<p>Llast year, in my ap english class of about 34 people, seriously, about 5 people read a single chapter of the books that we were covering in class. And this is supposed to be one of the best public schools in the country. We're all pretty lazy i guess and for some reason the people who just read sparknotes often do better on the reading comprehension quizzes and tests than the ones how read the entire book. </p>
<p>Another instance, we had a 7-10 page research paper on east of eden. Many people in the class, me included, read the sparknotes for the book, came up with a topic, bs'ed some sources that we prolly didn't even use, and wrote the paper in one night. (I was up till 4, but i only started at 7 pm cuz, i took a long afternoon nap and then spent a couple of hours on aim complaining about the paper we had to write) And this isn't just a few people, half of our 1st period class was "sick" in the morning but got healthy enough to come back to school to turn in the paper at the 2:30 deadline.</p>
<p>Is this an isolated trend or are the smartest people in other schools this lazy?</p>
<p>lol. there are a select few at my school that actually read, do the essay w/o procrastinating, etc. but the majority do sparknotes, get "sick", etc. i'm guilty of that also - but only when i'm exhausted and have other things to do. like my huck finn essay, i bsed it in 2 hrs b/c i was so exhausted from ap physics mech final and chem final... hey, i got a 88! :D lol. my teacher wouldn't have given me lower anyways, she's too nice. </p>
<p>nice...i only got an 83 on that east of eden paper becuase i somehow got confused reading sparknotes and wrote my paper on how the most evil character in the novel, Cathy, was a good influence on Adam Trask, the protaganist. My teacher actually made a comment on my paper along the lines of "You have done one of the best jobs i have ever seen of argueing a blatantly false thesis, and if you had really read the book I am sure you would have realized that Lee is a man and was never wed to Adam."</p>
<p>I generally read assigned books because I like to read, and I enjoyed Ethan From and The Crucible. If I don't like the book, I just skim through it. My English class pretty much sat in a circle and discussed what we were reading, and as I like to talk a lot, I had to read the book so I could participate. ;) I never did my American readings though, and would skim the chapters in the book we had to read for Human Geography while we were discussing it.</p>
<p>In my AP World class last year we used to have a paper every quarter. On the day the paper was due half my class would be absent.</p>
<p>This year's AP World class had a reading about silver in China (or something like that). 3 out of 25 people read it. And the FRQ on the World AP? Silver in China.</p>
<p>Our school doesn't do summer reading because they know we wouldn't do it! No, that's probably not the reason, but it's good enough for me! But a friends school does summer reading & yes they do procrastinate to that last minute if they're actually going to do it. I think the reading load is lighter this year 'cause last her nose was in the book 24/7 & this year I haven't seen her with an assigned book once! (unless the assignment is book of your choice, which in that case she has been reading a lot)</p>
<p>I always read everything that's assigned. I just don't like sparknoting. I'm one of the few people who's never sparknoted a book we had to read for a class. I guess it's because I like to read and to know exactly what's going (without having to rely on a website to give me its condensed version).</p>
<p>I read the English assignments this year, because I liked everything we read until we read Their Eyes Were Watching God. I just ended up not caring and read sparknotes to study for the final.</p>
<p>However, it is really comical seeing eight freshmen bond around a computer with sparknotes giving them the high points to Jane Eyre. A bunch of people did that before our test on it in the first month and almost all of us came out with 100%.</p>
<p>I've read every book assigned to me. For the past two years, I've had teachers that would brutally kick students out of class who didn't know what they're talking about in discussion and then give them C's on their papers. So I read, and was never kicked out.</p>
<p>I read summer assignment books only because we have a number of tests and reports on them when we get back to school. Not to mention, the books that we have to read for US history aren't on sparknotes. :( There's no way you could do well on all of the reports/tests without reading the books. MAYBE you could do well on some of them, but not all. I also have to watch 5 movies.</p>
<p>For social studies classes, instead of reading the textbook we go to the textbook's website and read the outlines on there during lunch. And you can't say that we're not learning the information because we generally get A's on the tests and alot of us get 5's on the ap exam.</p>
<p>For the majority of tests, Sparknotes is quality, and should get you through all right (though I generally read the book neway, just because I can read fairly quickly, and I enjoy it). </p>
<p>I can't imagine trying to BS an essay off sparknotes, however.</p>
<p>our teacher realized that 3/4 of the class uses sparknotes so she goes and reads them now and if there's anything from sparknotes in your essay, she takes it, rips it up, and gives you a zero. no rewrite. she's very anal about things like that though.</p>
<p>I always read books. I'm too chicken not to. I started reading Sparknotes too after I found out my English teacher pulled our A Separate Peace test word for word off of it. It's kicked me in the @ss once, though. We were reading the abridged edition of Les Miserables, and I finished it in one night, which I always do to save time (so I don't get swamped with reading on a busy night when I need the extra time). The day before each section's test, I would read the condensed version off Sparknotes to refreash my memory. Anyways, the scene where Marius gets the gun or whatever from Javert wasn't in our abridged version, but it was on Sparknotes. There was a true/false question that described that very scene, and I put true. Got it wrong :( Sucks.</p>