High School AP books--did you buy them?

[golfgal]

We had open house at school last night and the kids' AP teachers said that a lot of kids prefer to buy their textbooks so they can highlight in them, etc. Did anyone else do this and was it worth it? I looked online for used additions and they run about $90/each. They would need one for AP History and then the novels they are reading in AP AM Lit (which totaled are about $90 used). We have twins so the cost is double . If you bought the books, did your kids highlight in them and use them like a college text book?

 

[DVCLiz]

We are required to buy books at our school so we have always done so. DD16 is taking APUSH (US History) and AP Language, so she has those books. Her APUSH book is already marked up with several different colors of highlighter!

I don't think she marks up many of her English books, though.

 

[golfgal]

We are required to buy books at our school so we have always done so. DD16 is taking APUSH (US History) and AP Language, so she has those books. Her APUSH book is already marked up with several different colros of highlighter!

I don't think she marks up many of her English books, though.

We have never been required to buy books--we still aren't. They do have copies of the books for the kids to use but obviously they can't write in them. Most of their other textbooks are all online and they just have classroom copies now-which saves on the kids' backs!

 

[Breezy_Carol]

My kids were provided books for all of their classes, except AP. They had to buy all of their AP books. There was no other choice. At least they were 2 years apart so DS could use some of DD's.

I am not sure how they studied so don't know if the mark in the books or not. I don't think they do much marking as they both resold as many of their college textbooks as they could.

 

[PlaneJoy1]

Is there a student that took the course last year that you could purchase the book from (at reduced cost) or even 'rent' it from for the year?

I took AP classes many moons ago and did not have my own text book. I teach now and students here also do not buy their text book. They use the class set that we 'loan' them for the class. I really don't think it's necessary, in my opinion, especially if your children can take good notes. I guess its what each parent/student prefers, though.

 

[Hannathy]

My DD took 8 or 9 AP courses and she never bought a book. She bought a few review books but never the text book. If the school has them I would use those they don't need to highlight. They probably haven't done that yet for classes and it is a good thing not to get used to doing, so when you get to college you can sell your used books and you will get more for them if they aren't all marked up.

You retain the info so much more if you have to copy the main points out of the book rather than just underlining them at least IMO.

 

[SC Minnie]

DD16 is taking 2 AP classes this year. We went to the open house Monday and neither teacher said anything about buying their text book.

The APUSH teacher did suggest buying a certain book to help them practice/study for the AP test in May.

 

[Art 1]

We have always had to buy the kids books and for the harder classes would buy an extra set.