The Student Room Group

York Notes

Are they really that good? I mean is it just as manageable to get an A without using them? A friend of mine copied an entire essay from the back of hers and only got 60% (a C i think).
I'm doing Translations by Brian Friel and The Merchant's Tale, Chaucer. I have a mock on Tuesday, went looking for the York Notes today and couldn't find either.
Reply 1
young_free
Are they really that good? I mean is it just as manageable to get an A without using them? A friend of mine copied an entire essay from the back of hers and only got 60% (a C i think).
I'm doing Translations by Brian Friel and The Merchant's Tale, Chaucer. I have a mock on Tuesday, went looking for the York Notes today and couldn't find either.

apparently york notes are the spawn of satan. use collins or letts
Reply 2
http://www.mystudyguide.co.uk/york.html

look at the link,

ive just ordered a york advanced notes for Frankenstein. they can be good books, but good internet searches are also useful, you will good info that way too.
I recently brought York Notes Advanced for Othello - it's very dissapointing, nothing new simply telling me everything i know already :frown:
young_free
Are they really that good? I mean is it just as manageable to get an A without using them? A friend of mine copied an entire essay from the back of hers and only got 60% (a C i think).
I'm doing Translations by Brian Friel and The Merchant's Tale, Chaucer. I have a mock on Tuesday, went looking for the York Notes today and couldn't find either.


are you doing lit or lang/lit?

im doing translations too but on the lang/lit course. i find york notes really hard to work with but that's partly because of their style and partly beause the notes are geared more towards the literature side of it (thouhg that is 50% relevant)
there's a book by Nesta Jones, I can't remember what it's called but my teacher has it and it has some good points made.
Reply 5
young_free
Are they really that good? I mean is it just as manageable to get an A without using them? A friend of mine copied an entire essay from the back of hers and only got 60% (a C i think).
I'm doing Translations by Brian Friel and The Merchant's Tale, Chaucer. I have a mock on Tuesday, went looking for the York Notes today and couldn't find either.


I have the York Notes and personally I disagree with a lot of what's said in them. It really annoys me when people get good grades for essays having just copied stuff out of the York Notes without a thought of their own :mad:
Eeyore
I have the York Notes and personally I disagree with a lot of what's said in them. It really annoys me when people get good grades for essays having just copied stuff out of the York Notes without a thought of their own :mad:


Is it possible to copy directly from them? Our English teachers have various study guides - therfore making it impossible for anyone to do so.

p.s Waterstones usually have most studyguides including York notes.
Reply 7
young_free
Are they really that good? I mean is it just as manageable to get an A without using them? A friend of mine copied an entire essay from the back of hers and only got 60% (a C i think).
I'm doing Translations by Brian Friel and The Merchant's Tale, Chaucer. I have a mock on Tuesday, went looking for the York Notes today and couldn't find either.


if you combine york notes and internet research, you can get an a even if you are average at english
Reply 8
waiting2smile
Is it possible to copy directly from them? Our English teachers have various study guides - therfore making it impossible for anyone to do so.


My English teacher has the notes I think, but i don't think he can look at them very much cos when someone quotes something directly from them he thinks they're being clever :mad: :mad:
Reply 9
If someone copies word for word, then I don't see why they would expect anything above a C. It would be soo obvious to a teacher!!

York notes are all written by different people so some are good and others are not so good. I have seen some useless ones that have made up bizarre stuff to make them sound clever - but have also seen some really useful ones. I think that the summaries are good when first looking at a new play that might otherwise be a bit confusing.

Spark notes are good too. They are free and online so that's handy.

It's entirely possible to get an A without the help of York notes and to be honest I think that the main merit of such study guides is for early on when you might need some help clarifying things about plot and character.
fionah

Spark notes are good too. They are free and online so that's handy.



i love Sparknotes too :smile:
Reply 11
deary_ma_leary
are you doing lit or lang/lit?

im doing translations too but on the lang/lit course. i find york notes really hard to work with but that's partly because of their style and partly beause the notes are geared more towards the literature side of it (thouhg that is 50% relevant)
there's a book by Nesta Jones, I can't remember what it's called but my teacher has it and it has some good points made.



Yes I'm doing it on the lang/lit course. Just out of curiousity, what do you think of the story, is it over rated?
Oh and i'm going to have to do the mock without the help of them anyway, i'll get them for the real exam.
Reply 12
The Advanced series is wonderful at stating the obvious.
Reply 13
waiting2smile
i love Sparknotes too :smile:


But do they have spark notes on Translations, it's a fairly new book in terms of coming onto the education scene.
young_free
Yes I'm doing it on the lang/lit course. Just out of curiousity, what do you think of the story, is it over rated?
Oh and i'm going to have to do the mock without the help of them anyway, i'll get them for the real exam.


i really like the play. i didnt know it was highly rated let alone over rated :smile: why? do you not like it. there was an artice i found which i havent actually read but i'll give you the web ad: http://www.qub.ac.uk/en/imperial/ireland/trans.htm dearyxxx
here's another bit of info i found. i went o google.co.uk and searched 'translations friel notes' - that's what i do for most of my texts.

http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Friel.html

dearyxxx

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