Booklists/Textbook Stress!

Thank goodness I don’t have to buy this much textbooks – at least I don’t think I have to…

Oh, I remember back in June after highschool ended – I had anticipated textbook shopping would be one of the funnest experiences in terms of university preparation. Everything would go smoothly, and I would be able to quickly enjoy my textbooks and the smell of their new-ness (or used-ness).

Boy, was I wrong. I don’t have my textbooks yet either 🙁

The first step in buying you textbooks is figuring out what textbooks you have to buy. In around mid-August (For us Fall 2012 semester students, it was August 13th) the UBC Bookstore releases personalized booklists online. So you just type in your UBC student number, then it creates a list of textbooks you need for the courses you’ve registered in. It also shows up in the courses section of the SSC a few days later.

For me, I wasn’t actually able to access my personalized booklist until a few days later cause they couldn’t match my student number (I think it might have been a sever error). From there I got a list of books that were either required or optional for my courses. I’m not sure what they need for labs yet though, they didn’t specify as to what textbooks/lab manuals were needed except for my CHEM 121 lab. I didn’t buy my textbooks yet, but here’s the books I need if people want to see them, and also for the sake of my own memory (I only put in the required textbooks, the optional ones seem useless except for the solutions manual)~

MATH 100
Stewart, Single Variable Calculus

PHYS 112
Serway, College Physics
iClicker
UBCO CCM: PHYS 112 *124* LAB MANUAL

BIOL 116
Freeman, CSTM PKG: BIOLOGCL SCI V1&2 W/ MSTRG & ICLICKER RVP
iClicker

CHEM 121
Petrucci, PKG 3 PC GENERAL CHEMISTRY 10TH EDN + MASTERINGCHEM & TUTCARD ACCESS
UBCO CCM: CHEM 111/113/121/123 *124* LAB MANUAL

That’s it, but I know it’s gonna be CRAZY expensive. I went to the bookstore at the UBC Vancouver campus, and the prices were pretty high for new books. I might just buy rental books or used books cause they’re probably wayyy cheaper than new books. There goes that new textbook smell I wanted to experience :s

I haven’t bought my textbooks yet, but I plan to buy and/or order them before I leave Vancouver 🙂 I’ll continue to update on my textbook experience~

UPDATE (8/29/12): I finally ordered my textbooks! It was a very expensive (The total was $599 in total :s), yet painless experience! I ordered only the required materials (except for MATH 100, I ordered the package with the solutions manual). 2 of the books  were new (Biology and Math), while two of them were rental books (Chemistry and Physics). I also ordered a UBC hoodie since the bookstore was having a back-to-school promotion where all UBC gear was 50% off!

For shipping options, there were various choices. They can ship it to your home (it can take 3-5 business days for the cheapest shipping option) or you can pick up the books in-store for free. Obviously I picked the in-store pickup option.