I hate new textbook editions

I don’t hate them, really. But I’ll tell you why I hate them right now.

I was going to take this Accounting 101 class last semester (Spring 2004). It was currently a three-class course (ACCT 101, 102, & 103). But in Fall 2004, it was going to switch to the current standard of a two-class course (ACCT 101 & 102). So, I dropped that class last semester and registered for the new system this semester.

So, I come to class this semester feeling confident and ready to get good grades. Then today, I open the book and we’re going over the questions on our homework…and it turns out I have an older edition! The company just came out with a new one.

My Two Options

1) I can use my current textbook and just go to the library to copy the homework questions every week.

2) I can try to sell mine, hopefully close enough to the pricing of this latest edition.

If copying the questions out of the book every week will cost less, I’ll definitely go that route. The material is pretty much the same – the questions are the only difference. (Even in class today, when we were going through the questions in the new textbook, the major difference in the homework questions were either the values or the ordering of the problems. How lame is that?)