Chapter 1:
Time Management
You are in charge of your time management. Everyone gets the
same hours in a day—24. What you do with your time in college
is key to your success.
Plan daily and plan intentionally for each hour of your day.
Time is a very precious commodity.
Discuss your best
time-management practices/tips.
Discuss your areas that need improvement.
On a daily basis, starting today, what are three
things you could do to better manage your time?
Log use of your time for a week.
Write down on paper how you spent each
hour.
What have you learned from this exercise?
Discuss what you have learned with a peer and
develop goals for improvement.
Find two websites that have practical and
useful tips about time management.
What are suggestions you can apply?
Read again and review the
time-management tips on
pages 10-12 of your text.
Put a plus or minus by each tip, indicating if you are
presently using this tip (+) or could improve/begin using (-).
Chapter 2:
Learning Styles
How do you learn best?
Based on text, what is your learning style?
Write down five sentences
about how you learn best.
Find out about your
classmates/peers’ preferred learning
styles.
Take a class poll.
Have each person describe his or her preferred
style and share one tip about how he or she learns
best or a strategy that works.
Build effective study strategies.
Discuss and develop a list of best tips
for studying.
Form small groups and review suggestions on page 19 of the
text. Make a list of the most effective study strategies.
Seek input from upper-class students and college
graduates.
Changing and improving study
habits: High school vs. college.
Discuss the purposeful study habits that are critically
important to succeed in college.
How have your study habits changed and/or
improved since high school?
Make a personal plan of best
practices.
Think carefully about the information from this chapter
related to learning styles as well as study habits.
What are your top three goals for personal
improvement?
Chapter 3:
Reading Skills
Practice using the SQ3R method found in the text. Use it while
reading text material.
List ways you can use this technique in your studies.
Practice using the mapping
technique in your text (page 23).
Use the mapping technique as an active reading strategy
with text material.
How can you use this in the future to enhance your
reading?
Review the “Make the Most of your
Reading Tips” in the text (pages 25-26).
Put a plus (+) or minus (–) sign by each tip, indicating those
you use now (+) and those you could use in the future (-).
Rate yourself and your reading
abilities. Write three to five
sentences about each rating.
If you need to improve your reading skills, where can you
get help and assistance on campus?
List and share your best active
reading techniques.
Review “Be an active reader” (page 25).
List three to five tips for becoming a more active
reader.
Chapter 4:
Writing
What can you learn?
In small groups, list ten or more things
you can learn through writing papers.
Share your top three advantages
with the class.
Make a list of all of your writing
assignments for this semester.
Categorize your assignments, such as reaction paper,
research paper, opinion piece, and so on.
What do you need to do to plan for these
assignments and do a quality writing job for each
one?
List the reasons why writing is a very
important life skill.
Think about a career you are considering.
How will you need to use writing in this career?
What are your best tips and
techniques for producing
high-quality writing assignments?
Do you prewrite/write/rewrite?
If not, try this technique on your next writing
assignment.
Plagiarism is a serious problem for
college students.
Locate and discuss your campus policy on plagiarism.
Chapter 5:
Diversity
Think about your present campus-based experiences.
Divide your paper into two columns.
Record your experiences with diversity in the first
column and what you learned from them in the second
column.
Use the previous activity as a
springboard for discussion.
What can you do in college to increase your learning about
diversity?
Develop an individual plan!
Identify three ways you can add more opportunities related
to diversity in your campus goals/activities.
Discuss them with your peers.
Read and review the “Expanding
Your World View” section (page 42).
Prior to your next class, choose two of these suggestions
and complete them as homework. Write a paragraph about
what you did and what you learned.
The benefits of community service
are highlighted on pages 46-48.
Make a personal plan to engage in community service this
semester.
Summarize your plan and share it with a peer in
your class.
Chapter 6:
Taking Notes
Rate your present note-taking practices: excellent, good,
mediocre, poor?
Indicate why you gave yourself this rating.
List three to five ways you can improve your
note-taking based on information in this chapter.
Tips for effective note-taking.
Review all tips on pages 56-57. Put a plus sign (+) by each
tip that you currently use and a minus sign (-) by tips you
don’t use.
List three goals for improvement.
Review note-taking methods.
Form three small groups and review the note-taking
methods in the text: Cornell, Sentence and Outlining.
How can these help improve your note-taking
skills?
Practice using all of these methods.
Using content from the textbook, practice using each of the
three techniques listed above.
What are your preferences and why?
Select a method to use in each of
your classes for a week.
Try using a preferred method for one week.
Report on what worked well and what remains
challenging to you.
Chapter 7:
Critical-Thinking Skills
What is the significance of “critical-thinking skills” in your
day-to-day routine?
How can these skills inform your studies?
Define critical thinking.
Based on your work on pages 66-67 in the text, create your
own definition of critical thinking.
Review the best practices/tips on
pages 69-73 of the textbook.
Going through each of the 20 tips, put a plus sign (+) next
to tips you currently use and a minus sign (-) next to tips
you can use in the future.
Develop a plan.
Think about how you could improve your own criticalthinking processes.
Write out a plan for improvement/extension of
your present practices. Include three to five
suggestions.
Locate two Web sources.
Investigate two credible Web-based sources that help you
learn how to improve your critical-thinking abilities.
Chapter 8:
Studying for & Taking
Tests
What works as effective strategies for test-taking?
In small groups, list five highly effective strategies
from the text or personal experiences.
Test prep tips.
Review the test prep tips on pages 80-81.
Select two and create a plan to improve your skills
based on these tips.
Do you experience test anxiety?
If you’ve experienced test anxiety, share any tips you’ve
used to manage it.
Review and evaluate the tips on page 82.
After the exam: What can you learn?
In small-group discussion, list three to five ways you can
enhance your learning and test-taking skills after the exam.
Implement these suggestions.
Upper-class student survey.
Prior to the next class period, survey two upper-level
students. Ask for their best advice regarding test
preparation and test-taking.
Share a list of these suggestions with the class.
Chapter 9:
Personal Planning and
Goal-Setting
Individually, write responses to the basic questions at the top of
page 89.
Share and discuss your responses with a peer.
Develop a plan for achieving
personal goals.
Based on the prompts on page 89, develop three goals that
you can implement this month.
One month from now, assess your progress and
refine your goals.
Setting a good schedule.
Develop a daily, weekly, monthly, and semester schedule.
List each step of this process; analyze the tasks
required for completion.
Plan for internships.
Carefully planned and researched internships add
considerable practical value to your studies.
List five reasons why planning an internship is
beneficial to your academic career.
Learn about planning and
goal-setting.
Identify upper-class students who appear to have wellfocused goals.
Talk with them about goal-setting and planning,
then list three to five of these tips that you can
implement in your studies.
Chapter 10:
Financial Responsibility
Critically review and complete the “Budget Breakdown” on
pages 98-99.
Make a list of five areas that you can work on to
improve your overall financial health.
Talk with people who know your
financial habits and practices.
Share your self-assessment with someone you’re
comfortable with; ask them for suggestions on how to
improve your financial habits.
Being a savvy spender.
Review the tips for “Becoming a Savvy Spender” on pages
100-101.
Highlight areas where you can improve your
spending habits.
Credit card usage and credit scores.
Research two reliable websites with information on how to
use credit cards responsibly. Research two additional sites
about how to achieve and maintain a good credit score.
Make a to-do list of ways to improve your practices
in both areas.
Financial aid.
Study the financial aid Web site of your campus. Write
down questions and suggestions for applying for or
enhancing financial support.
Create an action plan to become more
knowledgeable about your financial aid situation.
Chapter 11:
Wellness
What are the six areas of wellness? Review the chart on page
107. What are two suggestions for
improvement in each of these areas?
Make a list with twelve
wellness-improvement
actions in total.
Nutrition.
Explore the mypyramid.gov website referenced on page
109.
List five nutrition-improvement
suggestions from the site.
Alcohol use.
Have a frank and open discussion about alcohol and other
substance-abuse issues on your campus.
What are the problems and challenges?
What are the supports on your campus?
Intellectual and occupational
wellness.
Review and complete the questions asked on page 126.
Give honest and thorough responses to each guiding
question.
Develop a plan for personal improvement
based on your self-assessment.
Exploring your major.
Review the section of the text addressing choosing a major
on pages 127-129.
Analyze and list the tasks associated with
identifying a major or reassessing your
current major.