Buying earlier edition books.... Forum

[lawdaddy]

i know this topic has been discussed quite a bit since the beginning of time (or at least since the first genius came up with the idea of releasing a second edition) but i would like to know what some of your thoughts are on buying early editions of things like the hornbooks or the E&Es?

I am preparing to start in the fall and i was hoping to get a leg up - but i'm not really looking to spend $60 on a 7th edition Glannon when i can get the 5th for $4

is this unwise?
when school starts, i might have to bite the bullet and buy (or rent) some texts new as i don't want to be lost or miss out on examples. i worry about being penny wise, pound foolish but then again, isn't that attitude part of the problem that's driving costs so absurdly high to begin with?

i look forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions

regards!

[fundamentallybroken]

You won't get a feel for this until 2L, but for some classes it's not even worth buying the textbook. I had 3 classes this year that I never cracked the book - even through finals.

That said, you're fine with earlier edition E&Es and such. If something changes, you can use WL or Lexis to update the material yourself. For textbooks, you usually can swing by with an earlier edition as well for most classes. The big 'depends' in that is whether your professor gives you a syllabus with case names you'll cover, or just page ranges. I had an earlier edition for Admin Law, and my professor just gave page ranges on his syllabus. It was some work to figure out where we were each class, but it didn't effect my grade.

[lawdaddy]

thanks for the reply! i read an article that said something similar to what you wrote - if they put page numbers as opposed to case names then i suppose it's time to make friends

if they put the case names and you can't figure out where to find them, then maybe lawschool isn't a good fit

i read another article where the guy was arguing that saving $50 on a used text book isn't worth it when you're spending 100k+ on your education if the ratio of money saved to effort required isn't high enough.

i think there might be SOME wisdom there, but i made it through undergrad without buying new books and i hope to do the same in LS.... i don't buy new cars either for similar reasons.

[09042014]

Don't try to prestudy. It's a waste of time.

[lawdaddy]

Don't try to prestudy. It's a waste of time.

ive heard that too. may i ask why?

[A. Nony Mouse]

Don't try to prestudy. It's a waste of time.

ive heard that too. may i ask why?

For all the reasons given in the other threads on this issue, but short answer: because you don't know anything yet and might learn stuff wrong (or at least, not in the way your prof would like you to learn it), because you don't know what your prof will cover/emphasize and so you may cover stuff that you won't address in class, because it's totally unnecessary. You will learn it all as you go and it won't give you an advantage over your classmates, so it's a waste of time.

(The one exception I've seen people point to is something like the E&E for Civ Pro, because it's really like a foreign country to most people, and learning a little of the vocabulary can be useful. I still think it's a waste of time, though.)

[hephaestus]

Don't try to prestudy. It's a waste of time.

ive heard that too. may i ask why?

Do a forum search on 0L Prep.

[09042014]

Don't try to prestudy. It's a waste of time.

ive heard that too. may i ask why?

Best case: You learn shit you'll learn during the semester anyway .

Worst case: You'll learn it incorrectly.

[lawdaddy]

thanks guys! there were already 80,000 threads on this exact topic - my bad for making it 80,001

[09042014]

thanks guys! there were already 80,000 threads on this exact topic - my bad for making it 80,001

On the book topic, I always got old edition casebooks. At worst 2-3 cases were missing, and I could pull them up on Lexis.

For hornbooks and EE's I'd probably get the new editions for things like Civ Pro and Con Law. Because those subjects change based on what SCOTUS and Federal courts do. Crim, Contracts, Torts and Property are probably fine with old editions since they don't change fast and they won't have the cases your class uses anyway.

[Kage3212]

Also, don't get trapped in the mentality that you must buy supplements. Your school's library is your friend. The library likely has a majority of the top supplements available, and ours allowed us to rent them out for a specified duration (sometimes upwards of a month). Even if you can't rent the supps out, reading in the library and taking notes/doing problems there saves you money of the back end. A lot of students jump at the opportunity to buy rather than utilizing the resourceful method of borrowing for free.

[lawdaddy]

great advice, thanks

[salix]

And don't forget to check with your SBA office. Ours has a textbook dump (...er, shop) where you can pick up past students' books/supps on the cheap. Yours may as well.