Quite a few classes require you to buy ridiculously expensive textbooks, only to never refer to them or use problems from them, and you would be better off saving a ton buying a more concise resource like a Schaum's outline. I thought it would be a good idea to share some lower-level class-teacher combinations that don't use the textbook. These are some that I've experienced:

CS 53 - Price - The book (absolute C++) is pretty good, but unless you are totally new to programming, a cheaper reference or the tons of free online ones is all you need.

Econ 121 - Park - The (e)book is crap, but you are forced to buy it to print assignments.

I'm wondering about how neccessary the books are for EE 151 and CompE 111. From the amazon reviews, they both seem to be crappy, and are also expensive. Also, CS 153.

I got through CS 153 just fine without a textbook. There is suggested reading for the textbook, but no problems or anything assigned from it. When I needed to look something up, I managed to find it online. Of course, it's always possible that things change, so don't blame me if you end up needing it. (I took the class in spring of this year, so I doubt that much has changed, if anything. I'm just saying this as a sort of disclaimer.)

I have Wunsch for CompE 111, and the textbook is definitely mandatory. Problems are assigned out of it. As a side note, I think it's a pretty terrible textbook. But there's not much you can do about it.

The most worthless book I ever bought was the one for surveying; I didnt even get to rip off the plastic. Hella lame. That book alone was $100+.

I had Shrestha for circuits 1 in the fall of last year, we did problems from the book. CS 153 with Cheng, we sort of used the book in the last week or two of class when she ran out of time to write all the algorithms on the board. I mostly used it to look up the proper pseudocode that she screwed up, and to actually teach myself quite a few things that were never talked about in class. I guess technically it was never used for anything officially that I remember, but it was a handy reference and a good guide to learn alot of things on your own.

I have Mentis, and the book for CS 74, Problem Solving with C++, isn't needed at all.

Met 121 with Kosher requires no book if you go to clas and paya ttention and do the worksheets. If you dont do that, it helps to read the book before tests.
The crap books I bought for English 20 pissed me off. all of the useless.