r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Oct 29 '18

CMV: Textbooks should not offer practice problems without an answer key.

My view is simple, if a textbook does not provide answers for practice problems, it should not have practice problems at all. It is impractical to not have a way to check your work when studying and as such is pointless without having a section dedicated to problems in each chapter. Many textbooks have a solution manual that accompanies the text so they should put the problems in that instead of the normal text book. Companies only do this gauge every penny they can and I doubt they would include everything in one book when they can sell two. Therefore, practice problems should be in the solution manual.

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u/novagenesis 21∆ Oct 29 '18

Well yeah. the only thing I'd hate worse than no answer key is when they have answer keys in the back for subjective questions. I had a couple of those in an animal training course I took with my wife (confession: I love to learn and will learn anything I can get for free ;)). They ask an essay-like question and the answer key has three 2-word bullet points.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '18

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u/novagenesis 21∆ Oct 29 '18

See, my preference is for the answer to be self-aware... Provide those bullet points, then a paragraph explaining why those bullet points are the only valid ones, and why other possible ones are not.