Getting Straight 'A's

Packed full of invaluable and practical advice, tips, quizzes and self-assessment exercises for fifteen to eighteen year olds, this guide, written with the keenest and most ambitious students in mind, will help you to maximise your academic potenitial and achieve the results you need. Written by an acknowledged expert in the field, this study guide will help you to: - assess your own strengths and weaknesses - make the best use of available resources - effectively manage your time and prioritise your workload - develop essay-writing and note-taking skills - excel in exams and coursework. Considered a natural companion to the author's highly successful Brain Train, this book maximises academic potential both in coursework and exams amongst GCSE and AS/A-level students, effectively, simply, and without exhausting and counter-productive effort.

Richard Palmer is Head of English at Bedford School. His other Routledge titles include The Good Grammar Guide, and Write in Style.

Part 1: Naming It 1. Preliminary: Why Real Achievers Don't Do Drugs 2. Situation Report 3. The Importance of the Pleasure Principle 4. Seductive Stupidities: Those 'S' Words Revisited 5. Conclusion Part 2: Using It 6. Arming Yourself 7. Knowing Yourself 8. Advancing Yourself Part 3: Sorting It 9. Respecting the Obvious 10. Going Beyond the Obvious 11. Conclusion Part 4: Nailing It 12. What is Knowledge? 13. What Types of Knowledge Are There? 14. Common Fallacies / Disreputable or Specious Arguing 15. Justifying Your Thinking (1): Good Reasons 16. Justifying Your Thinking (2): Good Instincts 17. Conclusion Part 5: Doing It 18. Preliminary 19. Eyes Right: Speed-Reading 20. Eyes Wrong: Screen-Reading 21. Note-Taking: Mini-Lecture Noting Exercise 22. Writing Part 6: Making It 23. Preliminary 24. Attitudes (1): Examiners - Monsters, Robots or Humans? 25. Attitudes (2): Priming Yourself 26. Revision and Review 27. In the Exam Hall 28. Conclusion