Things You'll Need:
- To Create a User Name & Password (if you wish to download summaries)
- A Free Online Highlighting Application (optional)
- Content-Clipping Widget (optional)
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Step 1
Choose where you want to find your free book summary. Three terrific internet sites host free book summaries, as well as a rich array of other study materials: A.) Spark Notes Online, B.) Cliff Notes Online & C.) a site similar to the other two called Pink Monkey. These are excellent places to begin your search for test prep materials, even if you are studying for an exam in American History, biochemistry or accounting principles.
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Step 2
Make sure that a book summary exists for the book you have been assigned. One of the most foolish test prep mistakes you can make is to wait until the last minute to begin your research, only to find that no study materials are even available to meet your needs. While Spark Notes and Cliff Notes have been written for almost every book you will be assigned in your academic career, sometimes professors throw you a curve ball and assign a book that has never been read by anyone but scholars or critics. Unfortunately, you will need to either explore this book on your own or arrange to meet with a reading group.
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Step 3
Use the book summary as a blueprint rather than as a replacement for your book. Both Cliff Notes & Spark Notes have been designed for use as test prep tools, not as cheat sheets. The website for Cliff Notes emphasizes that the notes it hosts "aren't rigid dogma meant to discourage your intellectual exploration." Similarly, the website for Spark Notes emphasizes that its book summaries are study materials meant "to supplement your understanding of great works of literature." If you use these summaries wisely, you can pinpoint a book's most decisive passages with ease.
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Step 4
Put your imagination to use when reading from the book summary. Just as a map helps you to anticipate what's waiting on the road ahead, this test prep guide can help you figure out what sort of patterns to look for in the book you're reading. However, if you use Spark Notes or Cliff Notes, you should not forget to also use your imagination. One thing that book notes lack is subtlety of presentation. These study materials give you heavy doses of information, and you must digest this information in order to extract value from it. Rather than to establish a character over the span of 7 or 8 pages, these summaries will often provide a thumbnail sketch of the character in a paragraph, leaving you with the chore of figuring out why this character is so essential to the story.
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Step 5
Highlight portions of the book summary that are pertinent to your test. Highlighting is easy to do on paper, but if you're using an online version of Spark Notes or Cliff Notes, you may not be sure of how to highlight these notes other than printing them out and marking them up the old-fashioned way. Fortunately, certain free online applications exist that can facilitate your test prep needs. Online highlighting & content-clipping programs are available (listed in the resources below) to help you make better sense of your study materials.
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Step 6
Double check your comprehension of essential information included in the book summary. When you are using Spark Notes or Cliff Notes, you must be sure not confuse the names of characters or let your mind get muddled about key plot points. This is an easy mistake to make if you abuse these study materials by cramming with them just hours before your exam. Always remember, book summaries are intended to be used as test prep tools rather than as replacements for the books themselves. Otherwise, your instructor would be assigning you to read the book summary instead of the book.
