Spark Notes or York Notes

2

Both really, spark notes are free. Buy or borrow the York Notes from a library.

Reply 2

kellywood_5

17

Personally I preferred York Notes, but since Spark Notes are free anyway, you might as well use both.

Reply 3

13

I prefer York Notes personally.

Reply 4

OP

14

Can anyone tell me the sort of general layout to York Notes?

Thanks :smile:

Reply 5

2

lil_groovy_dude

Can anyone tell me the sort of general layout to York Notes?

Thanks :smile:

They will usually start off with a small section about the author (that you can ignore), then they tell you about the setting, etc. They get go into a scene by scence or Chapter by Chapter analysis of the novel. This is usually very detailed. Then there is another section on the characters involved. Then they will talk about themes/ideas/imagery/language.

There are usually Checkpoint questions to test your knowledge and at the end they have a few pages to help you out with coursework.

Reply 6

2

Anyway, if I were you I would use Brodie's Notes. These really helped me during GCSE English Literature.

Reply 7

OP

14

Brodies notes?

I might look into that Cat ... thanks :smile:

Reply 8

Lykabelle

12

Don't think I used york notes but anyway spark notes was quite good:

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mocking/

Reply 9

13

I'm doing ASs so this is for the advanced York Notes (Using my 'A Streetcar Named Desire One for an example) but here's the contents:

Introduction:
How to study a play
Reading 'A Streetcar Named Desire'

The Text:
Note on the text
Synopsis
Chapter/Scene summaries
Extented commentaries

Critical Approaches:
Characterisation
Themes
Dramatic Techniques
Language and Style
Imagery and symbolism

Critical History:
Early Reception
Later revivals

Background:
Tennessee Williams (About the author - which you CAN'T ignore, as according to Cataclysm, this will gain you marks for context and generally help you understand the text in more depth)
Historial Background
Literary Background
Chronology

Further Reading
Literary Terms
Author of York Notes

And on each page there are general practice questions, ideas to think about, context points, further reading on the topics mentioned etc.

Hope that helps. :smile:

Reply 10

OP

14

Thank you so much Vicky :biggrin:

You'll be recieving reppage tomorrow :smile:

Reply 11

2

lil_groovy_dude

Brodies notes?

I might look into that Cat ... thanks :smile:

Yeah, they're very good, they analyse the text in a lot of detail and have detailed synopsis of each chapter/scene. There are sections on Characters (detailed) as well, imagery/themes, etc.

I had York Notes for Mice and Men (from school) and Brodie's Notes, I preferred the latter, no diagrams or any of that nonsense, they're old (more than a decade) but very good!

Reply 12

2

Vicky88

I'm doing ASs

Background:
Tennessee Williams (About the author - which you CAN'T ignore, as according to Cataclysm, this will gain you marks for context and generally help you understand the text in more depth)

AS level - yes, you can't ignore them. But, this for GCSE, I'm talking about that small section in the beginning that tells you about the life of the author like how John Steinbeck had books read to him from an early life by his mother or how he was lazy at school (at GCSE I really doubt they would expect you to know a great deal about the author, it is more about the novel [is it not?] than the author at hand). Yes do read them, but they are not the main point of focus (that is why in large part I said you can ignore them). If anything, glance over them as the novel you study will have the same information at the beginning if you're using the educational models, so why read the same thing over and over?

Isn't focusing more on the Cultural Context/Historical Timeline more important than knowing about the author? Don't get me wrong, every person to their own, but I found that section rather useless for GCSE. I remember that the first two/three pages were how Steinbeck went to school, blah blah and when he wrote certain books {I meant, ignore this part}.

More time can be spent studying the characters and themes. I haven't seen the advanced York Notes in which they focus on the author for AS level because that requires a closer understanding of a novel/play than GCSE.

Alright, this came out rather long, in short l_g_d, just read whatever you feel is important but the structure that vicky88 has posted is not the same for GCSE, it goes more like:

Introduction (How to study a novel, author and context, setting and background, map of the ranch [this is just for Of Mice and Men], timeline)

Then the summaries for each chapter in detail and there is also a general summary.

Commentary on themes/structure/characters/language and style

Then Resources, how to use quotations, coursework essay, sitting the exam, improve your grade, sample essay plan and further questions

Explanation of Literary terms, answers to short questions.

Reply 13

13

lil_groovy_dude

Thank you so much Vicky :biggrin:

You'll be recieving reppage tomorrow :smile:

No problem. :smile:

Reply 14

brimstone

7

lil_groovy_dude

Brodies notes?

I might look into that Cat ... thanks :smile:

Yes, go for Brody's notes ... :wink:

Seriously, York Notes are very detailed and good for aiming for a top grade. I did TKAM for GCSE too ( :frown:

). Any help needed, I'm here :p:

Reply 15

13

Cataclysm

AS level - yes, you can't ignore them. But, this for GCSE, I'm talking about that small section in the beginning that tells you about the life of the author like how John Steinbeck had books read to him from an early life by his mother or how he was lazy at school (at GCSE I really doubt they would expect you to know a great deal about the author, it is more about the novel [is it not?] than the author at hand). Yes do read them, but they are not the main point of focus (that is why in large part I said you can ignore them). If anything, glance over them as the novel you study will have the same information at the beginning if you're using the educational models, so why read the same thing over and over?

Isn't focusing more on the Cultural Context/Historical Timeline more important than knowing about the author? Don't get me wrong, every person to their own, but I found that section rather useless for GCSE. I remember that the first two/three pages were how Steinbeck went to school, blah blah and when he wrote certain books {I meant, ignore this part}.

More time can be spent studying the characters and themes. I haven't seen the advanced York Notes in which they focus on the author for AS level because that requires a closer understanding of a novel/play than GCSE.

Alright, this came out rather long, in short l_g_d, just read whatever you feel is important but the structure that vicky88 has posted is not the same for GCSE, it goes more like:

Introduction (How to study a novel, author and context, setting and background, map of the ranch [this is just for Of Mice and Men], timeline)

Then the summaries for each chapter in detail and there is also a general summary.

Commentary on themes/structure/characters/language and style

Then Resources, how to use quotations, coursework essay, sitting the exam, improve your grade, sample essay plan and further questions

Explanation of Literary terms, answers to short questions.

I'm not saying that you have to write masses and masses of biographical context, but it can't hurt to know a bit about the author and why the text was written. When I did my GCSE Lord of the Flies exam, we had to find out about William Golding and how the current issues of the time affected him and his writing.

And I know the structure isn't the same for the GCSE York Notes which is why I made it clear to the OP that I was using an AS version for example. However, what you listed is pretty much what I said. :s-smilie:

Reply 16

2

Vicky88

I'm not saying that you have to write masses and masses of biographical context, but it can't hurt to know a bit about the author and why the text was written. When I did my GCSE Lord of the Flies exam, we had to find out about William Golding and how the current issues of the time affected him and his writing.

And I know the structure isn't the same for the GCSE York Notes which is why I made it clear to the OP that I was using an AS version for example. However, what you listed is pretty much what I said. :s-smilie:

Yeah, that is true, I do agree with you there :wink:

Also, you mentioned Lord of the Flies and that is a great book so I won't give you no more trouble :p:

Reply 17

OP

14

brimstone

Yes, go for Brody's notes ... :wink:

Seriously, York Notes are very detailed and good for aiming for a top grade. I did TKAM for GCSE too ( :frown:

). Any help needed, I'm here :p:

thanks alfie :hugs:

Reply 18

Excalibur

15

First yay for you doing the best GCSE text ever :biggrin:

Every person in our English class loved To Kill a Mockingbird, even those who hate reading. If you need any help, I'll be here - I still have my extensive notes from GCSE somewhere in my room :wink:

Anyways, I never used Sparknotes for my revision... too, I don't know, advanced maybe? I used a lot of other internet sights though; I used Gradesaver quite frequently.

York Notes - overall ok but not the best one imo. The commentaries were quite useless frankly; there was just a retelling of the storyline with little in-depth analysis that would be helpful (although there are a few key phrases and words that you can borrow :wink:

). The theme analysis at the back of the book was the most helpful & useful part.

I also bought Brodie's Notes. These were quite good but it's mostly just writing lol :p:

And quite old. Tbh, they do look really good but it was too boring and too technical for me so I gave up on them... (but still came out with an A* overall, so meh :p:

) They may still be worth having.

I also used Letts Notes for An Inspector Calls, which was my favourite revision notes for AIC so I presume the Letts notes for TKAM is quite good too. Those have little in terms of theme analysis (its drawback) but its commentary are pretty good. Most of my sophisticated & flashy phrases in my Lit exam were 'borrowed' from Letts notes :p:

Reply 19