Half her class does homework from guide books. Do we buy one for our 12 year old?

Our daughter came home asking for a guide book for science and social. According to her, most of the class uses one, the answers in the guides match what the teacher wants in the notebook, and she's the only one still writing answers from the textbook in her own words, which takes her twice as long. I can see her point. Her notebook answers are sometimes marked down for missing 'key words' that the guides have. But I also think writing the answer herself is the only part of that homework where she is thinking. We haven't decided. If your child used guides in middle school, was it useful, or did the copying take over?