Hacker News Reader

My math profs warned us that, while the overall contents and concepts included were the same, the different editions of the textbook sometimes had chapters in a slightly different order and problems slightly rearranged. This meant it was possible to learn from any edition, but only the required edition was guaranteed to work for assigned problem sets.

View on HN

Why didn't he just scan at least the assigned problem sets into a PDF? Do they require you to buy a brand new book just so the question numbers they pass match?

Yes. Kickbacks from the publisher is why.

Jesus. One would think the social relationship with the students would override the greed, but apparently not.

In that case, why not standardise the course on an older edition?

I'd bet publishers won't do additional print runs on those and might even recall copies not yet sold when the new edition comes out so availability of those will go down (and prices up) if they are made the desirable edition.

Really the prof should just make his own assignments (or rather have his underlings do it). At least that's how it works on this side of the pond. In any case, requiring additional purchases of educational material when students are already paying tuition is absurd.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com