How to Take an Exam...and Remake the World

The author's subject may seem Machiavellian at first, don't let the title fool you. In the first chapter the author reveals the contract with his reader, you want exam hints and he wants to talk to you about Socialism. Before you finish you become more interested in the author's topic than the exam helps as Ollman presents the topic with humour and interesting facts. The cartoons inserted help keep the book lively and entertaining. It can be especially fun to use the author's game from chapter two when watching the news or a political speech.

This book offers practical help for taking any type of exam, and offers an arresting and insightful look at oneself and the world. Do not, under any circumstances, let this one pass you by.

this book has a lot of helpful advice on how to pass tests and get the most out of your education. the book also offers a critique of capitalism and explains marxism in an easy to understand way. the humor in the work goes a long way in illustrating the author's points. i gave the book four stars because i have a couple problems with it. the author seems to assume that the person reading it is a radical. "...radical students face a unique problem. it is not only that most teachers will disagree with the content of your answers, but they will have a lot of difficulty understanding what you have to say." (p.16) the whole book has this sort of tone, the facts that the author gives are given in such a way that the author almost expects the reader to have already known them. for this reason, more conservative minded students, most of us (even though we don't think we are), will probably put the book down after the first couple of pages and say that it's bs (but only the lefties probably buy this book anyway). and this brings me to my second complaint, for the most part the author does not give any citations for where he got his information. there is no bibliography or works cited page with detailed information of the author's sources; the most that is provided is something like (new york times, 1972). this leads me to believe that some of the information presented in the book could be made up by the author, i would say all except i already read about some of the stuff in other books that had detailed lists of sources that i checked on more than one occassion. and this goes against the author's message of not believing everything your teachers and your government tell you. even though the author says this it seems that he expects the reader to blindly believe him, so there's a little contradiction there, and perhaps some hypocrisy, but i'd attribute it more to the author being unaware of himself doing this. in all, it is a good read and taking the marxist propaganda aside, the exam tips are very helpful.

"How to Take an Exam..." is a guide to doing well on exams and in school hidden in a book expounding the role exams play in capitalism, a critique of just what's wrong with capitalism, and an easy introduction to Marxism without all the jargon. It's funny, helpful, full of lots of cartoons, and easy to read. A definite good read for those of us stuck being trained to take our place in capitalism.