This text provides practical and immediately applicable skills and critical-thinking strategies by emphasizing self-discovery, self-management, and self-assessment. By challenging first-year students to motivate themselves and take personal responsibility for their own success, this text instills confidence by showing students they can succeed by applying themselves. A conversational writing style enhances the journey students take to becoming more successful in college and life. Now, part of the Student Achievement Series, The Confident Student, 6/e, is thoroughly redesigned with input from both students and instructors to incorporate concise, to-the-point coverage of key concepts and pedagogy that reinforces these concepts. This new structure further supports the author's intention to teach the active reading, learning, and critical thinking skills students will need in later academic courses.

The author describes her life in a rough Colorado mining town during the latter part of the nineteenth century