Textbooks

So, what textbooks should you buy?

To be honest, this depends entirely on you. Some people (myself included) have an often financially unhealthy craving for textbooks, and if you are one of those people chances are you'll go and buy them all anyway. Some people are absolutely fine with just using them in the library, and in that case you'll probably have just as much success (provided you still use the textbooks when necessary).

It is worth noting though that a significant number of the HSFY papers have a policy that if a segment of the textbook is specified as "essential pre-reading" then they can examine you on it, even if the content wasn't covered in lectures. In my experience, the only paper that has actually followed through on that is HUBS191, but CELS191 didn't come far off (by that I mean that one of the lecturers told us on two occasions "right, now I haven't had time to cover _______ today, but I may still feel like putting it in the exam, so if I were you I'd go away and learn about it. I advise your textbook as being easily the best source of information").

So, it probably pays to be wary of the fact that essential textbook readings may be examined in any paper that has this as a policy, but it's generally fairly obvious where this will happen (e.g. pre-readings are specified right down to individual sentences to read and sentences to ignore, or in a lecture the lecturer explicitly tells you to learn a specific part of the textbook). A rule I followed was that if a lecturer set a huge block of text (such as a whole chapter, or 10 consecutive pages) then chances are it was just to assist anyone who needed clarification on some points - it'd be worthwhile reading, but not memorising every little detail. A little anecdote on this point - I was having a chat to the HEAL192 staff, and we started talking about retrospective cohort studies v.s. case-control studies. It emerged that the subtlety of this distinction meant that it was official HEAL192 policy that students do not have to know anything about retrospective cohort studies (and, if possible, shouldn't even be aware of their existance). Well, that may be the case, but it didn't stop retrospective cohort studies from appearing in the "essential" (and thus "examinable") reading!

My advice on individual textbooks for HSFYers in 2010 (as specified on the 2010 HSFY booklist):

• HUBS textbook - very good to get, especially for HUBS191 where they follow through on a policy of assessing stuff if it is in the pre-readings but not in the lecture. Probably should buy this one new as HUBS are going to use the 7th edition this year (and that'll be near-impossible to get 2nd hand).

• CELS textbook - alright to get, but far from necessary. You do occasionally need a copy of the latest edition, but you could always just borrow from someone on your floor. Note that this is also the textbook for one of the modules (immune system) of HUBS191, but in 2009 they gave free photocopies of the relevant chapter to any HUBS students who needed it anyway. Interestingly I actually found the HUBS textbook (Thibodeau and Patton) better for immunology.

• CHEM textbook - only get this if you want LOTS of practice questions (and you get a fair few of these from the chem department/old exams anyway). There isn't really that much to be gained from the actual (non-question) content in this book.

• PHSI textbook - definately get this one, and new. It's only $40, and written especially for the course. It also happens to explain most things pretty decently. This years one (2010) will be a lot better than last years (e.g. minor errors and typos removed, practice questions included).

• HEAL textbook - most reckon this is indispensable but I'm not so sure. The way I used it was I read it in the mid-year break (it's really short as far as textbooks go). This was good as I had some sense of where the course was going throughout semester 2 (when you experience the disorganisation of the course you'll appreciate the advantage of this), and I honestly think it helped for UMAT (seriously, one of the questions in UMAT section 1 was almost identical to an example in the HEAL textbook). Throughout the semester though I barely used it at all, though it was occasionally useful for presenting the content from a really badly delivered lecture in a more organised manner. Despite official policy, I'd actually be surprised if there were any exam questions for which the reading of this book was necessary (that's not to say that this book wouldn't help though).

• BIOC textbook - you don't need this. I was enticed into buying it because the lecturer we had for the enzymes module kept talking about how the relevant chapters would be really good to read to further understanding. I read them and they were pretty cool. That was the only use for this textbook. BIOC192 does not have a policy of making the textbook examinable.

Remember that if you are put off by the cost, you can get away with second hand copies of the CELS, CHEM, BIOC and HEAL textbooks. Also remember that they are all available on "close reserve" (means you can't take them out of the library, and can only use them for two hours at a time - it sort of limits your flexibility, but it also means you have a reasonable chance of accessing any of the textbooks at the library if you need to look through them).

If in any doubt, there's nothing stopping you from waiting a good 3-4 weeks into the course before making the final decision as to whether or not you'll buy the relevant textbook (and in many cases this would be a wise move).