"Guide to: Notebooks and Math" is the 4th episode of the 2nd season of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. It first aired on October 22, 2005.
Plot[]
Part 1: Notebooks[]
The episode starts when Ned Bigby in Mr. Sweeney's science class. During class, he doodles himself as a huge man holding a tiny Sweeney. Then, Mr. Sweeney tells Ned he isn't doing well in science class and shows him a golden notebook, which was written by a former A+ student named Sam Golden. Ned has Gordy help him "borrow" the golden notebook to study for his science test.
Cookie plans on recording his classes so he doesn't have to take notes and can sleep during class. However, he doesn't watch any of the tapes and is surprised by a test in Mr. Wright's class, which he didn't study for. He stops recording the classes and goes back to taking regular notes.
Moze loses her notebook and freaks out, but she finds it in the lost and found. While she's in the lost and found, she finds another notebook, only this one's full of notes written about various people, who are initially assumed to be Moze's classmates. When Moze shows everyone the notebook, the students claim the notes aren't true. The notebook has the initials S.C. on the front, which they assume stands for "Suzie Crabgrass," so they all form an angry mob (complete with pitchforks) and go to confront her. However, Moze sees something badly written about Suzie in the notebook, and upon further investigation, find a note about their school volleyball team making the playoffs (which hasn't happened in 10 years). Moze and Suzie and the other students deduce that the notebook must have been written in and lost by a former student years earlier who simply happened to have the same initials as Suzie. And when Moze even points out that names like "Suzie," "Billy" (Loomer's first name), "Jennifer" (Moze's first name), "Claire" and "Lisa" aren't exactly uncommon names, they also realize that the students talked about in the notebook were the former students classmates who just happen to have the same first names as they do, causing the mob to dissipate and go about their school day.
Ned successfully learns from the notebook and gets an A on Sweeney's test. When he returns the notebook, he is caught by Sweeney, who reveals that he wrote the notebook in order to trick some of his students into learning.
Tips[]
- Tip#760.5NT - Take neat, easy to read notes.
- Tip#764.6XO - Copy your notes in a second notebook.
Part 2: Math[]
Ned hates math, but Cookie and Moze love it. He decides to form a math group with the smartest kids in his class, Albert Wormenheimer and the Oboe twins, in order to pass math this year. But for him, this just means letting his group mates do all the work for him. Ned doesn't really do anything except come up with a name for their group and a signal.
Moze is learning pre-algebra in math but is confused by the sudden inclusion of letters in the math equations. Ned thinks Moze has math anxiety, but Moze doesn't believe him and is determined to love math no matter what. But it doesn't get easier for her, and she still doesn't understand anything.
Cookie is bumped up to a Grade 8 math class. However, his teacher, Professor Xavier, is scary and intimidating. He tries to make the word problems fun, but she doesn't let him. Later, she gives the class "math smocks", but Cookie is determined to make math fun, not just for him, but for the whole class.
During class, Mr. Dren asks Albert a question he doesn't know, and he asks Ned for help. Ned gives him the wrong answer, and upon realization that Ned has been using them, he and the Oboe twins quit the math group. Ned does all the work he missed to make it up to them and convinces them to return. Moze begins asking questions in class and understands the class a lot more as a result. Professor Xavier takes Cookie's advice and makes math class more fun.
Meanwhile, Gordy continues trying to catch the weasel, using ways from cartoons (like how Wile E. Coyote tries to catch the Road Runner). Moze and Cookie keep trying to tell him that he needs to use math in order to give his plans a real chance at working, but he stubbornly refuses, which causes his attempts to backfire and him to become injured and apparently "devolve" with every attempt. Eventually, by his last attempt (which ends with him crashing into a wheelbarrow of mud), he has taken on the appearance, personality, mannerisms, and speech of a prehistoric caveman, thus confirming Xavier's saying throughout the episode: "Without math, we are cavemen eating mud!"
Tips[]
- Tip#120.6BP - Be positive, believe in yourself.
- Tip#654.6Q - Ask questions right away, don't wait!
- Tip#512.86A - Study Group + Friends = Negative Math Anxiety.
Trivia[]
- The notebook entry that made Moze, Suzie and the other students realize that it was written years earlier was this: "I can't believe the wolves volleyball team made the playoffs."
- Suzie then claims that their school volleyball team hasn't made it to the playoffs in ten years, so whoever wrote in the notebook must have been a student at Polk at least ten years earlier.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Devon Werkheiser as Ned Bigby
- Lindsey Shaw as Moze
- Daniel Curtis Lee as Cookie
- Daran Norris as Gordy
Guest starring[]
- Charles Chun as Mr. Dren
- Don Creech as Mr. Sweeney
- Lusia Strus as Dr. Xavier
Co-starring[]
- Brooke Marie Bridges as Claire Sawyer
- Logan Browning as Vanessa
- Reccie Canon as Buzz Rodriguez
- Tylor Chase as Martin Qwerly
- Addison Hoover as Tracy Oboe
- Alex Hoover as Stacy Oboe
- Stephen Markarian as Albert Wormenheimer
- Matthew "Teo" Olivares as Jerry Crony
- Rob Pinkston as Coconut Head
- Christian Serratos as Suzie Crabgrass
- Rachel Sibner as Lisa Zemo
- Kyle Swann as Billy Loomer
Goofs[]
- When Ned puts the Golden Notebook back, the duplicate copy he put there is gone.
- During the scene where Ned was getting the Golden Notebook, if you look closely when he slams into the rack, you can see it fall down even before a part of his body could touch it.