The Manager's Good Study Guide

Designed for management students, this book is a comprehensive and practical guide for improving your study skills.

Using practical exercises and examples from the world of management, The Manager's Good Study Guide will help you to:

• read with understanding
• make meaningful notes
• write fluently and accurately
• handle numbers with confidence
• prepare effectively for exams
• understand and use business diagrams and charts

Intended for all students and managers working for management qualifications, this book shows you how to develop effective strategies for studying to suit your own personal needs. It can be used as an introductory workbook or as a reference book to help refine your study techniques. The book also includes a chapter for students whose first language is not English.

If you are new to study or returning after a break, The Manager's Good Study Guide will show you that studying doesn't have to be difficult.

The editors, Ken Giles and Nicki Hedges, are at The Open University's Open Business School where they teach and research study skills.

1. Getting started
1. How to use this book
2. Why read about study skills?
3. Managing yourself
4. Developing a systematic approach
5. Managing to study
6. Summary
2. Learning opportunities
1. Introduction
2. Learning from your own experience
3. Learning from a mentor
4. Learning from lectures and talks
5. Learning in groups
6. Learning from electronic media
7. Learning from case studies
• Appendix 2.1: A mentoring action plan
• Appendix 2.2: Taking notes in lectures
3. Reading
1. Introduction
2. Your attitude towards the topic
3. Your feelings when reading
4. Reading as an interactive process
5. Good readers: facts and myths
6. Identifying your own reading strategies
7. Note-taking strategies
8. Keeping notes
9. Summary
• Appendix 3.1: Paragraph labels for Reading appendix 1
4. Effective writing
1. Introduction
2. Feelings about writing
3. Grammar
4. Spelling
5. Punctuation
6. Style
7. Summary
• Appendix 4.1: Some rules of thumb for spelling
5. Writing assignments
1. Introduction
2. The purpose of assignments
3. Answering the questions
4. Writing tools
5. Practice assignments
6. Report writing
7. Characteristics of good management assignments
8. Summary
6. Studying with English as a foreign language
1. Introduction
2. How it feels to be using English as a study language
3. Active learning
4. Vocabulary
5. Using dictionaries
6. Grammar
7. Reading
8. Writing
9. Listening and speaking
10. Summary
• Appendix 6.1: Paragraph labels for Reading appendix 2
7. Working with numbers and diagrams
1. Introduction
2. Getting to know numbers
3. Working with tables
4. Working with diagrams and graphs
5. Working with averages
6. Summary
7. Communicating through diagrams
8. How diagrams can help you in your studies
9. Using diagrams from the course materials
10. Using diagrams of your own choice and design
• Appendix 7.1: Index of management charts and diagrams
8. Preparing for examinations
1. Why exams?
2. Some myths about exams
3. What examiners do not like
4. Revising for exams
5. Final preparations
6. Working out your tactical plan for the exam
7. Handling stress in the exam
8. Final thoughts
• Appendix 8.1: An approach to an exam question
9. What next?
• Reading appendix 1: Successful versus effective real managers
• Reading appendix 2: Gemanity — reflections on a people
• Recommended texts

If you intend to study an MBA (part-time or by distance), this book is mandatory reading for your survival.