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[benstewart]

I'm looking for books to recommend to entering liberal arts college students on study skills. These are students who love to learn, and are looking for strategies to study efficiently, to get good grades, and to retain their knowledge. Anyone have suggestions?

[scampster]

I don't know if this is quite what you are looking for, but I have read this guys blog in the past and I think he has a lot of good points for being successful in college:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-College-Surprising-Countrys/dp/0767917871/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1308185913&sr=1-1

[compdoc]

First, the caveats.
1. It's not just for liberal arts majors.
2. I don't agree with everything in it (especially the bug teachers about your paper--but that gets them in the office, which is good).

Having said that, my husband, out of school for twenty years and rarely a good student (smart, but unmotivated mostly) read this and found it extremely helpful. He has done much better in school this go around, though that is partially because he was more motivated.

http://amzn.to/iQZOtb It's Cal Newport's How to Become a Straight-A Student.

[zharkov]

Back when I taught undergrads, the freshman seminar used College Reading and Study Skills by McWhorter.  It has gone through a number of editions, and an older used copy should be fine.

[scampster]

First, the caveats.
1. It's not just for liberal arts majors.
2. I don't agree with everything in it (especially the bug teachers about your paper--but that gets them in the office, which is good).

Having said that, my husband, out of school for twenty years and rarely a good student (smart, but unmotivated mostly) read this and found it extremely helpful. He has done much better in school this go around, though that is partially because he was more motivated.

http://amzn.to/iQZOtb It's Cal Newport's How to Become a Straight-A Student.

I linked to a different Cal Newport book above, but this one was probably the one I was thinking of.

[benstewart]

Thanks, everyone, for these good places to begin--very helpful.

[kirin85]

Try Ellis' Becoming a Master Student

[jimgibsn]

Dr. Sandra Gibson produced a video a few years ago, based on her study-skills work with thousands of students at Georgia State University. The video was, and is, used by hundreds of colleges across the country.

Recently she has rewritten the accompanying book (to update for the digital world and the issue of digital distraction). It's a practical guide, from someone who knows both students and study skills.

Unfortunately, it's only available as a Kindle book at this time, but the good side of that is that it's less than five dollars.

http://www.amazon.com/Making-As-in-College-ebook/dp/B004OR1SLA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1309019786&sr=1-1

And the accompanying website,with lots of info and tips:

www.workbookspress.com

I'm the co-author, so I like the book. But the hundreds of schools that use the video seem to validate that.

Good luck. We need more smart liberal-arts students!

[mackenzie_theory]

Here's a book on how to study you can get on Amazon.com,
'Brainpower Smart Study' - it describes an 8-step study method,
by an Australian author.

http://amzn.to/nTvHKt

[brixton]

I like Peterson's "The Ultimate Survival Guide."  It's broader than just academic topics.  It has good sections on time management, study techniques, test taking, writing papers, but  also touches on ethics, living with a stranger, budget issues, career issues etc.  The NYT review of it is at the bottom of this page:

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/06/education/review-self-help-for-students.html

(I don't know much about the first book mentioned.)