 8 Answers
A few days ago
cgflann

Favorite Answer

One of two ways usually:

1-take your schedule to the school bookstore and make sure you know the specific section of the course you are in. For example, you may have Eng 103-01 or Soc 101-04. The section indicates what class you are in and what professor is teaching the class. Sometimes each section requires different books so it is very important to know this information. The way it worked in my school was the books at the bookstore were organized by course name and number and then by section, so you’d just find your books that way.

2-The other option is to just wait until you get to class and the books you need will be listed on the professor’s course syllabus. From experience, I have noticed that sometimes a professor will list a book as required before you get to class (because they submit their book lists way before the start of the term), however once you get to class they may decide that a certain book is either only for reference or supplemental material or sometimes not needed at all.

It is important to note a few things in regards to textbooks:

Full title of the book(s)

Author and or publisher of the book(s)

Year published

Edition (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc).

Another important piece of information you may want to get is the ISBN number. This is a universal coding system for all books (not just college texts). It is usually on a bar code on the back of the book. It will definitely be useful if you want to purchase textbooks either online or at a place other than the college bookstore (which is highly recommended if you want to try to save some money). Also, sometimes campus books stores do run out of textbooks for a specific course and they have to be reordered, so this may be a good time if that happens to look into alternate sources of finding the book. This is especially important in reading intensive courses.

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A few days ago
daisy
You can actually find this out online!! Look on the school’s website because sometimes it is listed, but if not go to efollett.com because they run most of the bookstores in colleges in the country. Just enter the state and then the college and it will ask for what semester, what subject, the class number, and your section number! It’s really easy to do…then when you see what books, you can buy them online through like amazon.com and they’ll be much cheaper because college books can be so expensive!!
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A few days ago
Paladin
You can also contact your instructors to find out which ones on the list the bookstore has that you will really need and which ones you might only use a couple of times during the semester.
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A few days ago
Jeffrey
Either contact the professor by emailing them and asking them, or some bookstores for schools are online and you can look it up by your course number, or some school bookstores in person will have a list of the books you need. Otherwise you’ll have to wait until the first day of class to get your syllabus.
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A few days ago
Anonymous
Usually the course name, # and section are listed on the shelves are the bookstore. This is all info you can get from your schedule. If you’re confused ask a bookstore employee, they’ll help you find what u need, it’s their job.
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A few days ago
geglefty
Go to the bookstore, show them your schedule and ask what books you need. Be prepared for textbook sticker shock as they can get pricey. If you can buy used textbooks because they will save you some money.
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A few days ago
Ally…
On your first day of class your teacher will give you a list of books you need for their class, if you want them early then go onto your schools website log in and find your books using the code that is listed for the class.
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A few days ago
elcid812
Go the bookstore and show them your list of classes and they will have a list of require and recomended courses.
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