Okay, of all of the English teachers I have ever had in college, they have all warned me against using Cliff Notes. Yes, that is right, teachers know about Cliff Notes too, in fact, they informed me that they read the Cliff Notes for the book and base test questions on information not covered in Cliff Notes on purpose. Surely (or at least I thought) with a Cliff Notes based only on one subject that is mostly formulas would be impossible for a teacher to use against you. Well, I was right, instead of my teacher vs. me and Cliff Notes, it was me vs. Cliff Notes.
Why fail me when I needed you most?
With three weeks until my final exams, I knew I needed all of the help I could get in Calculus. I went to every single class, took notes, did the homework, and it all seemed to make sense until we were tested. Once my teacher would hand out a Calculus test, I would draw a complete blank and wonder “Have I been sitting in on the wrong classes?”. Nope, I do not think that was the case because I would always see the same people taking the tests who I would see in the regular class. With three weeks being too close to hire a tutor and needing desperate help, I ran (well drove) to the closest book store and bought a copy of Cliff Notes for Calculus. I assure you that I did not think that this book alone was going to help me pass my exam; I thought it would be a good supplement to the textbook and my notes. That very night I started to go over some of the homework problems I did not fully understand and searched through the Cliff Notes book for concepts I did not fully understand from what the book said. I can honestly say that I did not find one sentence, phrase, or page in that book that helped me or even related to what I needed help with. The crazy ramble in the textbook started to seem like a “Dick and Jane” book from elementary school, who would have thought that the Cliff Notes book that I had bought would hurt (I focused too much and definitely lost crucial brain mass trying to make heads or tails of this book) instead of help me.
The Verdict
I could probably do a better job explaining Calculus to you than this book (even though I got D). It is completely worthless, well not completely, I guess if you had a wobbly leg on your kitchen table it could help fix that for you. I can understand the phrase “You’re only cheating yourself here baby” when it comes to using Cliff Notes about books (because you are missing out on some important cultural lessons), but who would have thought it would apply to subject-based Cliff Notes too? No matter how desperate you are for help in Calculus, do not buy this book, it is one of the biggest wastes of $10 I have ever seen (thank God they let me return the stupid thing). I would hire a smart little gnome to sit under my chair and help me out during the test before I would ever try to buy another Cliff Notes book to help me out in school.
