Thousands of Pages for Three Sentences

Sounds exciting...

Is it just me or has the whole text book "requirement"/actual requirement ratio gotten ridiculous lately? Not sure of what I mean? I'm talking about when a professor lists five 300-page books as a requirement, but doesn't use more than a few sentences of each for tests, and has you read a separate book for another assignment.

For my "Politics of Western Europe" class here at SU I was "required" to purchase five books. About a month later the class was informed that we weren't going to use the fifth book at all. When it came time to do a book review, I wised up and only used the library's copy.

Professors today really need to take a second look at what is being asked on their tests and assignments today versus what is being required of students to read. This of course holds especially true for undergraduate classes. I, as most students, am taking this 300 (upper undergraduate)-level course to fulfill some element to receive my diploma. I do not need to read 1800 pages in 15 weeks to acquire the basic knowledge necessary to make this course worthwhile. This isn't my doctoral thesis here!