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.

Page
Preface
Acknowledgements
ONE: NAMING IT
I. Preliminary: Why Real Achievers Don’t Do Drugs
1
II. Situation Report
2
Money
2
Expectations (1)
2
Expectations (2)
3
Assessment-Driven Currica: The Dangers & The Price
4
III. The Importance of the Pleasure Principle
6
IV: Seductive Stupidities: Those ‘S’ Words Revisited
8
Spotting The Question
16
Plagiarism
22
Conclusion
24
TWO: USING IT
I. Arming Yourself
26
A. Honesty
26
B. Vanity
29
C. Caring
32
II. Knowing Yourself
35
III. Advancing Yourself
37
THREE: SORTING IT
A. Respecting the Obvious
41
Self-management I: Get to Know Your Brain
41
Self-management II: Equipment & Assets
45
Self-management III: Scheduling
52
Self-management IV: Comforts & Pleasures
54
B. Going Beyond the Obvious
56
I. Concentration
56
II. Challenge & Self-Confidence
60
III. Punctuation and Paragraphing
61
White Space: four contrasting lay-outs
69
Paragraphing: some guidelines
73
A Cautionary Tale
74
Conclusion
75
FOUR: NAILING IT
1. What is Knowledge?
77
1a. Three angles on ‘facts’
80
1b. What is Truth?
81


2. What types of Knowledge are there?
86
1. Questions which have one correct answer
86
2. Questions which have many possible answers
86
3. Questions which have no correct answer but depend
solely on the person answering
87
3. Common Fallacies / Disreputable or Specious Arguing
91
4. Justifying Your Think I: Good Reasons
99
5. Justifying Your Think I: Good Instincts
104
Conclusion
109
FIVE: DOING IT
I. Preliminary
110
II. Eyes Right: Speed-Reading
111
III. Eyes Wrong: Screen-Reading
113
IV. Note-Taking
117
Mini-Lecture Noting Exercise
120
V. Writing
123
Do what you’re told and what you say
124
Aim for pace and variety
125
Command Verbs
126
Muscle, not flab; analysis ‘versus’ description
129
Make constant use of your biggest asset: you
131
Words & phrases to avoid
133
Register and ‘Pitch’
134
Reference & Quotation
134
SIX: MAKING IT
I. Preliminary
136
II. Attitudes 1: Examiners – Monsters, Robots or Humans?
138
III. Attitudes 2: Priming Yourself
141
IV. Revision & Review
144
V. In the Exam Hall
148
Danger of Death: the first two minutes
149
Danger of Dissolution: pacing yourself and staying alert
150
The Longest Day: wall-to-wall exams
153
Conclusion
155
Appendix I – Net Practice
156
Appendix II – Noting Exercise Model Answer
161
Notes
164
Bibliography
172
Index
174