Don’t even bother looking at the receipt after you purchase your textbooks this semester. The numbers will make you want to vomit, cry or hold some kind of occupy bookstore protest.
I don’t get why college textbooks are so expensive but they are. The most you can do is suck it up, hand over your money and use the dang things.
Allow me to teach you how to make the most out of your textbooks by walking you through what to do when you first open your textbook.
#1 Read through the preface (side note: I feel like I always pronounce this word wrong). I know you think it’s only about the author and blah. blah. blah. But it’s not, it teaches you some pretty important information. Like how to use the text book. How the different sections of the chapter were meant to be used and relate to each other, as well as what other resources you can access to help you improve your learning.
#2 Review the layout of the chapter. Before you even dig into the chapter your professor assigned the first day of class, just open to a chapter and get a feel for the breakdown. Look to see if there is a summary, keyword section, objectives, pictures and if they provide you with practice problems you could use to study from later.
#3 Sign up for the online resources. Just take 15 minutes and browse through the website that almost every textbook has these days. I’ve found chapters already outlined for me, summaries recorded that I could listen to while I drove, video tutorials and even practice tests that could help you gauge where you stand with the concepts that will be on your exam.
Seriously though, if you do these things when you first buy your textbook, you’ll find that you won’t have to read the whole chapter to pass your exams.
I encourage you to share the wealth of this post with your friends because some of them might end up being your study buddies, and you don’t want to study with someone who doesn’t read the damn chapter.
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What kind of books are you going for this semester E-books or paperback?