[Ntrails]

> Perhaps they're more common in the UK than the US?

I can't speak for all universities over here, but my undergrad had a single textbook from what I recall. The rest were all printed notes or simply lecturers writing with astonishing speed on the blackboards.

There was certainly extra reading we could do, and I'm sure someone did. But most of the learning was from attending lectures and watching someone go through things step by step.

I'd be interested to know if other courses are more textbook based - although I know which I would choose.

[tgb]

That's sounds typical for a graduate course in the US and atypical for an undergraduate, even an advanced undergraduate course. Most assign problems from texts and will have one or two texts that are required or possibly strongly suggested to have. On the other hand, many students don't really read the texts except for the questions. In graduate courses there are usually just a few suggested books you could use if you wanted to.