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Student writes e-book aid for smarter study
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Thibault Sorret had tried to read books on how to study effectively, some written by prestigious educators, but he couldn’t wade through them because he found them boring and outdated. Like many students today, Sorret preferred the Internet and other technologies.
After learning that many of his friends had the same problem, Sorret, a French student at Shanghai Community International School’s Hongqiao campus, decided to write an e-book offering his own advice on study skills from a student’s perspective.
That was three years ago.
“The purpose of my book is to help students learn faster and smarter to get better grades and more free time to enjoy a fun, balanced teen life,” Sorret said.
“I realized that I had to complete schoolwork in a shorter time so that I would have more time for sports and friends,” the high school student, now age 17, told Shanghai Daily.
After a year of research, testing and design work, his e-book, “Win at School,” was released in September at http://win-at-school.com. It has been well received among expat students and several hundred copies have been sold. “As a high school student, I understand what works, what doesn’t, what’s reasonable and what’s not because I’ve been there. This is a book by a student for students,” Sorret said.
The US$17 e-book, in a PDF format, has an edition for middle school students and one for high school students. The books contain sections on how to review schoolwork, do homework and use resources effectively.
Unlike many traditional how-to-study books containing a lot of theory, Sorret uses a concise and simple language to integrate expert research from a student’s perspective.
Writing took around 800 hours and editing, design and creating the website took another 1,200 hours.
Once a system bug caused his website to crash, and he lost everything, leading him to consider giving up.
“I would like to thank my friends, teachers and my family for giving me great support. My sister helped proofreading and gave me a lot of valuable advice on how to improve it,” said Sorret.
The e-book describes a range of study tools that Sorret, a tech enthusiast, uses in his daily life and schoolwork. These include StatFuse, a tool that estimates students chances of getting into college; a To-Do application for time management, and the Self-Control app to block distracting sites such as Facebook and Twitter, to help students concentrate.
It was tested on more than 130 students between October and November in 2012. Students in the test groups increased their grades by as much as to 11.3 percent while decreasing their study time, according to Sorret.
Working harder doesn’t necessarily improve grades — study smarter does, Sorret said. Time can be wasted by slow reading, procrastination and ineffective multitasking, he said.
“Many students spend too much their time working or stressing out over schoolwork, primarily because they don’t know how to study quickly and effectively,” Sorret said.
“Life is boring if all you do is schoolwork but have no time for friends and activities,” he added.
Sorret has played rugby for seven years, runs a half-marathon and does yoga every day — a healthy body is very important for efficient learning, he said. He also organizes TEDx community events.
He is president of his school’s National Honor Society, emphasizing the four pillars of leadership, scholarship, character and service.
Sorret has lived in Shanghai since 2004. He said he aims for both good grades and a good life. He wants to become an entrepreneur and “Win at School” is his first company.
Ten percent of the book’s profits go to Free The Children, an international youth charity that builds schools in impoverished areas and undertakes projects. The rest of the money will be donated to future projects.
Sorret plans an application to help students organize their student life. He is considering making video courses on better study.
Winners are those who know what they want and achieve it by constantly working towards goals. “Everyone can win in his or her own way, and school is just a small part of that,” Sorret said.
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