Since I havent got a copy of Maya in front of me this may be a bit sketchy! I dont think Maya comes with a split tool that will do it automatically. IIRC there is a somesort of subdivide option but that may not be what your looking for. I have found MJPoly Tools great for auto splitting polygons, but since it's unlikely that the book assumes you have that plugin, so I would keep it in mind for future use rather than trying to force it into the work flow of the book. Apologise for a fuzzy info