Showing posts with label Textbook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Textbook. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

My 3rd Year Intermediate Japanese Textbook - Decent, But Not Great

An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, by The Japan Times, is a moderately good intermediate Japanese textbook overall. It covers a lot of ground, but it's not always easy to use. But there are a few tricks that make it a lot easier to master the contents of the book.

On the good side, An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese is fairly good at explaining grammatical concepts. Most of the examples of Japanese grammar are clear and easy to follow. Usually, there are plenty of examples, which is important

The side notes are also pretty good. They aren't worth poring over for hours, but you'll pick up some things that are good to know about Japanese culture.

On the bad side, the book can sometimes be a bit slim on Japanese grammar examples (though it's usually pretty thorough). THE trick with this is to open up a Word document and write down the English translation of the grammar you're practicing and cook up a few more practice sentences of your own.

Also, there are way too many vocabularies and kanji in each chapter. Many of these are incredibly obscure. Now, I realize that the authors need to include these because the kanji and vocab are part of the reading passages, but that doesn't make the sheer amount of kanji and new words any less daunting.

The biggest single downfall of the book is that there is no place where it goes into more detail on kanji--no stroke order or enlarged pictures to show you how to rewrite them. All the examples occur in print that's too small to discern how to write the more complex kanji.

The trick with this book is to make flashcards for the kanji and vocab and to study over the reading passages with a friend. If you can swing that, the reading passages can be rewarding.

An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese served me fairly well through my 3rd year of college Japanese. As far as intermediate Japanese textbooks go, I'd give it 7/10. It can be a tough nut to crack, but if you just apply a couple tricks, most of the information will stick.




Philip Rozek offers more tips at the full article, http://www.how-to-learn-japanese.com/intermediate_japanese_textbook.html You can also try to guess the top 10 most butchered Japanese words in English, and more. Phil will also show you his full array of tips on how to learn Japanese.

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Friday, December 17, 2010

College Textbook Savings Strategies

A college education is a great way to help with your career success. But the costs associated with attending and graduating from college have been rising faster than the cost of living. Tuition, room and board are just the beginning of the dollars that will be spent to successfully complete your degree. Lab fees, textbooks, transportation and health care are also expense to be considered.

This article will focus on textbooks, and they can cost a bundle these days. Most colleges estimate that it will cost between $500 to $700 per semester for textbooks. That is $4,000 to $5,600 over the course of a four-year degree. And if any of these textbooks is written by one of your professors, it could easily cost over $200 for that one book alone.

So how do you save when textbook costs keep rising every year and they change the editions regularly? The answers lie in how you buy your textbooks and how well you resell your textbooks.

Most students go to the college bookstore, get their list of required books and decide if they want to buy a new or a used book, if a used edition is available. Some students take it one step further and visit some off campus bookstores that may have a lower priced new book and a larger selection of used books in varying conditions.

But if you truly want to save the most on your books you need to do some research at each of these sources and then get on-line for additional options. Timing can be a very important factor in the prices you pay as well as adding additional textbook savings when you are on the selling side of the coin.

A newer option that must be considered is renting your textbooks. So far I haven't seen a compelling argument that makes me believe that you will make out better by renting than if you buy smart and then resell, but renting is still relatively new and competition has not been a major factor. I'm sure that will change soon as more companies get involved in the program.

Many students that are taking the same course, but at different times have begun using a book sharing arrangement. This can save plenty if you have one book and your partner has another, but it usually takes some extra effort to make sure that scheduling conflicts do not occur.

With the addition of electronic book readers like the I-Pad, Kindle and others, textbook manufacturers are now beginning to offer electronic versions of textbooks at a reduced cost. The problem so far has been that most students like having the book right there in front of them as they study, and reselling a used electronic edition may be tougher than anticipated..




To find a more comprehensive listing of strategies for buying and selling your textbooks, in some cases for a profit, be sure to read chapter 7 in the book - How To Get Your College Education For Less, available on Amazon.com. To discover additional ways to help reduce the high cost of a college education, get your FREE College Cost Savings Kit by clicking here or by visiting our website at CollegeEducationForLess.com.

About the Author:
Keith Maderer is the father of five college age students and has been a financial, investment and tax adviser in the Western New York area since 1981. He is the author of "How to Get Your College Education For Less". Available on Amazon.com - ISBN No: 978-1-4538-2053-7

To get your FREE College Cost Savings Kit, visit http://www.CollegeEducationForLess.com

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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Stop Textbook Inflation

Rising textbook prices have been and will continue to be a large scale problem for college students. In the past thirty years the price of books has nearly tripled. Expensive book prices are taking a toll on student's wallets across the nation. Luckily, there is short term solution and a more stable long term solution to this problem.

Last year the average tuition cost of a public college was $6,585 per semester. With college tuition costing almost seven thousand dollars a semester on average, how can college students afford to pay another $400 on books per semester? The answer is that they can't. Even with loans and scholarships, rising book prices are hard to predict. Some college students that have extremely low funds and can't afford paying for required textbooks, while the others continue to purchase books on an extremely tight budget.

The main problem is that many college students are refusing to buy or can't afford their textbooks. If students stop purchasing required books, not only will the students suffer but so will the professors. How would a professor respond if only half of the students in his or her class had the book because of its expensive price? The class couldn't be taught and the university or college would be notified immediately of the crisis.
So what can be done to save money on college textbooks in the short term? The best way to save money is without purchasing is to rent the book. Renting books can be done in the local college library, town library or even some websites. But unfortunately the library isn't convenient for everyone's schedule. Borrowing or trading books would be the next best option; search for the textbook in the most obviously places. Ask friends and family if they have taken that course and happen to have the same book. If no friends or family have the book, start an online group or a local college group to trade books each semester.

If borrowing or trading books isn't an option try to buy them at the cheapest possible cost. Purchasing books online is the most efficient way to save money when starting a new semester. Even international books are recommended, the content of the book is the same while they are sold at almost 90% off of the U.S. retail price. Many local off-campus bookstores also sell textbooks at lower prices than the college's bookstore.
The most efficient long term plan to reduce the cost of textbooks is for students to take action. Many professors will take into account the price of the book they require if a student notifies the professor ahead of time. Further actions can be taken by looking into local legislation. Call local representative's today and tell them something must be done. For example: Connecticut recently passed a law to disclose prices and history revisions of textbooks to faculty.

Textbook prices are a very serious problem for college students today. College students are struggling to pay the extra amount needed per semester, and there grades are suffering from it. Short and long term solutions can both be used to combat in the inflation or textbook prices.




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Saturday, August 7, 2010

How Used Textbook Sales Drive Prices Up

The price of textbooks is enough to make otherwise peaceful and intellectual college students nearly riot. Paying a couple hundred bucks for a basic biology book will do that to you. In response to this problem, many a used textbook service has popped up so students can trade them back and forth and not have to pay retail. Oddly, this actually drives up the cost of new editions.

Let me start off by saying that I've purchased used textbooks and was happy to do so given the price. I also happen to think the textbook pricing system is outrageous, particularly given the fact most college students aren't exactly rolling in dough! The debate over the cost of these textbooks has many sides. The impact of used textbook sales is one that isn't brought up that often, but needs to be considered.

I buy a new textbook for a class. I pay $180 for it. Of this price, the publisher and author are going to get a pretty solid chunk. I take the class, pass it and then sell the book. I sell it for $130. Of this amount, the site I use gets a piece and I get the rest. The publisher and author of the book get nothing. I can already envision you saying "good" rather forcefully and can understand why. While I generally agree with you, it is an important fact to understand because it has a huge economic effect.

What would you do if you were the publisher? You know the first run of textbooks will sell, but that the second run will sell very slowly because everyone is buying up the used version of the first run of textbooks. The answer should be obvious. You are going to charge more for that first run so you can be assured that you will cover the cost of both runs and make a profit. It is basic capitalism!

So, am I going to suggest that we all avoid buying used textbooks or what have you? No, not a chance. I'm merely suggesting that there are a number of reasons new versions costs so much and they aren't all do to evil publishers.




Mark P. Warner is with ReadableOnlineTextBooks.com - where you find readable online textbooks for your classes.

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