Why are you doing this?

It's finals time, and intense studying is being conducted across campus. Being an English major, the material I have to learn is not so much facts and figures but thematic. I need to be able to understand trends in thought and relationships between writings that may span centuries.
Which I quite like.
My roommate, however, is not an English major, but she is in an American Literature course. In studying for her final, I noticed that she was reading the Cliffsnotes page for Emerson's "Self Reliance." Now, I'm not trying to bash people who use Cliffsnotes. I certainly frequented them in high school, and sometimes you need a starting point when approaching such an encompassing work. However, my question is, what really is your goal in taking this exam?
When I asked my roommate, her response was, "to get a goddamned A," and this probably isn't far from what most college students would say. To me, though, I would rather write something interesting and thoughtful rather than something my TA will be 95% sure I plaigarised from Cliffsnotes.
I realize that because I am an English major my goals in this area might be a bit highbrow, but I can't help but think that if you've invested the time and money to come to a university and take a course that requires you to write, shouldn't you want to do it well? Resorting to Cliffsnotes at the end of the semester says to me that you really haven't gained anything from the class at all.