Issue
26(2)
College
Study: The Essential Ingredients. (2004).
Sally Lipsky. Prentice
Hall, Pearson Education. 176 pp., $23.33, (paperback), ISBN #
0-13-048836-4.
Review by: Troy
Lindsey
Academic Advisor
Shorter
College
North
Atlanta Campus
Sally
Lipsky, Indiana University
of Pennsylvania, has provided academic advisors and freshman orientation
instructors with a valuable resource for teaching study skills
to their students. The book is concisely written and well organized.
Each chapter is laid out so that the student can learn not only
to understand the skill presented, but also how to implement it.
As implied by the title, the basic study skills offered include:
time management, managing study environments, listening, note
taking, reading textbooks, memory enhancement, and test taking.
Lipsky has placed focus questions
and chapter terms at the start of each chapter. Well presented
material in the body of each chapter, personal action statements,
and chapter conclusions combine to make a text that is learning
objective driven and educationally effective. This format also
means that students can choose individual chapters to address
areas of weakness. This 176 page book is a highly adaptable resource
for use in study skill classes. It can be used effectively in
a one-class study skills seminar. It could also be used in a quarter
or semester length class with supplemental materials or advisors
could place the book on a recommended readings list so students
can learn the skills for themselves.
There are
many study skills books on the market. One of the other premier
study skills books in wide usage is Dave Ellis's Becoming
a Master Student. Both College Essentials and Becoming
a Master Student are excellent texts for classes. They both
have a self-test to determine leaning styles and provide in-depth
coverage of reading, note taking, memory, and test taking skills.
The Ellis book includes chapters on diversity, health, and resources.
The strength of the Ellis book is that it provides extensive coverage
of more topics. The strength of the Lipsky book is that it offers
a very concentrated coverage of fewer topics. Both books achieve
what they set out to accomplish.
I
have read both texts and taught from the Ellis book; I prefer
the Lipsky book because freshmen might find it less intimidating.
The shorter the time the instructor has to work with students,
the stronger the case for using College Study. For one-on-one
advising the concentrated nature of Lipsky's book also makes it
extremely manageable. An already overwhelmed freshman might get
more out of a well written and effective short book than a well
written longer book. I will include both books in my advisor toolkit,
but will likely recommend the Lipsky book more often to my students.
Reference
Ellis,
Dave. (2003). Becoming A Master Student: Tools, techniques,
hints, ideas, illustrations, examples, methods, procedures, skills,
resources, and suggestions for success 10 th Edition. Houghton
Mifflin.
