Product Description: Super Study Skills shows students how to: Make the most of their time by getting organized Read more effectively Prepare for a test without last-minute panic Take tests with confidence and skill . . . and study smarter for the grades they want.It also provides short answer and essay test hints so kids will be prepared for any test they have to take.
Easy to read I am a homeschool mom and both of my children found this book helpful. I bought the latest copy for a friend who was going back to school after being out a while. It is well organized and easy to read. Highly recomend.
An excellent approach to taking and organizing notes, as well as other study skills A large portion of this book is devoted to the taking and organization of reading notes. It includes many examples, which is quite nice. It starts with a section of organizing your study area, which may or may not be useful. Then it moves on to cover how to take great notes, including outlining, highlighting, and paraphrasing. The next section moves on to reading "actively" which includes previewing the reading material, making reading predictions, reading for a purpose, and visual aids in taking useful notes like a writing grid with "what I know", "what I want to find out", and "what I learned" grids.
The middle section introduces using webs to organize notes (the circles with other circles coming out from it) and SQ3R (survey, question, read, recite, review) to get more out of reading. I have three college degrees including degrees in math, science, and an mba and have always used the SMRR method with incredible success, which is also discussed in the middle section. SMRR is skim, mark (highlight or underline), read, and reread. All of my professional books have highlighting or underlining of some sort and I can refer to what I'm looking for easily because of this, so I highly recommend this book for its discussion of SMRR (this is the only book I've seen it discussed in).
The middle section also includes a section on reading for context clues--definition, contrast, and commonsense clues.
The last section covers studying alone and in groups and preparing for tests. This section is also done well as my spouse, who is an Ivy SAT tutor, can attest to. It covers how to combat test-taking jitters, budgeting time, and test-taking strategies. It even has a small section on whether or not to guess answers (think SAT). Unique to this book is a section on what to do after the test comes back--check for grading errors, learn from your mistakes, etc. For all those SAT test-takers, the section entitled "Mastering Specific Tests" has useful test-taking strategies. These include looking for absolute words like "always, all, never, etc.", guarding against false logic (and, but, etc.), guessing, multiple choice key words (not, except, best, etc.), correctly matching test questions, context clues, and a mini-section on tips for math tests (especially how to estimate).
The very end of the book contains a nice little section on essay questions--how to answer them and organize your writing very clearly. It goes into this in great detail, which is very useful for any taking any tests, but especially the SAT essay portion (the new SAT has a writing section).
For such a concise book, it was done quite well.
All You Really Need A user-friendly review for study skills. Quite nice for the price.
Good ideas and suggestions for middle school children
This is a well written book on how to do better on tests and in school. The target audience is from about 6th grade to 10th grade.
The book starts off with some general thoughts about studying, setting up a study area, finding good study buddies, taking notes and improving your memory.
Almost a third of the book was about how to read better. Since reading is such an important part of studying, and how to get the most out of reading isn't typically taught in school, this may be the most important section. This covers in condensed form much of the same ideas Mortimer Adler covers in "How to Read a book." "Super Study Skills" talks about different types of reading, how to be an active reader, picking a purpose for reading, how to skim, and many other good basics for teaching children how to read better.
The next section was about how to prepare for taking a test. After this there were about 20 pages on how to take a test, from things like how to choose a seat, to picking which questions to answer first, thoughts about guessing, time issues, and many, many more. It was very comprehensive. The last section was on more specific test taking techniques.
This would be a good book to get for a ten to twelve year old child. They could read it about every six months and greatly benefit. For $8 the paperback edition is a great deal.
For students who want better grades, a good book I have now reviewed 10 study skills books for middle and upper school students. This is one of the best.
Rozakis writes for the young student, middle or upper school, and gives immediate and practical suggestions about how to study "smart," (e.g., set goals, get organized, set up a study center, improving one's memory); reading for success; preparing for a test; test-taking skills; and mastering specific kinds of tests (T/F, multiple-choice, etc.). Rozakis has no specific section for studying math, but her emphasis on organization, preparing, rehearsing, and so forth, can be transferred easily.
Teachers can use this for a class-wide book in study skills.
For older students (late high school and college), you may want to see Study power: Study skills to improve your learning and your grades, by William R. Luckie and Wood Smethurst, which I found to be geared quite well for that age group.
Rozakis' book is far better than the one offered by Teacher Created Materials (Middle School Study Skills). It also is better than Judith Dodge's The Study Skills Handbook (Grades 4-8), and Margaret Nuzum's Study Skills that Stick (with the exception that Nuzum specifically mentions math study skills).
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