<p>We had a test on Grendel and Beowulf today for honors brit lit. I only read 2 chapters and then went on Sparknotes. The thing is, I didn't read the Sparknotes, I just took the Sparknotes quiz on Grendel. The test was 30 questions and the sparknotes quiz was 25 questions. All 25 sparknotes quiz questions were on our test plus 5 about vocabulary crap. So...I got all of those right without reading!! The class thought it was really hard but when I saw the questions I just started smiling because I have always done the Sparknotes quizzes just to check my understanding. This is the first time I've actually had a teacher who used that quiz for a class test. Everyone in the class is oblivious about it too. Let's put it this way...I took the Grendel test on Sparknotes and got a 64. That's what I would have gotten had I not checked Sparknotes first. So, yeah, I hope this is where all of our tests come from</p>
<p>Haha. The irony.</p>
<p>I wish my english teacher would do that.</p>
<p>Haha. My English teacher reads Sparknotes to make sure he doesn't ask anything that they ask.</p>
<p>logistics...your teacher is lazy lol XD</p>
<p>My English teacher tests on really specific details. For example, she would list exact quotes from plays and make us list the speaker, person spoken to, and the significance of the quote. If the test was on a novel, it would be on those little details that Sparknotes doesn't discuss.</p>
<p>Yeah, shaddix that's what the other Honors Brit Lit teacher does for her tests. The Sparknotes questions can be specific so it would be hard if I didn't pre-take the test for my answers.</p>
<p>Some teachers give quizzes like that to find out who reads Sparknotes. Be warned.</p>
<p>A lot of teachers do that... my history teacher gives quizzes right from the glencoe (USH Bailey book) website. It's really funny that he doesn't notice yet.</p>
<p>I didn't realize teachers went straight from the book. My teachers are really adamant about students "demonstrating their own ideas,opinions,knowledge" so usually the tests are really specific (english)-either you know the answer or you don't. Another thing is that we don't discuss the book at all until we have taken the test on it. Other options are that a teacher just gives a different test to each class (history or math).</p>
<p>That is rotten of you (and stupid of your teacher)! :)</p>
<p>But, honestly, I read Beowulf about three years ago and found it quite enjoyable. Of course, that could have been because it isn't a very long poem.</p>
<p>I don't think it was rotten. I love math and science and put all my effort into that. Why expend pointless effort in a class like lit when I don't have to. Also even if it were her giving a test to see who uses sparknotes, it's not like you couldn't get the answers from reading.</p>
<p>Our science teacher used to give us the answer key to the test as a study guide. I miss those days.</p>
<p>The AP Chemistry teacher gave out the final beforhand for a class period so that people could look at it and take notes on it...until someone ran out with the test, copied 15 copies (so that one student would not have it), and then distributed it among the class. The teacher was called in and nearly fired; as a result he does not do that anymore.
My English teacher just gives quizzes from her notes and very specific things, so Sparknotes does not help anywhere except on the final, when these guides become very useful in studying a book quickly and memorizing enough to put it in an essay.</p>
<p>My history teacher gave long fill in the blank quizzes around the end of the year. Since they were pretty big, he would put them on the internet the night before. I would proceed to fill it out and then host the completed version on the internet for my classmates to download.</p>
<p>One time, I didn't know an answer, so I put "pandas" in the blank. Turns out people trusted the completed version so much that about 60 people actually put "pandas" on the quiz. (I put down the correct answer when I found it out.)</p>
<p>my teacher gives us old AP questions (with year and number on them) so if i am unsure, i can always double check by looking on the internet :), they are worth about 1% of our grade so i dont feel guilty about it</p>
<p>My AP World history teacher gives test questions from the student book help site. The first 20 he has been using since he first became a teacher, and the last 20 are straight from the site. It is rediculously easy; and its AP! So much easier than my APUSH class; lots of homework, had an A but made a C on a test and my final grade was 89.4 and she wouldn't give me 1/10 of a point. We don't get along.</p>
<p>HEY! That happened to me when I read The Jungle, The Color Purple, and The Bell Jar. We had a cumulative summer reading test at the beginning of this year. I took all three Sparknotes quizzes, and they ended up as questions on the real thing. It was great. =)</p>
<p>Too bad the quizzes we have now are the fill in the blank ones, where you have to know specific details... eh.</p>
<p>I don't understand what's so wrong about sparknotes. If you read the book, then read spearknotes to help you, I don't see the problem.</p>
<p>All of my english quizes on books are mainly interpretation, my teacher rarely asks details...whcih I think is better becuase there really is no point in just regurgitating the story in a quiz ( I wish my spanish teacher would take up this type of quizzes).</p>
<p>megaman: Same here. All our English tests (when we have them, which is rarely) are either analytical essays or passage commentaries.</p>