McPherson College Books

This book is way more then a study tips book , it shows you how to manage your life , tips for setting up a schedule you can follow. The book has a priceless tip called the goals visualaztion section , Which tells you how to write out what you want your life to be like in 20 years 6 yeas 5 months and then finally this week . Its amazing how 1 tip can change a life for the better and thats what this book did for me and my Computer tech career

1) Student Success Secrets (1979), by Eric Jensen;
2) You Can Succeed: The Ultimate Study Guide for Students (1979), by Eric Jensen;
3) B's & A's in 30 Days: Strategies for Better Grades in College (1994), by Eric Jensen;

Over the last two decades & within the realm of study strategies, I have amassed a vast repertoire of books & resources on the subject. They cover a very comprehensive & broad academic range from young children through teen/college students all the way to university/matured students. This is attributed to my deep personal interest in understanding the `concept of studying' as well as my relentless search for the `study smart process'. Many of the ideas & techniques have been adapted & put to work in my own public workshops as well as in collaborative school projects.

Amidst the many books I have owned & read about the study process, only a few of them have been my personal favourites. They include: Walter Pauk's 'How to Study in College' (1974), Adam Robinson's `What Smart Students Know: Maximum Grades. Optimum Learning, Minimum Time' (1993) & William Armstrong's `Study Is Hard Work: The Most Accessible and Lucid Text Available on Acquiring & Keeping Study Skills Through a Lifetime' (1995).

However, there are three books which have influenced my understanding during the very early years. They are listed above.

The decisive factor in acquiring all the three early books, by Eric Jensen, more or less lies in his impressive track record in education. As a teacher in the middle schools, he co-founded the internationally-acclaimed SuperCamp, a residential summer camp for teens, pre-teens and college-age students, with Bobbi dePorter in the early eighties.

[In the late seventies, Bobbi studied with Dr Georgi Lozanov, father of accelerated learning, & applied the innovative methods to her highly-successful, but now-defunct, Burklyn Business School. Seeing an urgent need to teach school children how to learn, she later applied the techniques in SuperCamp, a youth program. In the years since, SuperCamp has helped over 45,000 students re-learn how they learn & reshape how they live their lives.]

Eric left a few years later to create Turning Point for Teachers, a training outfit applying the innovative accelerated learning techniques to teaching staff development, which eventually become Jensen Learning, a consultancy outfit. The specialty of Jensen Learning is the integration of brain research into practical, user-friendly training applications & it has trained more educators/teachers in brain- based learning than anyone else in the world with over 50,000 graduates. He also subsequently wrote more than two dozen books about how to apply brain science to learning & education, including `Super-Teaching' & `Teaching with the Brain in Mind'.

All Eric's early three book as mentioned above essentially focus on the development of effective study strategies.

`Student Success Secrets' is primarily targeted at younger students, whereas `B's & A's in 30 Days' is catered more for college students. To me, `You can Succeed' is a condensed version of the first book with a more crisp writing to cater for high school students. This book is packaged like a handy pocket guide.

All the three book share these common features:

- An illustration of the author's sure-fire study process, even though I feel it applies more specifically to only reading, which is one vital component of the entire process. [In `Student Success Secrets', the author breaks it down to 1) Prepare Your Mind; 2) Ask Questions; 3) Gather Information; & 4) Evaluate Your Understanding. In the second book, the author tweaks it a little bit: 1) Browse; 2) Prepare; 3) Read; 4) Review & Check; & 5) Recall. In the third book, it's 1) Pre-study; 2) Ask Questions; 3) Gather Information; & 4) Evaluate/Correct. In reality, these are playful variations of the original SQ3R reading methodology created by Francis Robinson in the late forties.]

- Review points at the end of every chapter;

- Amusing cartoon illustrations to keep readers' mood appropriately light;

In `Student Success Secrets', I believe the first four chapters of the book, particularly, Chapter 2: Success Habits, provide an excellent preamble for readers. Strategy-wise, it is jam-packed with more than a hundred practical, time-saving tips. I like the author's `Stop & Take Action' at the end of each chapter. I reckon his timely use of Jane Roberts' quotation in the prologue:

"There are no limitations to the self. There are no limitations to its potential. You can adopt artificial limitations through ignorance."

is a very meaningful gesture.

My most favourite chapter in the book is the last chapter, i.e. Chapter 13: The 1% Secret. Here the author talks about the importance of taking baby steps & making incremental changes in your skills & attitude, coupled with affirmations & positive suggestions. This certainly helps to narrow the knowing-doing gap in learning & performance.

In `You Can Succeed', the Daily Scroll & the sample Self-Improvement Contract' in the introductory pages are useful tools to help readers to get started in developing effective study strategies.

In terms of breadth & depth of coverage, the other two books, namely, `Student Success Secrets' & `B's & A's in 30 Days', stand out comparatively better than this one.

Unlike the first two books, thirty short, entertaining instructive chapters are organised specifically in `B's & A's in 30 Days' to create an unique thirty day format of structured daily "learning menu" for readers. Application-wise, the reader can implement specific action one day at a time. This is really great!

One thing that strikes me most about Eric in all his writings is his uncanny ability to communicate eloquently in plain language with readers. He can write about (more specifically, talk to readers), from the most mundane stuff like reading & gathering information from a passage to the more complex stuff like understanding the impact of neurons on learning. Today, he is recognized as one of the leading translators of educational neuroscience in the world.

On the flip-side, one vital component of the `study process' is missing in all the foregoing three books. It pertains to lesson revision & rehearsal as a preparatory step to test/exam preparation. From my work with students, I find this step to be very significant in helping students to consolidate &/or recapitulate what they have learned prior to taking a test/exam. This step often helps to moderate the students' test/exam anxiety.

[To me, the `Study Smart Process' involves ten requisite steps or components:

- Goal setting;
- Time management;
- Active Reading;
- Information Gathering;
- Taking & Making Notes;
- Organising Information for fast Recall;
- Lesson Revision & Rehearsal;
- Test/Exam Preparation;
- Creative & Logical Writing;
- Stress Management/Energy Engineering;]
-
In the case of the first & last book, the last component or step in the process, i.e. stress management, is given only perfunctory treatment by the author. For some reasons, it is missing from the second book. In the case of `Student Success Secrets', Eric talks very briefly about `Eat Smarter' but offers limited advice on `Reduce Study Stress' in Chapter 2. Likewise, in `B's & A's in 30 Days', the author's advice on `Handling Stress' is seemingly sketchy.

I first came across Student Success Secrets when I borrowed it from one of my students. He was using it to try to build his study skills and recommended it. That was about ten years ago, and I have since recommended it to many others. I came to Amazon today to send it as a gift to a student I know who is trying to get better. (and to get a new copy myself.)

This book works because it addresses more than just the skills. It addresses motivation and our image of ourselves. As a rowing coach and a teacher, I know how important both those things are. It is important to have an image of yourself doing it right. The writing is also direct and clear, with good examples. It moves quickly. And the skills and suggestions it makes work. I found myself applying the same principles in other situations.

This book is wonderful! It covers everything... study environment to note taking to keeping balance between school and your other lives! The text is easy to read, and the pictures put a funny outlook on the text. The ideas given are fantastic and make you think, too. The writing section gives a fresh outlook on how to write.

One can tell that Michael Joyce is a seasoned writer, who takes his craft quite seriously. His writing is beautiful, and in my opinion, unusual. In "Liam's Going" he creates a memorable story about love and loss, about a family trying to come to peace with the past and present. On the surface this novel tells the simple tale of a son going to college--but meaningful musings lay within this fine work.

Liam's Going by Michael Joyce is a deftly written novel about a young man named Liam who is about to go off to college. Yet his departure has repercussions on the strained marriage of his parents, each of whom must confront different pulls and separate loves in their lives. Liam's Going is a introspective, thoughtful, and ultimately emotionally rewarding story. Also highly recommended is Michael Joyce's early novel, The War Outside Ireland (Tinkers Dam Press, 0943608015, [$$$]).

Mr. Joyce's latest work flows like our thoughts, back and forth through time and experience, shuffling seamlessly as past events and the present weave together as smooth as a dream. A son's departure for a first term at college revives old emotions and creates new. Current relationships shift in meaning and old relationships resettle. Joyce's style is flawless and true. You will be drawn in and held by his voice.

While some in the Civil War community complain of "Chamberlain fatigue," it is difficult to gripe about this marvelous new collection of postwar correspondence from one of the most articulate officers on either side of the conflict.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain survived the Civil War - including a horrible wound at Petersburg - to become one of Maine's most prominent citizens. His postwar career included four terms as governor of Maine, a stint as president of Bowdoin College, numerous business enterprises, and perhaps most importantly, many years as a writer and lecturer on his Civil War experiences.

The correspondence included by editor Jeremiah Goulka covers nearly every aspect of Chamberlain's personal and professional life. Chamberlain's heartfelt letters to his family, especially those to his wife Fannie, reveal him to be a loving, thoughtful husband and father. His relationship with Fannie, stormy and difficult though it was for many years, survived numerous crises until Fannie's death in 1905.

Chamberlain's Civil War experiences transformed him, and his separation from the army often left him feeling restless. In 1870, Chamberlain wrote to the King of Prussia and offered his services in Prussia's war with France. In 1898, Chamberlain contacted the Secretary of War to volunteer for the Spanish-American War. Even with all his postwar positions and projects, Chamberlain never quite filled the space in his soul left empty by the end of the Civil War.

Critics of Chamberlain, in his lifetime and in our own time, claim that he inflated his role at Little Round Top in an attempt to horde the glory of that important engagement. At least one letter included in this volume refutes this criticism. In a January 1910 letter to Union veteran and author Oliver W. Norton, Chamberlain says of his brigade commander, Strong Vincent, "He was a noble man, and I have not known an abler commander in his grade. Nothing could exceed his skill and energy in taking the position on Little Round Top and the confidence he inspired in his subordinates. To this the result of the fight on the left at Round Top is very largely due [emphasis added]."

The correspondence also clarifies an often incorrectly reported fact concerning the July 1913 fiftieth anniversary reunion at Gettysburg. Chamberlain, while he visited Gettysburg in May as a member of the planning commission, did not attend the July reunion. Chamberlain's doctor strongly urged him not to go due to his declining health, and he stayed behind in Maine.

Rather than being castigated for his prolific eloquence, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain deserves the timeless thanks of everyone who studies the Civil War. Jeremiah Goulka deserves thanks as well, for his skillful editing, and for giving us a deeper understanding of a genuine American hero.

This book is very funny. A must have for high school teachers or anyone involved with a high school. It is full of comics similar to The Far Side. We laughed and laughed.

Absolutely masterful presentation, with the right degree of detail for a fair view of each issue surrounding the greatest American culture war. McPherson looks at all sides -- economic, religious, institutional and personal, bringing reality tests to the war's many myths. He tells the whole story in three solid sections -- the sources of conflict over previous decades, the killing contest itself, and the Reformation aftermath. I found it freshly moving and horrifying. The depth of racism McPherson exposes in both North and South is astonishing, as is the tidal wave of moral revulsion against inequality. It's a patriotic book, and McPherson conveys the glory of a crushing U.S. victory. But he doesn't draw his curtain on the story till the 1890's, when efforts to enforce racial equality came to an exhausted stop. It's a testament both to the horrific power of human passions, and the futility of trying to change people by force.

I bought the abridged version here instead of the two - volume set. This book was great! The chapters were fairly short and McPherson's writing style is easy to read. It was an "optional" book for a course I took in college and I'm glad I bought it. It focuses on the social and political aspects of the Civil War as much as the battles. I really like that. It begins with politics in the election of 1860 and ends with Reconstruction. When it does discuss battles, it has maps to show you the various stages and days visually. I recommend this book for anyone interested in the Civil War, including historians, students, and History teachers.

Ordeal by Fire is an excellent reference for anyone studying the Civil War. James McPherson has a brilliant narrative style that makes his work a pleasure to read, and easy to comprehend. This is a must-read book for anyone studying the civil war. It is also a good reference for the Reconstruction era.

Ordeal By Fire has been an excellent source so far of what caused America to enter into a full scale Civil War

Insightful, and comprehensive. I bought this book in order to study for a DSST exam on the Civil War. I find myself going back to it now just for the joy of reading it. By the way, the book does a super job of getting you ready for the exam.

I read Crabcakes almost right when it came out, because Jim McPherson is a writer I greatly admire, and because he was my teacher and friend at U of Iowa while I was there.

I used Crabcakes as a text in my Sophomore English class at U of I, and generally people had a negative reaction. It was slow, plodding, confusing, and over-philosophical. It was also obscure in meaning, place, and time. Some students refused to finish it, and others came to class angry that they couldn't understand it.

When I first read it these were my reactions as well. However, I decided to use the book in class because it eventually came to rest securely with only a handful of works that I didn't enjoy reading: stories I only came to appreciate later. Many of the most engrossing novels I've read don't have the staying power of some of the most difficult, and such has been the case with Crabcakes.

McPherson's often convoluted sense of pacing, and his involved sense of meaning (that spans cultures, continents, and languages) was a pretty big project to get through, but once I was finished I couldn't stop thinking about it for a long time.

This is the best of art, the kind of creative endeavor that puts me in awe--when someone has an intensely personal vision and manages to communicate it with such accuracy that, for a time at least, the world looks different.

I highly recommend this book.

I did not enjoy this book to the fullest. I got confused about certain characters. I hated it. I could not get into the book for some reason. He should have had a dictionary in the back . So, that the reader could find defintions of certain words. Certain parts of the book were interesting but most of it was boring. I would not recommend this book to anyone at anytime. The book could have been better if it was well organized. He jumped from one subject to another, many times. That totally confused me. I wish the book was shorter also. I really didn't understand why he complained so much about everything. He stayed in his house forever. This seemed unusual for a writer of his caliber. I believe he was under much stress when he wrote this book. And that's why the book is not wrought reading. This is my opinion of the book only many others said that the book was great. That's probably because they understood him. Truly he was very unsuccessful when he wrote this book.

Crabcakes follows an action taken(McPherson's impulsive purchase of a Baltimore rowhouse at auction because he sympathisized with the plight of its tenants) through the unexpected results on his life for years afterwards. His reflections make you pause and consider ripple events in your own life. "Etiquette Necessary for Survival on Secondary Roads" is brilliant.

James Alan McPherson, the author of two of the greatest short story collections of the postwar era, Hue and Cry (1969) and Elbow Room (1977) ends tewnty years of book silence with a moving, illuminating memoir of his journey from personal isolation to acceptance and understanding of community. We meet some memorable characters, Mrs. Channie Washington, the narrator's tenant, who always enclosed a small affirming note with the rent check, Ira Kemp, the dreamer and former co-worker of McPherson's as a railroad waiter in the early 60's, who became a lawyer and argued a case before the Supreme Court, Howard Morton, McPherson's neighbor, who looks out for him, while carrying for his own invalid son, and several Japanesse friends, who teach the author "religio," neighboring or binding. McPherson's quiet humor, dignity, and clear human insight make this a book of continual surprises, recognition and beauty. In answer to the question who in the world would you most like to have dinner and conversation with, some would say Thomas Jefferson, Einstein or Rembrant. My answer: I'd like to eat crab cakes with McPherson.

Good statistical presentation of the motivation of colleges/universities in provided financial aid over the past few decades and how it is changing. Little to help parents to how to deal with a financial aid office.

A scholarly statistical work on the trends of how student aid is being disbursed in the United States. Good analysis of the what is driving student aid offices; how they are in transition and sometimes have conflicting objectives. Little help to parents/students trying to weave through the financial aid maze. The reader can assume why dealing with financial aid offices can be so difficult; but the stage is set to provide more specifics which are not included.

This is an excellent economic study of how financial aid affects the decisions of undergraduates to attend institutions, including whether to attend or not. The Student Aid Game should be read by anyone interested in making college more accessable to those who are qualified to attend but can not afford it. Schapiro and McPherson demonstrate that increasing Federal Financial Aid greatly increases the participation of minorities and the poor. It is not, however, a book designed to help parents manuever through the paper jungle of financial aid offers and dealing with financial aid offices. Their goal is far more grand, pushing for policy changes that will increase the opportunities minorities and poor americans have to attend institutions of higher learning