Essential Study Skills : The Complete Guide to Success at University

Watch Tom Burns introduce his book Essential Study Skills - Second Edition

Watch Sandra Sinfield discuss one of her favourite chapters - how to make the best notes

Praise for the first edition:

"The effect on our students was like star dust!"

Anne Schofield, Ruskin College, Oxford

Student feedback from Study Skills sessions at London Metropolitan University:

"Why didn′t they tell us this before? ... This is the best bit of learning I′ve ever done!"

"At school I was told to go away and get a job in a shop ... Since doing Study Skills I′m getting ′A′s′ for my assignments!"

"I was het-up, frightened ... I just wanted to run away and hide ... Oh I love it now!"

"When I first got here I kept thinking I would be found out ... I know I can do it now"

"I never enjoyed school, not at all ... Everything′s different now - it′s great!"

"When I first got here I thought they were all looking at me and thinking ′What′s that old woman doing here?′ ... It′s my university now!"

The eagerly-awaited new edition continues to provide a truly practical guide to achieving success at university.

Whether you are going to university straight from school, a mature student, or an overseas student studying in the UK for the first time, this is the book that will help you better understand how you learn, gain a clear idea of your strengths and areas for development, organise yourself for study, write and research academically, pass exams, and cope with stress at university.

Now completely revised and restructured, the authors use their twenty-five years of hands-on experience with students in university to provide genuinely useful advice.

Key features of the new edition:

- 12 new chapters for coverage of everything you need to know including: computer skills, becoming a confident writer, note-taking, how to build your memory, and the new Personal Development Plan.

- Packed with handy tips, real-life examples and useful activities.

- A brand new companion website with extensive material to support you in your quest for academic success - http://www.uk.sagepub.com/burnsandsinfield/

With its easy-to-use dip in, dip out structure, helpful features, and lively and engaging writing style, you will find Essential Study Skills an essential companion to the challenges of studying at university.

Tom Burns is a Senior Lecturer in Learning Development at London Metropolitan University

Sandra Sinfield is Academic Leader in Learning Development at London Metropolitan University.

Tom Burns, always interested in theatre and the arts and their role in teaching and learning, led the Hainault Action Group setting up adventure playgrounds and devising Community Events and Festivals for the local community. Whilst still a student Tom set up and ran the first International Dario Fo Festival – with symposium, theatre workshops for students and local people and full dramatic performances by the Fo-Rame theatre troupe of The Tiger’s Tale and The Boss’s Funeral.

Tom Burns is a Senior Lecturer in Education and Learning Development actively involved in the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (www.aldinhe.ac.uk). Some time ago he, along with Sandra Sinfield, developed the student-facing Study Hub (www.londonmet.ac.uk/studyhub) and the staff-facing Take5 website and blog (http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/epacks/take5/), the latter offering engaging and innovative learning, teaching and assessment practices to support staff with learning development work.

Working in the Centre for Professional and Educational Development at London Metropolitan University, she continues to develop learning, teaching and assessment innovations with a special focus on engaging praxes that ignite student curiosity and develop power and voice.

Sandra Sinfield has worked as a laboratory technician, a freelance copywriter, an Executive Editor (Medicine Digest, circulation 80,000 doctors) and in the voluntary sector with the Tower Hamlets Research and Resource Centre and with the Islington Green School Community Play written by Alan, Whose Life is it Anyway?, Clarke and produced at Sadler′s Wells.

Sandra is a Senior Lecturer in Education and Learning Development actively involved in the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (www.aldinhe.ac.uk). Some time ago she, along with Tom Burns, developed the student-facing Study Hub (www.londonmet.ac.uk/studyhub) and the staff-facing Take5 website and blog (http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/epacks/take5/), the latter offering engaging and innovative learning, teaching and assessment practices to support staff with learning development work.

Working in the Centre for Professional and Educational Development at London Metropolitan University, she continues to develop learning, teaching and assessment innovations with a special focus on engaging praxes that ignite student curiosity and develop power and voice.