You are determined not to buy from the bookstore. That's it, you've had it paying them their super inflated prices and you start jotting down all of your textbook ISBN's to look up online later. The last textbook catches your eye because on the tag, it says something about being a Custom Edition. Hoping for the better, you copy it down anyway but make sure to grab a picture of the front binding. You leave and get back to your dorm room, but when you search for that last ISBN, you run into some trouble. No one is selling it and all you see are student message boards how to get around this problem. You do not want to go back to pay for a specially overpriced book but you don't know what to do next.
This has definitely happened to me more than one occasion and the fix may actually be a quick one. First, I would look at the front of the textbook to check out who the publisher is and find their latest edition about the subject on their website. They will have up-to-date pictures of both current and past textbooks so do not worry about that. Now, if you took a picture of the front cover or can remember what it looks like, great. All you have to do is match up the front covers. If they are different, this is where I would just go ahead and look over the chapters to see if the subject material is over the same stuff. The most important thing is if the normal edition has what the custom edition has. More often than not, it will have everything plus a few more bonus chapters.
Why? Let me explain. When a school decides, for one reason or another, to have a custom edition made, it means that they will pick and choose the chapters they want from the original edition. They can also decide in what order they're in so that the semester will flow better with their lesson plans. That is it. In other words, it is the custom edition that wouldn't measure up to the original edition. It is the customer's order of what is on the cafe menu. A mere shopping list to an entire grocery store. What's in the custom edition will always be in the original, but not the other way around.
For a many reasons, it would be a good thing to buy the normal edition than the custom and here's why. The original edition may have sections that are not covered in class but may in fact aid in your understanding of the material being gone over. This is especially true of mathematics and science related courses. Those subjects are better understood with the whole picture in mind, which is actually how the majority of courses are taught in college. Also, you may have another course in the following semester that compliments your current course and will use a complimenting custom edition or in fact the original edition. I have noticed that this is common with a heavy english course that offers both a difficult combined or easier split course. They required the same texts at my school however.
While there are many benefits. there are a few drawbacks as well. You should pay attention to sections being covered over in the textbook because they may not match up precisely to the instruction you are being given. Simply put, the table of contents will become your best friend. You should be comfortable in searching through reference material by now so get used to it if you aren't. Next... actually that really is the only drawback. Some people may have issues finding material in the custom text and they may think it's not there. It's there. I have had the pleasure of helping out many fellow students who did what I did and there hasn't been a thing that wasn't found. With that being said, it is advisable to make a few friends in each of your classes for study work and to have a custom edition for comparison. You may find that you like the original a lot better. I sure did.
I hope I cleared up any issues or questions people may have had. If there was something I did not address, please post it below in the comments section and I can answer that for you.
Better yet, post an article idea and I will give a special shout out for the suggestion.
Thank you for reading and feel free to share with friends, family and anyone you think wants to save a few thousand dollars!
