Textbooks: questions and Band 8 answers

Not as much as I used to, to be honest. Since finishing university, I rarely need them for daily life, though I still keep a couple of grammar textbooks on my desk because I'm currently trying to pick up Spanish in the evenings.

Yes, absolutely. My school bag was always weighing a ton because we had separate, thick books for subjects like biology, history, and maths. I remember having to lug about five different volumes back and forth every single day.

I'd definitely go for paper ones. While digital copies are obviously lighter to carry around, I find it much easier to flick through physical pages and highlight key sections with a pen, especially when I need to cram for an exam.

They can be quite pricey, especially for higher education. University students often spend a small fortune on course materials each term, which is why second-hand book sales and borrowing from the campus library are so popular.

I reckon they will gradually be phased out. Many classrooms are already switching to tablets and interactive digital resources, so in ten or twenty years, carrying physical textbooks might become completely obsolete for younger students.