Best Ways to Buy Books

If you are trying to buy books for your online college courses, you may be tempted to have them shipped to you from the school book store – assuming you have one. This is a perfectly valid option, but it isn’t exactly the “best” way to get your textual school supplies. Before you shell out hundreds of dollars at the student union, you need to realize what your alternatives are. Here are a few ways to buy books at affordable prices.

Rent Books
You could rent your textbooks instead of buying them outright, and this will save you a lot of time and hassle. Rather than paying for the books and then selling them back at the end of the semester you can just pay a small fee upfront to keep your books temporarily. What you are finished with your finals, simply return the books to avoid being charged for them. At the end of the day, this will probably lead to less loss than a standard buy/sell plan.

Use Craigslist
You could check your local Craigslist the semester before you need to take a class to see if anyone has the book you need for sale. Most people will get rid of their books cheaply if they know they can get quick cash for them. You could also watch at the beginning of the semester, but that may be too late. Check early to be on the safe side.

At the very least, you need to crunch some numbers to determine what the cheapest route is going to be for you. I know you probably don’t want to do any math work until you actually get into class, but sometimes, you just have to do it. Compare prices and convenience options to see which one works out best for you.

3 Things No One Will Tell You about Online Classes

There is a big hype nowadays about online college courses, and I will admit, they’re pretty cool. I started going to school online awhile ago, and I have seen some pretty significant benefits from my time there. With that in mind, I wish that someone would have told me about some of the challenges that would come with taking classes on the internet. I may have avoided some crucial mistakes along the way. Here are three things that no one else is willing to say about online classes:

1. Everybody cheats…seriously. When a class has all of the tests available online, every single student taking them will look up answers on the internet. Try not to fall into that trap if you can, just because it reduces your integrity as a student.
2. Procrastination is inevitable. You may assume that you will do your course work on schedule like you would for a normal class, but really, you’ll end up putting it off until the last minute.
3. Communication sucks. Some professors are impossible to get I touch with, and those that do answer questions take their precious time to respond. You have to be ready to learn on your own, no matter how helpful your professors may be.

I would never tell someone not to go to school online because I really do love it. I just want to caution you about the road ahead. Now that you know all of this, you can be better prepared for whatever distance learning throws at you.

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