"Required" Text Book or "Optional?"

The professor must designate the importance of a text book to the course work before he turns in the official adoption to the bookstore. If the student will be assigned reading and be tested over the content, then naturally it should be designated “required.” If the content will not to be assigned, but will aid the student in understanding the concepts, then the book should be adopted as “optional.”

We previously discussed the financial temptation professors have to adopt "optional" publications as "required." Review the article again if needed:

see questionable text book practices

The other factor we discussed earlier is perks for the professor's department for adopting "required" texts. This pressure also clouds the professor's judgement when making an adoption decision:

see questionable publisher practices

For these reasons you should always make your own determination as to weather or not the book is “required” for you. You should also postpone the purchase of “optional” books until you’re certain you need the additional help in understanding the course work.


Return to To Buy, or Not?





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