Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This is the ultimate guide to study skills, written by million copy bestselling author Stella Cottrell. Her tried and tested approach, based on over 20 years' experience of working with students, has helped over a million students to achieve their potential.

When it comes to studying, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. This engaging and accessible guide shows students how to tailor their learning to their individual needs in order to boost their grades, build their confidence and increase their employability. Fully revised for the sixth edition, it contains everything students need to succeed.

This is an invaluable resource for undergraduate students of all disciplines, and is also ideal for postgraduates, mature students and international students. It prepares students for what to expect before, during and after their studies at university.

New content in this edition helps students make the most of online learning, with a new self-evaluation page and more on working collaboratively online. This edition includes support tailored for students on hybrid, asynchronous or distance learning courses as well as more material on building study stamina and improving concentration.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword (viii)
• Acknowledgements (ix)
• Introducing The Study Skills Handbook (1)
• Is this book for you? (1)
• How to use The Study Skills Handbook (2)
• Icons used in the book (2)
• Where to begin, Seven approaches to learning (4)
• A new beginning … (6)
• Companion site for The Study Skills Handbook (6)
• A Self-efficacy: managing your success as a student (7)
• 1 Success as a student: take charge of your success (9)
• Introduction (9)
• Make the experience work for you (10)
• Clarity of purpose: your vision of success (11)
• Success as a student: where am I now? (12)
• Success as a student: what lecturers say (14)
• What to expect in Higher Education: teaching (15)
• How is higher-level study different? (16)
• Understanding higher-level study (17)
• Independent study: benefits, challenges, risks (18)
• What is expected from you? (19)
• What kind of study skills do you need? (20)
• Self-efficacy skills: managing yourself for study (21)
• Academic skills (22)
• People skills and task-management skills (23)
• Developing your skills (24)
• Study skills: priorities (stages 1 and 2) (25)
• Study skills action plan (27)
• Review (28)
• 2 Gaining the most from your course: Engage. Enjoy. Excel. (29)
• Introduction (29)
• Ten golden rules (30)
• Effective use of tutorials/supervision (31)
• Be well informed: find out … (32)
• Engage with technology-enhanced learning (34)
• Gain from scheduled learning: purpose and value (35)
• 'Flip your learning': preparing in advance (36)
• Engaging in taught sessions (37)
• Practicals, studio and lab work (38)
• Distance and block learning (39)
• Self-evaluation: Making good use of taught sessions (40)
• Engage fully with your course outside class time (41)
• Use recorded lectures effectively (42)
• Checklist: Managing independent and online study (43)
• Making sense of difficult material (44)
• Make course material your own (46)
• Get under the skin of your subject disciplines (47)
• Review (48)
• 3 Employability and preparing for your future (49)
• Introduction (49)
• Planning towards your future (50)
• Your personal development so far (51)
• Developing work and career readiness (52)
• Recognizing your skills and qualities (54)
• Your personal skills profile (55)
• Skills audit: current skills and qualities (56)
• Preparing for work with employers (57)
• Articulate your abilities to employers (58)
• Translate academic skills into employment skills (59)
• Building your CV while a student (60)
• Recording your achievements (61)
• Taking further qualifications and training (62)
• Enterprise and self-employment (63)
• Review (64)
• 4 Successful study: Boost your brain; build study stamina; personalize study strategy (65)
• Introduction (65)
• Am I intelligent enough? (66)
• What is learning? (67)
• Six conditions for learning (68)
• 'My brain won't work!': boost your brain power (70)
• Build your study stamina and improve concentration (72)
• Optimal learning (74)
• What kind of learner am I? Learning SHAPES (76)
• Identify your personal learning formula (78)
• Your learning preferences (80)
• Develop your personal learning strategy (81)
• Personalize learning - using technologies (82)
• Study strategy - individual or social? (85)
• Review (86)
• 5 The C-R-E-A-M strategy for learning (87)
• Introduction (87)
• Finding your creative streak (88)
• Be a professor - and other ideas (89)
• Creative learning (90)
• Creative problem-solving (91)
• Reflective learning (96)
• How we!! am I doing? (97)
• Reflective learning journals (98)
• Effective rather than 'virtuous' study (99)
• Checklist: effective study: be well organized for study (101)
• Effective online learning (102)
• Use technologies effectively (104)
• Effective management of grades and personal performance (105)
• Combining work and study effectively (106)
• Effective management of work-based projects (107)
• Effective management of study leave (108)
• Active learning (109)
• Active learning strategies (110)
• Motivation (111)
• Strategies for staying motivated (112)
• Use your vision and goals to guide study strategy (114)
• Achieving my goals (116)
• Formulate a realistic, motivating action plan (117)
• Motivation: managing the challenge (118)
• Integrating C-R-E-A-M strategies into study (119)
• Review (120)
• 6 Time management as a student (121)
• Introduction (121)
• How well do i manage my time now? (122)
• Why time management matters (123)
• Ten steps to effective time management (124)
• How much study time is required? (126)
• Map and monitor your use of study time (127)
• Expected average weekly study requirements (128)
• What students say (129)
• Monitor use of independent study time (130)
• Time circles: Where does al; my time go? (131)
• Set your priorities (134)
• Effective planning and diary-keeping (135)
• Make your planner work for you (136)
• Make great checklists and 'To do' lists (137)
• Assignments: plan backwards from deadlines (138)
• Use study blocks and breaks effectively (139)
• Apply varied time management techniques (140)
• Apply time management techniques: online study (141)
• Ten time-saving strategies (142)
• Manage procrastination and distraction (143)
• Getting down to study (144)
• Staying on task (145)
• Identifying and managing distractions (146)
• Activate your time management strategies (147)
• Review (148)
• 7 Managing well-being and stress (149)
• Introduction (149)
• Acknowledging your worries and anxieties (150)
• Manage anxiety (151)
• Staying the course: commit to completing (152)
• Achieving key 'milestones' (153)
• Surviving the first day and first week (154)
• Managing the first few weeks (155)
• Nurture your well-being (156)
• Digital you: safety, security and well-being (157)
• How do other students manage? (158)
• Resilience as a student (160)
• Dealing with stress (162)
• Strategies for managing stress and well-being (163)
• Stay social to boost well-being and study (166)
• Enjoy some cairn time (167)
• Review (168)
• B Academic, people and task-management skills (169)
• 8 Working with ethers: collaborative and social study (171)
• Introduction (171)
• Studying collaboratively (172)
• Collaborative working: what students say (173)
• Studying with other people (174)
• Collaborative study online (175)
• Digital social learning (176)
• Netiquette for online study and communication (178)
• Making a group work (179)
• Being effective in group discussion (181)
• Speaking and listening skills (182)
• Speaking up (183)
• Dealing with difficult moments in the group (184)
• Giving and receiving feedback and criticism (185)
• Being fair to everyone in the group (186)
• Study groups (187)
• Sharing work without cheating (188)
• Communicating as a group (189)
• How well do I contribute to seminars and groups? (190)
• Group projects (191)
• Managing group projects (192)
• Making presentations and giving talks (193)
• Preparing your talk (194)
• Be aware of your audience (195)
• Practising and evaluating your presentation (196)
• Assessing whether your presentation is ready (197)
• Giving your talk (198)
• How effective am I at talks and presentations? (199)
• Working with others: Review (200)
• 9 Developing cultural competence: Learning in diverse and international contexts (201)
• Introduction (201)
• Cultural competence: What can I do? (202)
• Self-evaluation: cultural competence (203)
• Challenges and opportunities for study, work, life (204)
• Personal benefits of intercultural awareness (205)
• Making, and not making, cultural assumptions (206)
• Dimensions of difference - and similarity (207)
• Appreciating different cultures and languages (208)
• Being part of a welcoming, inclusive group (209)
• How different are the ways we do things? (210)
• How different are our experiences of study? (211)
• Effective intercultural groupwork (212)
• Capture the intercultural learning (213)
• Different styles of communicating (214)
• Case studies (215)
• Review (216)
• 10 Effective reading and note-making (217)
• Introduction (217)
• Identifying and selecting relevant material when reading (218)
• Am I a smart reader? (219)
• Increase your understanding of what you read (222)
• Is it worth re-reading materia! you don't understand? (223)
• Develop your expert 'reader voice' (224)
• Annotating texts when reading (225)
• Example of an annotated text (226)
• Good annotating (227)
• Increasing your reading speed (228)
• Strategies for increasing your reading speed (229)
• Making notes when reading books (230)
• Summary notes: become expert at synopsis (231)
• Note-making for online lectures and study (232)
• Make effective notes in taught sessions (234)
• Note-making styles (235)
• Pattern notes or 'networks': an example (236)
• Short-cuts in note-making (237)
• Making notes with confidence (238)
• Self-evaluation: how useful are your notes? (239)
• Review (240)
• 11 Researching and managing information for study (241)
• Introduction (241)
• Managing information for academic study (242)
• Defining your research task (244)
• Making the most of the library (245)
• Finding information getting started (246)
• Conducting effective online searches for study (247)
• Using AI tools and 'chatbots' (248)
• Using material of suitable quality and content (250)
• Whittling down information (252)
• Reading, recording and using information (253)
• Tools for storing, retrieving and sharing information (254)
• Understanding plagiarism (255)
• Recognizing plagiarism and copying (256)
• Making citations and references (257)
• Citing your sources: in-text citations (258)
• Writing out your references (259)
• Review (260)
• 12 Critical and analytical thinking (261)
• Introduction (261)
• What characterizes critical thinking? (262)
• Develop a detective-like mind (263)
• Critical questioning (264)
• Critical thinking when reading (265)
• Questioning numbers and statistics (272)
• Critical analytical thinking (274)
• Critical thinking when writing (275)
• Critical analytical writing vs. descriptive writing (276)
• Identifying critical and descriptive writing (277)
• Critical thinking when listening (279)
• Review (280)
• 13 Writing at university level (281)
• Introduction (281)
• How good am I at managing writing tasks? (282)
• Getting started on a written assignment (283)
• Developing your own writing process (284)
• Don't get overwhelmed: draw on your existing expertise (285)
• Overcoming writer's block (286)
• Tricks for getting started (287)
• Students' solutions to writing blocks (288)
• Common features of all academic writing (289)
• A seven-step procedure for writing assignments (290)
• Analyse the question (292)
• Academic keywords used in assignment titles (293)
• Structuring your writing (294)
• Organizing information: planning your writing (295)
• Planning in stages (296)
• Concept pyramids organize ideas (297)
• Concept pyramid example (298)
• Use pyramids to plan assignments (299)
• Drafting and redrafting your writing (300)
• Writing strong paragraphs (301)
• Planning your paragraphs (302)
• Checking your paragraphs (303)
• Linking ideas together (304)
• Editing and proofreading your drafts (305)
• Presenting your writing assignments (306)
• Presenting work to meet course requirements (307)
• Review (308)
• 14 Developing your academic writing (309)
• Introduction (309)
• Stylistic conventions for academic writing (310)
• Being precise (312)
• Writing for different subjects (313)
• 'Scientific' approaches (314)
• Alternatives to the scientific model (315)
• Polar opposites in academic approaches (316)
• Different writing styles (317)
• Descriptive writing style (318)
• Argumentative style (319)
• Evaluative/comparative style (320)
• Reflective writing (321)
• Summative or synoptic writing (323)
• What gets good grades? (325)
• Using feedback from tutors (326)
• Evaluate written assignments for yourself (327)
• Review (328)
• 15 Writing essays (329)
• Introduction (329)
• What is an essay? (330)
• Devising your own essay title (331)
• Structuring your essay (332)
• Planning your essay spatially (333)
• Using concept pyramids to organize material (334)
• Frameworks to structure thinking and writing (335)
• Framework to plan 'for or against?' essays (336)
• Framework for 'to what extent …' essays (337)
• Frameworks for 'compare and contrast' essays (338)
• Reflective essays (339)
• What is an essay like? Essays 1 and 2 (341)
• Critical comparison of two essays: (347)
• Review (354)
• 16 Managing larger assignments: Research projects, reports, case studies and dissertations (355)
• Introduction (355)
• Understanding and defining the task (356)
• Dissertations and final year research projects (358)
• Clarifying your process (359)
• Projects and dissertations: managing the process (361)
• Developing your research proposal (362)
• Choosing a topic (363)
• Specifying your title and thesis statement (364)
• Formulating your hypothesis (365)
• Conducting a literature review (366)
• Research design and methods (367)
• Designing questionnaires (368)
• Checklist for evaluating your questionnaire (370)
• Interview techniques (371)
• Presenting and analysing the data (372)
• Characteristics of reports (373)
• Reports and dissertations: structure and content (374)
• Writing the report (375)
• Project or dissertation report: checklist (379)
• Case studies (380)
• Review (382)
• 17 Devising your revision and exam strategy (383)
• Introduction (383)
• Planning and preparing your exams strategy (384)
• Revising for exams (385)
• Tactics to use in your exam prep strategy (386)
• Revision pitfalls - and how to avoid them (388)
• Revision and exam preparation (390)
• Revision: seven-point Action Plan (391)
• Countdown towards the exams (392)
• Exam details (393)
• In the exam (394)
• Top tips for different kinds of exams (395)
• Doing well in exams (396)
• Exam day strategy: checklist (397)
• Review (398)
• 18 Memory: Boost coursework, revision and exam performance (399)
• Introduction (399)
• Build memory for course material (400)
• Check your memory style (401)
• Memorization techniques (402)
• Help your brain to remember (403)
• Work with the memory process (404)
• Use multiple encoding to reinforce memory (405)
• Work with the memory process (408)
• Memory thrives on organization (409)
• Pyramids, pattern notes and pictures (410)
• 'Chunking' information (411)
• Review (412)
• Appendix 1 Ten different views of Intelligence (413)
• Appendix 2 Further resources (417)
• Answers to activities (419)
• References and bibliography (424)
• Index (432)
• Notes (443)

Author notes provided by Syndetics