Sparknotes and passing a quiz on summary of book...

[pshreck]

So sometime last week I posted how I changed my schedule 2 weeks into the semester and some of the troubles it was causing me.

Entering a literature class 2 weeks late was the toughest. Tonight at 6:30 I have a class where I have 600 pages of reading due (spread out over 3 weeks but I joined late). I thought I could bang it out in a few days but I only did about 350 so far and Im exhausted.

Sparknotes.com has my books and summaries. The book is "Sister Carrie" and the other one is "The House of Mirth". What are the chances that I can rely on the summaries (very thorough on sparknotes, with good commentary on 'meaning' of themes)? Like I said, I have a quiz on all the reading, plus I have to be able to engage in discussion on the books. I know the style of the writing from reading the first parts of both books, so I can BS that fine.

So... Im sure some of you have used sparknotes to skip reading a book... does it work for quizzes/tests?

[Reef]

read the summary AND analysis.. if the questions are more idea/theme/context based you're teacher will think you are baby Jesus' gift to the english lit. world.

If the questions are more detail based (ex. what happened to Bob when Jim said "lasjfal;sjd"), you might not do so hot

[peachy]

ull be fine...read those plus maybe do a search on the books and read peoples comments/opinions/essays/etc on the books wouldnt hurt too...dont even waste ur time reading thru the actual books at this point...i usually forget part of it by the test anyway cause im readin so much other stuff anyway so the sparknotes r a better bet anyway!!

And even if they ask more detailed questions: like he said what did so and so say or do when so and so did this - this part, for me anyway, is easy to BS if uve read the summaries because u know the characters by then, what they would PROBABLY do etc etc. And if ur not sure just be vauge and dance around the question throw some of ur own thoughts in there ie. "I felt the way this character handeled "this" situation was alright or what they said was understandable considering (based on what u KNOW about the characters) she wsa so in love with him, or b/c she hated him so much...hope ur following. I can go on for paragraphs like that if i have basic background let alone a summary with anaysis etc.

[mmbt0ne]

SparkNotes is for n00bs. Let me find you classic notes, that's where it's at.

http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/index.html

Both of your books are there.

[mmcd]

Unless it's a multiple choice quiz, a lot of it comes down to how good of a bullshitter you are. Back in college,for my Medieval Europe class, I had to write a book review for "A Documentary History of the Carolingian Dynasty". I didn't even read the thing and got a 100 on my book review. The professor said she hadn't given a grade of 100 in years. I rarely even went to the class. If there one thing that's more important than all else vis a vis grades in college, it's learning how to bullshit the professors and tell them what they want to hear. If you can do this, sparknotes or a very brief skim of the materials should be more than sufficient.

[edtost]

tests: depends on the prof, some design around it

bs'ing in discussions: absolutely. especially the analysis sections.