Old Textbooks?

[Kaz]

Long story short: Just wondering how old is too old for textbooks?

All depends on your goals. I find it enlightening to see changes across the generations. Reading textbooks from long ago won't necessarily help you pass a current class (probably) but it can definitely be educational in its own right. I don't confine that to textbooks either. I used to read my grandfather's Popular Mechanics and Popular Science books from the '50's all the time in the '80's. It was fascinating to me to see what predictions they got right and wrong, and why. I found that to be more enlightening than most of the actual course work I had when I finally started college.

[Johann]

I used to read my grandfather's Popular Mechanics and Popular Science books from the '50's all the time in the '80's. It was fascinating to me to see what predictions they got right and wrong, and why.

They were nothing short of fabulous. I started buying them when I was about 10 or 11 (1953-4). Back then, they cost 25 to 35 cents. I started with Mechanix Illustrated and soon got to the others. Between the articles - and the small-print classifieds in the back - what an education for 25 or 35 cents!

J.

[Collegelady2]

Glad to see another youngster on here I'm about to get my almost 14 year old daughter started taking these exams!

[zapproximator]

Glad to see another youngster on here I'm about to get my almost 14 year old daughter started taking these exams!

That's awesome! (I'm 14 in 11 days).
If you're planning for her to take CLEPs, unless you've already picked out an exam for her, I'd suggest she try Analyzing and Interpreting Literature. It doesn't require you know much except be able to read literature and know a few literary terms. I wrote about A&I Lit and how to get it for free here: https://bachelorsby18.wordpress.com/2017...-for-free/. Also, I wrote some specific exam tips on my blog here: https://bachelorsby18.wordpress.com/2017...iterature/.
You should also really check out courses.modernstates.org. They have a ton of free CLEP-prep courses taught my professors and right now, they will pay for your CLEP exam fee!!

[Ratfus]

True, there are some educational texts from 50, 100, or more years ago which are still extremely relevant.
Oh, nice!

It really depends upon the subject matter, but generally, textbooks do become dated. C++ is always getting new headers and the built in functions are constantly changing. In addition, even somewhat lower level math classes are much different than they used to be in the past. For example, calculating decimals from a square-root was much more difficult, without a calculator. You would need to use some pretty hard-hitting calculus to do said calculation (I think). Instead, the book would probably tell you to use a chart, which is likely not near as accurate as the calculator. While this difference is minor, without even picking a textbook up, it came to my mind.

Plus, wouldn't you rather have a digital textbook, than one that occupies space and adds clutter? Reason a lot of traditional publishing companies are perishing.