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My recommendation is always to wait and see if the books are truly needed rather than just buying them because they're on the syllabus.
My policy in college (both undergrad and grad) was to not buy the book until I ran into something I couldn't do without it. By doing that I ended up only buying about have of the books that were "required" and way less than that of the ones that were "optional."
I'm sure it varies by discipline, though. (Humanities I bought more books but they were also cheaper; sciences and math I rarely bought the book and I could generally find someone willing to let me photocopy the homework problems at the end of the chapter and then there were plenty of cheaper resources available for learning the stuff necessary for the homework not that I ever actually did the homework).
My experience is that 95% of what you need to know for tests will be covered in lecture so if you pay proper attention there you'll be ok.
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