To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners. Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights into how memory is encoded, consolidated, and later retrieved have led to a better understanding of how we learn. Grappling with the impediments that make learning challenging leads both to more complex mastery and better retention of what was learned. Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.

Getting the students to reflect on their thinking,College Reading and Study Skillsis a developmental level reading and study text depicting reading as a process and providing concise instruction, skill application exercises, and exercises using textbook excerpts to contribute to success in college.  Metacognition (reflecting on their thoughts); reading as a process; skill application; ample textbook excerpts.

For Study Skills and Critical Thinking courses.   Study and Critical Thinking Skills in College, Eighth Edition is ideal for instructors who want to teach study and learning techniques. McWhorter discusses the active strategies that develop students' proficiency with text and lecture material--emphasising the cognitive approach to learning, the basis for how to apply study skills to academic disciplines, and how to identify early warning signs of academic difficulty. At the same time, she stresses that students must adapt how they read and how they study to suit the characteristics of each unique academic discipline.   This text aligns closely with the ways students read, study, learn, think, and network in the twenty-first century. While printed textbooks and other reading materials remain core learning resources, students increasingly read, study, collaborate, and take tests online. Study and Critical Thinking Skills in College encourages students to study and think in ways that match their learning styles and to use technologies (such as online databases and social media) that maximise their productivity.