<p>How do you guys study for English tests on books? Our teacher gives us either short responses or essays for our quizzes. Since my teachers hates online study guides (like Sparknotes) they are usually pretty specific. How do you guys study for these tests and for English tests in general?</p>
<p>How do you remember all of the little details and do well on questions about themes, character analyses, etc.? Thank you.</p>
<p>have you tried highlighting/taking notes? "be an involved reader."</p>
<p>Ya, all my english tests are like that - with quote IDs, analyses, short answer, essays (no MC :/)
I usually study the handouts/notes/highlighted stuff I have in my text...and if I have time, reread it for details lol.</p>
<p>So do you guys just buy your own books and then annotate them? What type of information do you write down?</p>
<p>^i don't get my own copies-- i either use post-it notes directly in the book or take notes in my notebook. the post-it thing is useful because if i know what major themes the teacher is likely to bring up, i tag specific examples that i'll probably want to know about; i can also flag important events in the story, etc.</p>
<p>I'm thinking about taking notes on my computer and add to them. Should I make summaries of each chapter also? ...or should I just read Sparknotes or something. I just don't know what method works best. I guess Sparknotes doesn't contain everything right?</p>
<p>Writing notes does suck a lot of time out of my hands... Is this how everyone does it?</p>
<p>I hate post its lol, so I write directly in my own copy of the book.
I don't take notes outside of class - except for maybe some plot-heavy book that I'd like to figure out how it goes....but usually the notes are from in-class discussions. Summaries only worked freshman year for me, since the questions we get aren't entirely plot-based (we might get a quote, then we have to provide context for the quote - speaker/place/time/what happened before and after - plus analysis)</p>
<p>Depends on you want to study for plot info, like I said, I personally skim the novel in a few hours, and I can remember most if not all plot that I need to know. For you, writing notes may be helpful, but only if you want to take the time to do so.</p>