A Free Study Guide For Every Student

For high school seniors applying to college, there are a lot of things to consider which school to go to, whether to live on campus or commute, and what to do about the rising cost of tuition. However, what they might not consider is the prospect of having to carry studying skills into an entirely new learning environment. Fortunately, a UB professor has some suggestions for students who are looking into pursuing higher education.In 1999, William J. Rapaport, PhD., a computer science and engineering professor and affiliated philosophy and linguistics professor at UB, wrote a guide to help his stepdaughter prepare for college. Today, it has helped students from countries all over the world get better grades. Rapaport's 10th anniversary edition of this manual, How to Study A Brief Guide, is available for public use at this site.

The guide is presented in an easy to read format with short paragraphs and comics that illustrate each of his individual points. Rapaport includes tips that advise students how to manage their time, read textbooks effectively, do research for and write essays, and more. Since he published the guide, students in the US, Spain, China, India, Sweden, Australia, and other countries have used the tips to improve their own study habits and grades.Rapaport said that he based his techniques on skills that he learned by branching out from his original field of mathematics in college. He majored in math as an undergraduate, but studied philosophy in graduate school. Rapaport's techniques in the guide are mostly based on information in cognitive science literature, but he said that his experience in multiple fields let him see that what works in math can work in other fields as well.

As a math major, I always read things slowly and carefully, Rapaport said. Because of the cumulative nature of math, I made sure I understood everything before going on to a new topic. When I started to study philosophy, I just applied the same techniques and they worked geared his guide toward educating and helping college freshmen. However, he said that he has heard of students in high school, middle school, and even elementary school benefiting from his information as well, based on comments that he has received from online readers, parents, and teachers in various grade levels. Regardless of what age a student is, Rapport's guide may very well prove to be a useful read.