I am a few weeks into my first semester, and I have already observed some of my less than optimal preparation strategies. After spending much of last weekend engaged in 80 pages of calculus exercises in preparation for a quiz on limits and continuity, I realized that I could have avoided that cram session by getting the textbook in advance. In addition to this, I am still waiting for two of my books to arrive. So, a piece of advice that I can give to a first time college student is:
Order your textbooks a few weeks before the semester starts.
If you know that you are definitely going to take a certain class, you can save a lot of money and time by finding a used copy of the textbook online through sites like Amazon, Abebooks.com, and ecampus. My school issued me a gmail address, along with the professors' email addresses, shortly after I had registered for classes (and months before the semester was to begin). This is the time to send a message to your professor, ask them which textbook will be needed for the course, and whether an earlier edition of that book is acceptable.
New textbooks are expensive! Fortunately, there should be a ton of used textbooks available. The quality of these textbooks can be questionable, however. One student, in my Elementary German class, rented a workbook which has already been filled in. Every single page has someone else's answers! Keep in mind that you aren't the only one looking for cheap textbooks. The sooner that you start searching for these textbooks, the more options you'll have as far as quality. You can sort the used textbooks on Amazon by cost. By doing so, you may see a few that are within the same price range yet are listed as 'ACCEPTABLE', 'GOOD', 'VERY GOOD', etc. In my limited experience, these are fairly accurate descriptions. You want to try to get a 'VERY GOOD' copy to make it easier for you to get maximum value when you want to sell the book later.
Ordering books online will save you a lot of money in comparison to the campus bookstore. The downside is that you may have to wait weeks for a book to arrive. You can mitigate this wait by spending a few extra bucks on a used book that ships from a location that is closer in proximity to you. So, if you have a couple options that are close in quality but differing in price, it may be worth it to order the more expensive one if it is a thousand miles closer to you. Ultimately, you can avoid much of this stress by ordering that textbook a few weeks before the class begins. That is a lesson that I have learned and a strategy that I will be employing for my second semester.
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