This is the first in a series of study skills guide aiming to help you improve your study skills series. I'd like to explain one or two things about how you can make the best use of this series of study skills guide. For a start, they're not just study skills guide, well - not ordinary ones! They're not like textbooks. They're components of a course. That means you don't just read them - you do them!

Every now and then there are things for you to do. Most of these are called ''Self Analysis Questions'' or Activities for short. In each of these, I'll be asking you to do a bit of thinking. Maybe I'll ask you to pick one of several options. Sometimes I'll ask you to work out a strategy. Whenever you come to an Activity please have a go. Then turn to my ''response'' to the activity (these are collected at the back of each study skills guide). There you'll find my comments to compare with what you did. You'll then be able to do a bit of self-analysis!

Each study skills guide or section starts with a list of objectives. These tell you quite a lot about what's to come. They also explain what you should be able to do when you've worked through the material. Using the titles and the objectives, you can find out which part of the material (or which study skills guide) you need most at any given time. You don't have to start this series at the beginning and go right through to the end. You are in charge: start anywhere.

I hope this study skills guide will help you a lot. It's based on several years working with many thousands of university students on study skills topics. I've tried to condense their combined wisdom - and their problems - into this study skills guide. This study skills guide is about keeping up - and getting ahead. Forward thinking is better than trailing behind!

A suggestion: don't just work through these study skills guide once and then leave them on the shelf. Keep going back for a refresher. Please write all over these study skills guide! Use a highlighting pen to remind you of bits that may particularly help you. Have another go at some of the Self Analysis Questions later on in your studies - see how your answers change as your experience grows.

A final point: enjoy yourself! Being a student can be a very good phase of your life - whatever your age! You can of course choose to worry and get down in the mouth. The best way out of worries is to do something positive about them. If your university work causes you to worry - get going with it. I've tried in these study skills guide to give you all sorts of ideas about getting down to work.

You can't work all the time of course. Some days you'll not feel like work at all. So what? As long as in general you're on target with your studying - an off-day or an off-week isn't going to kill your chances! Get ahead! These study skills guide should help you set yourself sensible targets. They should also help you work out flexible strategies so that you reach your targets with the minimum of wasted energy. They should help you get so far ahead that you can have days-off instead of off-days!