It's okay, 28 Nov 2008
This book is okay as a basic guide, however it has a few flaws...

1) Most of the information is easily available on the internet.
2) It sounds as if the person writing it has never heard the opinions of the students at the universities or been to them, it's just facts and figures, so you don't really get a feel for the universities.
3) It doesn't include colleges, such as the university college for the creative arts, it's not a university but it has university courses and validated BA hons degrees. There are a lot of Arts colleges like this that have not been given university status because they only do one subject. Many are now being given this status but a lot still do not have it, so this guide was not very inclusive when it comes to looking for an art degree.

Overall i don't think this was worth the money as it was just facts and figures that i could find easily online. I would buy a differnt guide next time.

Very useful, but..., 01 Sep 2008
I had been using this book in careers class to help me decide which universities I was going to apply to, and this book was exceedingly helpful for this task.
This book gives a league table of universities and also ranks them by each subject for example, Law or History. Another important aspect of this book is that it describes the universities making it truly invaluable to any A-Level student.
However, I only gave this book four stars because the vast majority of information is available online - in the Times website and also through the universities' websites.
Overall I would say that this book is very useful and definitely needed for any student who wants to make the right choice of university - after all it is one of the most important decisions you will make!


Excellent, 23 Jan 2007
Required reading for anyone considering or planning to go to University in the UK. A mass of well-researched, well-analysed data and information that helps one make much better informed judgement on one of the most important decisions of one's life.

It's okay, 28 Nov 2008
This book is okay as a basic guide, however it has a few flaws...

1) Most of the information is easily available on the internet.
2) It sounds as if the person writing it has never heard the opinions of the students at the universities or been to them, it's just facts and figures, so you don't really get a feel for the universities.
3) It doesn't include colleges, such as the university college for the creative arts, it's not a university but it has university courses and validated BA hons degrees. There are a lot of Arts colleges like this that have not been given university status because they only do one subject. Many are now being given this status but a lot still do not have it, so this guide was not very inclusive when it comes to looking for an art degree.

Overall i don't think this was worth the money as it was just facts and figures that i could find easily online. I would buy a differnt guide next time.

Very useful, but..., 01 Sep 2008
I had been using this book in careers class to help me decide which universities I was going to apply to, and this book was exceedingly helpful for this task.
This book gives a league table of universities and also ranks them by each subject for example, Law or History. Another important aspect of this book is that it describes the universities making it truly invaluable to any A-Level student.
However, I only gave this book four stars because the vast majority of information is available online - in the Times website and also through the universities' websites.
Overall I would say that this book is very useful and definitely needed for any student who wants to make the right choice of university - after all it is one of the most important decisions you will make!


Excellent, 23 Jan 2007
Required reading for anyone considering or planning to go to University in the UK. A mass of well-researched, well-analysed data and information that helps one make much better informed judgement on one of the most important decisions of one's life.

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A brilliant book on writing a research project literature review!, 08 Jan 2007
I used Chris Hart's book as a postgraduate student and I was more than satisfied to say the least. After reading the book I was able to advise my classmates as to how to write a good literature review.

There are a lot of interesting illustrations which thoroughly explain the process of prior research than needs to be done and then how it's all combined and written up as a document i.e. a literature review.

Moreover, the most important elements that are described within the book are the types of research available to the researcher, the goals of a research, the issues of different types of research, the different ways of argumentation, how to cite references, a checklist of do's and don'ts.

I recommend Hart's book to every postgraduate student bound to a literature review write-up and academics in general.

Excellent!, 01 Aug 2003
A brilliant book written in such a wonderful, transparent and
understandable style. A real gem that is best in its class. Excellent reference when judging graduate and post-graduate thesis works. Recommended warmly!

This is an excellent primer and useful for post-docs too, 12 Feb 2002
The book covers the typical issues in conducting a literature review in the social sciences. It covers the role of the lit review. How to review. Classifying and reading research. Analysing arguments. Organising ideas. Mapping and expressing ideas. The later sections bring to light the real purpose of the review: not to read everything written on x but to put the reasons for your study within the context of the past research in a topic and explore the ideas that have underlain progress in a topic. Excellent

Magnificent guide to literature review, 07 May 2001
Chris Hart's guide to doing a literature review presents a comprehensive perspective on the literature review as a research tool. While it is addressed to scholars in the social sciences, this book is useful in most areas of design research. Hart discusses the role of literature in research. He explains how reviewing earlier work releases the imagination rather than constraining it. He shows how to classify and read research literature, how to analyze arguments, and how to organize and express ideas. He also teaches the reader useful ways to map and analyze the ideas that each body of literature reveals. Finally, he demonstrates in careful, clear stages how to develop and write the literature review. At each point, Hart develops a serious, well-reasoned explanation that helps the scholar to understand why each step is important and how to do it well.

Ken Friedman
Professor
Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, and Denmark's Design School, Copenhagen

This review originally appeared in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

It's okay, 28 Nov 2008
This book is okay as a basic guide, however it has a few flaws...

1) Most of the information is easily available on the internet.
2) It sounds as if the person writing it has never heard the opinions of the students at the universities or been to them, it's just facts and figures, so you don't really get a feel for the universities.
3) It doesn't include colleges, such as the university college for the creative arts, it's not a university but it has university courses and validated BA hons degrees. There are a lot of Arts colleges like this that have not been given university status because they only do one subject. Many are now being given this status but a lot still do not have it, so this guide was not very inclusive when it comes to looking for an art degree.

Overall i don't think this was worth the money as it was just facts and figures that i could find easily online. I would buy a differnt guide next time.

Very useful, but..., 01 Sep 2008
I had been using this book in careers class to help me decide which universities I was going to apply to, and this book was exceedingly helpful for this task.
This book gives a league table of universities and also ranks them by each subject for example, Law or History. Another important aspect of this book is that it describes the universities making it truly invaluable to any A-Level student.
However, I only gave this book four stars because the vast majority of information is available online - in the Times website and also through the universities' websites.
Overall I would say that this book is very useful and definitely needed for any student who wants to make the right choice of university - after all it is one of the most important decisions you will make!


Excellent, 23 Jan 2007
Required reading for anyone considering or planning to go to University in the UK. A mass of well-researched, well-analysed data and information that helps one make much better informed judgement on one of the most important decisions of one's life.

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A brilliant book on writing a research project literature review!, 08 Jan 2007
I used Chris Hart's book as a postgraduate student and I was more than satisfied to say the least. After reading the book I was able to advise my classmates as to how to write a good literature review.

There are a lot of interesting illustrations which thoroughly explain the process of prior research than needs to be done and then how it's all combined and written up as a document i.e. a literature review.

Moreover, the most important elements that are described within the book are the types of research available to the researcher, the goals of a research, the issues of different types of research, the different ways of argumentation, how to cite references, a checklist of do's and don'ts.

I recommend Hart's book to every postgraduate student bound to a literature review write-up and academics in general.

Excellent!, 01 Aug 2003
A brilliant book written in such a wonderful, transparent and
understandable style. A real gem that is best in its class. Excellent reference when judging graduate and post-graduate thesis works. Recommended warmly!

This is an excellent primer and useful for post-docs too, 12 Feb 2002
The book covers the typical issues in conducting a literature review in the social sciences. It covers the role of the lit review. How to review. Classifying and reading research. Analysing arguments. Organising ideas. Mapping and expressing ideas. The later sections bring to light the real purpose of the review: not to read everything written on x but to put the reasons for your study within the context of the past research in a topic and explore the ideas that have underlain progress in a topic. Excellent

Magnificent guide to literature review, 07 May 2001
Chris Hart's guide to doing a literature review presents a comprehensive perspective on the literature review as a research tool. While it is addressed to scholars in the social sciences, this book is useful in most areas of design research. Hart discusses the role of literature in research. He explains how reviewing earlier work releases the imagination rather than constraining it. He shows how to classify and read research literature, how to analyze arguments, and how to organize and express ideas. He also teaches the reader useful ways to map and analyze the ideas that each body of literature reveals. Finally, he demonstrates in careful, clear stages how to develop and write the literature review. At each point, Hart develops a serious, well-reasoned explanation that helps the scholar to understand why each step is important and how to do it well.

Ken Friedman
Professor
Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, and Denmark's Design School, Copenhagen

This review originally appeared in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

The most useful book I have read, 05 Sep 2005
When my mother gave me this book as a leaving present I did at first feel a little skeptical of its promises... well the title had a lot to live up to. However, having poured over this book during my train journey up to Manchester I kind of got the impression that this book had been written from experience rather than to simply make a fast buck. The sections are clear, the information useful and honest. I loved the section on Hedonism!
I especially liked the section on housing. Being a student and leaving home for the first time I found the information invaluable.

This is the one time my mother got it right. I think they should give it out on fresher's week.

The Virgin University Survival Guide, 31 Aug 2005
This book gave the most comprehensive guide to life as a student that I have come across in my travels and was an instant buy when I sent my first child off to university. My second child is off to university again this year and I will be buying another copy for her too.

Not the best of its kind, 01 Aug 2005
I checked this book out and a couple of other similar ones. Its okay, I suppose, but when I compared it to The Push Guide to Choosing a University which has similar content, at almost half the price and is much funnier and more readable, it's clear which is a better buy.

Blaggers guide revealed!, 21 Apr 2004
I bought this for my little bro (off to uni) and won't be giving it to himuntil well after the event as i chuckle and chortle my way though thewhole thing.
Simply put it is a list of all the scams and blags that it took the likesof me and my mates three years to work out, tidily organised into oneconcise book. During the dark days of cash-flow problems (which tend toresemble the hoover dam)known as university, this seems like anindispensible aid to keeping your head above water in a variety of (legal)ways.
Since its not from the library there is a chance that they will actuallyread it well before the third year. I can only sit and be jealous of thisyears fresh crop of first years as they sit smug in the knowledge thattheir ride through the first tumultuous years of post-home life will be assmooth as... well picking up a book and reading it.

It's okay, 28 Nov 2008
This book is okay as a basic guide, however it has a few flaws...

1) Most of the information is easily available on the internet.
2) It sounds as if the person writing it has never heard the opinions of the students at the universities or been to them, it's just facts and figures, so you don't really get a feel for the universities.
3) It doesn't include colleges, such as the university college for the creative arts, it's not a university but it has university courses and validated BA hons degrees. There are a lot of Arts colleges like this that have not been given university status because they only do one subject. Many are now being given this status but a lot still do not have it, so this guide was not very inclusive when it comes to looking for an art degree.

Overall i don't think this was worth the money as it was just facts and figures that i could find easily online. I would buy a differnt guide next time.

Very useful, but..., 01 Sep 2008
I had been using this book in careers class to help me decide which universities I was going to apply to, and this book was exceedingly helpful for this task.
This book gives a league table of universities and also ranks them by each subject for example, Law or History. Another important aspect of this book is that it describes the universities making it truly invaluable to any A-Level student.
However, I only gave this book four stars because the vast majority of information is available online - in the Times website and also through the universities' websites.
Overall I would say that this book is very useful and definitely needed for any student who wants to make the right choice of university - after all it is one of the most important decisions you will make!


Excellent, 23 Jan 2007
Required reading for anyone considering or planning to go to University in the UK. A mass of well-researched, well-analysed data and information that helps one make much better informed judgement on one of the most important decisions of one's life.

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A brilliant book on writing a research project literature review!, 08 Jan 2007
I used Chris Hart's book as a postgraduate student and I was more than satisfied to say the least. After reading the book I was able to advise my classmates as to how to write a good literature review.

There are a lot of interesting illustrations which thoroughly explain the process of prior research than needs to be done and then how it's all combined and written up as a document i.e. a literature review.

Moreover, the most important elements that are described within the book are the types of research available to the researcher, the goals of a research, the issues of different types of research, the different ways of argumentation, how to cite references, a checklist of do's and don'ts.

I recommend Hart's book to every postgraduate student bound to a literature review write-up and academics in general.

Excellent!, 01 Aug 2003
A brilliant book written in such a wonderful, transparent and
understandable style. A real gem that is best in its class. Excellent reference when judging graduate and post-graduate thesis works. Recommended warmly!

This is an excellent primer and useful for post-docs too, 12 Feb 2002
The book covers the typical issues in conducting a literature review in the social sciences. It covers the role of the lit review. How to review. Classifying and reading research. Analysing arguments. Organising ideas. Mapping and expressing ideas. The later sections bring to light the real purpose of the review: not to read everything written on x but to put the reasons for your study within the context of the past research in a topic and explore the ideas that have underlain progress in a topic. Excellent

Magnificent guide to literature review, 07 May 2001
Chris Hart's guide to doing a literature review presents a comprehensive perspective on the literature review as a research tool. While it is addressed to scholars in the social sciences, this book is useful in most areas of design research. Hart discusses the role of literature in research. He explains how reviewing earlier work releases the imagination rather than constraining it. He shows how to classify and read research literature, how to analyze arguments, and how to organize and express ideas. He also teaches the reader useful ways to map and analyze the ideas that each body of literature reveals. Finally, he demonstrates in careful, clear stages how to develop and write the literature review. At each point, Hart develops a serious, well-reasoned explanation that helps the scholar to understand why each step is important and how to do it well.

Ken Friedman
Professor
Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, and Denmark's Design School, Copenhagen

This review originally appeared in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

The most useful book I have read, 05 Sep 2005
When my mother gave me this book as a leaving present I did at first feel a little skeptical of its promises... well the title had a lot to live up to. However, having poured over this book during my train journey up to Manchester I kind of got the impression that this book had been written from experience rather than to simply make a fast buck. The sections are clear, the information useful and honest. I loved the section on Hedonism!
I especially liked the section on housing. Being a student and leaving home for the first time I found the information invaluable.

This is the one time my mother got it right. I think they should give it out on fresher's week.

The Virgin University Survival Guide, 31 Aug 2005
This book gave the most comprehensive guide to life as a student that I have come across in my travels and was an instant buy when I sent my first child off to university. My second child is off to university again this year and I will be buying another copy for her too.

Not the best of its kind, 01 Aug 2005
I checked this book out and a couple of other similar ones. Its okay, I suppose, but when I compared it to The Push Guide to Choosing a University which has similar content, at almost half the price and is much funnier and more readable, it's clear which is a better buy.

Blaggers guide revealed!, 21 Apr 2004
I bought this for my little bro (off to uni) and won't be giving it to himuntil well after the event as i chuckle and chortle my way though thewhole thing.
Simply put it is a list of all the scams and blags that it took the likesof me and my mates three years to work out, tidily organised into oneconcise book. During the dark days of cash-flow problems (which tend toresemble the hoover dam)known as university, this seems like anindispensible aid to keeping your head above water in a variety of (legal)ways.
Since its not from the library there is a chance that they will actuallyread it well before the third year. I can only sit and be jealous of thisyears fresh crop of first years as they sit smug in the knowledge thattheir ride through the first tumultuous years of post-home life will be assmooth as... well picking up a book and reading it.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
I read this book in two sittings. The first while waiting in a hotel reception for my friend Darren. He was fairly late but I had plenty of time to kill. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
This book is remarkable for many reasons. It covers the entire cannon of greek myths and legends in a refreshing and illuminating way. Graves cross-indexes the entire book with a kind of "internet-link hypertext" (this book was written WAY before the WWW) that can lead to surprising connections. And yes, he does present his ingenious "key" to understanding the "true" meanings "hidden" behind these stories, but he had the decency to separate these from the more generally accepted "University course" interpretations. And, as even critical reviewers have pointed out, even if you disagree with what he has to say, he was an extremely well read and scholarly man with an astonishing knack for rendering the past vivid and meaningful. His opinions are always thought provoking and worth reading...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
Robert Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS falls between the Victorian bombast of Bulfinch and the popular style of Edith Hamilton, less stylistically intimidating than the former and more scholarly than the latter. Originally published as a two volume set in 1955 with author revisions in 1957 and 1960, this single volume text does not abridge the original text but merely confines it to a single binding.

One's reaction to THE GREEK MYTHS will depend to some extent on one's purpose in acquiring it. This is an exhaustive collection of Greek mythology that far outstrips any other modern anthology that I have encountered, including myths both better known and extremely obscure. Each myth is presented in concise, graceful prose, and where possible Graves includes genealogies of the characters and major variations of each myth; an interpretive essay also follows each myth.

While Graves' retelling of the myths themselves have been widely praised, his interpretations of the myths have been somewhat criticized--and justly so. Graves tends to see incarnations of the "White Goddess" and the "Sacrificial King" in every third story; more dangerously, he tends to tie the myths to historical events in a highly speculative way. While this does not undercut the interest of his interpretations, it does hold a number of traps for the casual reader, who may assume that Graves' essays offer standard, scholastically unbiased interpretations based on proven historical events.

For myself, I use Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS as both reference and pleasure-reading, and I enjoy it a great deal; it is an indispensable purchase for any one with a serious interest in Greek mythology or for any one who must frequently reference the same for scholarly purposes, and I strongly recommend it to them. At the same time, however, I would hesitate to recommend it to readers who have not previously been exposed to Greek mythology or who wish only a general knowledge of the major Greek myths; in such cases I would instead recommend Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY: TIMELESS TALES OF GODS AND HEROES.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
It takes a while to get through it but believe me, its worth it. Robert Graves gives an insight to the lives and the beliefs of the greeks all those years ago and puts all the confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

It's okay, 28 Nov 2008
This book is okay as a basic guide, however it has a few flaws...

1) Most of the information is easily available on the internet.
2) It sounds as if the person writing it has never heard the opinions of the students at the universities or been to them, it's just facts and figures, so you don't really get a feel for the universities.
3) It doesn't include colleges, such as the university college for the creative arts, it's not a university but it has university courses and validated BA hons degrees. There are a lot of Arts colleges like this that have not been given university status because they only do one subject. Many are now being given this status but a lot still do not have it, so this guide was not very inclusive when it comes to looking for an art degree.

Overall i don't think this was worth the money as it was just facts and figures that i could find easily online. I would buy a differnt guide next time.

Very useful, but..., 01 Sep 2008
I had been using this book in careers class to help me decide which universities I was going to apply to, and this book was exceedingly helpful for this task.
This book gives a league table of universities and also ranks them by each subject for example, Law or History. Another important aspect of this book is that it describes the universities making it truly invaluable to any A-Level student.
However, I only gave this book four stars because the vast majority of information is available online - in the Times website and also through the universities' websites.
Overall I would say that this book is very useful and definitely needed for any student who wants to make the right choice of university - after all it is one of the most important decisions you will make!


Excellent, 23 Jan 2007
Required reading for anyone considering or planning to go to University in the UK. A mass of well-researched, well-analysed data and information that helps one make much better informed judgement on one of the most important decisions of one's life.

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A brilliant book on writing a research project literature review!, 08 Jan 2007
I used Chris Hart's book as a postgraduate student and I was more than satisfied to say the least. After reading the book I was able to advise my classmates as to how to write a good literature review.

There are a lot of interesting illustrations which thoroughly explain the process of prior research than needs to be done and then how it's all combined and written up as a document i.e. a literature review.

Moreover, the most important elements that are described within the book are the types of research available to the researcher, the goals of a research, the issues of different types of research, the different ways of argumentation, how to cite references, a checklist of do's and don'ts.

I recommend Hart's book to every postgraduate student bound to a literature review write-up and academics in general.

Excellent!, 01 Aug 2003
A brilliant book written in such a wonderful, transparent and
understandable style. A real gem that is best in its class. Excellent reference when judging graduate and post-graduate thesis works. Recommended warmly!

This is an excellent primer and useful for post-docs too, 12 Feb 2002
The book covers the typical issues in conducting a literature review in the social sciences. It covers the role of the lit review. How to review. Classifying and reading research. Analysing arguments. Organising ideas. Mapping and expressing ideas. The later sections bring to light the real purpose of the review: not to read everything written on x but to put the reasons for your study within the context of the past research in a topic and explore the ideas that have underlain progress in a topic. Excellent

Magnificent guide to literature review, 07 May 2001
Chris Hart's guide to doing a literature review presents a comprehensive perspective on the literature review as a research tool. While it is addressed to scholars in the social sciences, this book is useful in most areas of design research. Hart discusses the role of literature in research. He explains how reviewing earlier work releases the imagination rather than constraining it. He shows how to classify and read research literature, how to analyze arguments, and how to organize and express ideas. He also teaches the reader useful ways to map and analyze the ideas that each body of literature reveals. Finally, he demonstrates in careful, clear stages how to develop and write the literature review. At each point, Hart develops a serious, well-reasoned explanation that helps the scholar to understand why each step is important and how to do it well.

Ken Friedman
Professor
Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, and Denmark's Design School, Copenhagen

This review originally appeared in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

The most useful book I have read, 05 Sep 2005
When my mother gave me this book as a leaving present I did at first feel a little skeptical of its promises... well the title had a lot to live up to. However, having poured over this book during my train journey up to Manchester I kind of got the impression that this book had been written from experience rather than to simply make a fast buck. The sections are clear, the information useful and honest. I loved the section on Hedonism!
I especially liked the section on housing. Being a student and leaving home for the first time I found the information invaluable.

This is the one time my mother got it right. I think they should give it out on fresher's week.

The Virgin University Survival Guide, 31 Aug 2005
This book gave the most comprehensive guide to life as a student that I have come across in my travels and was an instant buy when I sent my first child off to university. My second child is off to university again this year and I will be buying another copy for her too.

Not the best of its kind, 01 Aug 2005
I checked this book out and a couple of other similar ones. Its okay, I suppose, but when I compared it to The Push Guide to Choosing a University which has similar content, at almost half the price and is much funnier and more readable, it's clear which is a better buy.

Blaggers guide revealed!, 21 Apr 2004
I bought this for my little bro (off to uni) and won't be giving it to himuntil well after the event as i chuckle and chortle my way though thewhole thing.
Simply put it is a list of all the scams and blags that it took the likesof me and my mates three years to work out, tidily organised into oneconcise book. During the dark days of cash-flow problems (which tend toresemble the hoover dam)known as university, this seems like anindispensible aid to keeping your head above water in a variety of (legal)ways.
Since its not from the library there is a chance that they will actuallyread it well before the third year. I can only sit and be jealous of thisyears fresh crop of first years as they sit smug in the knowledge thattheir ride through the first tumultuous years of post-home life will be assmooth as... well picking up a book and reading it.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
I read this book in two sittings. The first while waiting in a hotel reception for my friend Darren. He was fairly late but I had plenty of time to kill. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
This book is remarkable for many reasons. It covers the entire cannon of greek myths and legends in a refreshing and illuminating way. Graves cross-indexes the entire book with a kind of "internet-link hypertext" (this book was written WAY before the WWW) that can lead to surprising connections. And yes, he does present his ingenious "key" to understanding the "true" meanings "hidden" behind these stories, but he had the decency to separate these from the more generally accepted "University course" interpretations. And, as even critical reviewers have pointed out, even if you disagree with what he has to say, he was an extremely well read and scholarly man with an astonishing knack for rendering the past vivid and meaningful. His opinions are always thought provoking and worth reading...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
Robert Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS falls between the Victorian bombast of Bulfinch and the popular style of Edith Hamilton, less stylistically intimidating than the former and more scholarly than the latter. Originally published as a two volume set in 1955 with author revisions in 1957 and 1960, this single volume text does not abridge the original text but merely confines it to a single binding.

One's reaction to THE GREEK MYTHS will depend to some extent on one's purpose in acquiring it. This is an exhaustive collection of Greek mythology that far outstrips any other modern anthology that I have encountered, including myths both better known and extremely obscure. Each myth is presented in concise, graceful prose, and where possible Graves includes genealogies of the characters and major variations of each myth; an interpretive essay also follows each myth.

While Graves' retelling of the myths themselves have been widely praised, his interpretations of the myths have been somewhat criticized--and justly so. Graves tends to see incarnations of the "White Goddess" and the "Sacrificial King" in every third story; more dangerously, he tends to tie the myths to historical events in a highly speculative way. While this does not undercut the interest of his interpretations, it does hold a number of traps for the casual reader, who may assume that Graves' essays offer standard, scholastically unbiased interpretations based on proven historical events.

For myself, I use Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS as both reference and pleasure-reading, and I enjoy it a great deal; it is an indispensable purchase for any one with a serious interest in Greek mythology or for any one who must frequently reference the same for scholarly purposes, and I strongly recommend it to them. At the same time, however, I would hesitate to recommend it to readers who have not previously been exposed to Greek mythology or who wish only a general knowledge of the major Greek myths; in such cases I would instead recommend Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY: TIMELESS TALES OF GODS AND HEROES.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
It takes a while to get through it but believe me, its worth it. Robert Graves gives an insight to the lives and the beliefs of the greeks all those years ago and puts all the confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

Really not worth it., 27 Sep 2008
The guide kicks off with a lot of irrelevant information about general application to medical school, UCAS, personal statement writing etc - not useless by any means, but definitely not brilliant.

The real meat of the book is the practice questions, and I'm afraid to say that this is where it really falls over. The verbal reasoning questions are terrible, there are multiple typos, huge logical inconsistencies, many ambiguous questions and some of the answers are simply entirely wrong.

The other sections seem to be of a better quality, but on the basis of the second chapter, I really wouldn't bother with this book - no academic text (especially one with an emphasis on comprehension and critical thinking) should contain such elementary mistakes.

So far, so bad, 20 Sep 2008
I'm a magazine sub-editor and my flatmate is a patent attorney - we're both professional wordsmiths in our thirties. Following considerable analysis and debate (with diagrams!), we agree that there are flaws in the reasoning and the explanations of some of the verbal reasoning tests in this book. The logic applied also seems to be inconsistent across different questions. As a result, some of the questions seem ridiculously difficult.

The text also contains grammatical and typographic errors, which contribute to the sense of a badly produced guide.

The rest of the book may be more useful, but I am not impressed so far. It gets two stars because it could be worse!

Helpful for some sections, 26 Aug 2008
The book will help you mainly for the abstract reasoning and decision analysis. However the verbal reasoning section is terrible. A lot of the answers are wrong and provide invalid explanations.
Helpful? Some parts
Worth the money? No
Better alternatives? Buy the succeeding the UKCAT book.


OK-ish, 17 Aug 2008
I found the first section helpful, applying for Graduate Entry by myself means I haven't been told some of the things that I'm sure those applying straight from college will have about personal statements etc.

The questions were however too few and disproportionately difficult; though I guess being overprepared is better than under. There were also 3 errors (that I picked up on; there may in fact be more) but they were quie obvious ones so don't really impede on your learning.

Worth the £10 I paid just to feel a bit more prepared but not great.

Disappointing, 30 Jul 2008
Like most people, I bought this book for the practice questions in order to supplement those already available on the UKCAT website, as well as some useful tips on tackling the questions, managing time etc.

However, I was dissapointed to see that the majority of the book was taken up with material irrelevant to the UKCAT (e.g. all the stuff about med school application in general, and the BMAT). I also found the practice questions VERY hard, which is odd as the test itself was comparitively easy and I scored well over 700 on each section.

If you're sitting the UKCAT and can borrow a copy of the book, then go for it, you might get something out of it, but not worth buying.

It's okay, 28 Nov 2008
This book is okay as a basic guide, however it has a few flaws...

1) Most of the information is easily available on the internet.
2) It sounds as if the person writing it has never heard the opinions of the students at the universities or been to them, it's just facts and figures, so you don't really get a feel for the universities.
3) It doesn't include colleges, such as the university college for the creative arts, it's not a university but it has university courses and validated BA hons degrees. There are a lot of Arts colleges like this that have not been given university status because they only do one subject. Many are now being given this status but a lot still do not have it, so this guide was not very inclusive when it comes to looking for an art degree.

Overall i don't think this was worth the money as it was just facts and figures that i could find easily online. I would buy a differnt guide next time.

Very useful, but..., 01 Sep 2008
I had been using this book in careers class to help me decide which universities I was going to apply to, and this book was exceedingly helpful for this task.
This book gives a league table of universities and also ranks them by each subject for example, Law or History. Another important aspect of this book is that it describes the universities making it truly invaluable to any A-Level student.
However, I only gave this book four stars because the vast majority of information is available online - in the Times website and also through the universities' websites.
Overall I would say that this book is very useful and definitely needed for any student who wants to make the right choice of university - after all it is one of the most important decisions you will make!


Excellent, 23 Jan 2007
Required reading for anyone considering or planning to go to University in the UK. A mass of well-researched, well-analysed data and information that helps one make much better informed judgement on one of the most important decisions of one's life.

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A brilliant book on writing a research project literature review!, 08 Jan 2007
I used Chris Hart's book as a postgraduate student and I was more than satisfied to say the least. After reading the book I was able to advise my classmates as to how to write a good literature review.

There are a lot of interesting illustrations which thoroughly explain the process of prior research than needs to be done and then how it's all combined and written up as a document i.e. a literature review.

Moreover, the most important elements that are described within the book are the types of research available to the researcher, the goals of a research, the issues of different types of research, the different ways of argumentation, how to cite references, a checklist of do's and don'ts.

I recommend Hart's book to every postgraduate student bound to a literature review write-up and academics in general.

Excellent!, 01 Aug 2003
A brilliant book written in such a wonderful, transparent and
understandable style. A real gem that is best in its class. Excellent reference when judging graduate and post-graduate thesis works. Recommended warmly!

This is an excellent primer and useful for post-docs too, 12 Feb 2002
The book covers the typical issues in conducting a literature review in the social sciences. It covers the role of the lit review. How to review. Classifying and reading research. Analysing arguments. Organising ideas. Mapping and expressing ideas. The later sections bring to light the real purpose of the review: not to read everything written on x but to put the reasons for your study within the context of the past research in a topic and explore the ideas that have underlain progress in a topic. Excellent

Magnificent guide to literature review, 07 May 2001
Chris Hart's guide to doing a literature review presents a comprehensive perspective on the literature review as a research tool. While it is addressed to scholars in the social sciences, this book is useful in most areas of design research. Hart discusses the role of literature in research. He explains how reviewing earlier work releases the imagination rather than constraining it. He shows how to classify and read research literature, how to analyze arguments, and how to organize and express ideas. He also teaches the reader useful ways to map and analyze the ideas that each body of literature reveals. Finally, he demonstrates in careful, clear stages how to develop and write the literature review. At each point, Hart develops a serious, well-reasoned explanation that helps the scholar to understand why each step is important and how to do it well.

Ken Friedman
Professor
Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, and Denmark's Design School, Copenhagen

This review originally appeared in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

The most useful book I have read, 05 Sep 2005
When my mother gave me this book as a leaving present I did at first feel a little skeptical of its promises... well the title had a lot to live up to. However, having poured over this book during my train journey up to Manchester I kind of got the impression that this book had been written from experience rather than to simply make a fast buck. The sections are clear, the information useful and honest. I loved the section on Hedonism!
I especially liked the section on housing. Being a student and leaving home for the first time I found the information invaluable.

This is the one time my mother got it right. I think they should give it out on fresher's week.

The Virgin University Survival Guide, 31 Aug 2005
This book gave the most comprehensive guide to life as a student that I have come across in my travels and was an instant buy when I sent my first child off to university. My second child is off to university again this year and I will be buying another copy for her too.

Not the best of its kind, 01 Aug 2005
I checked this book out and a couple of other similar ones. Its okay, I suppose, but when I compared it to The Push Guide to Choosing a University which has similar content, at almost half the price and is much funnier and more readable, it's clear which is a better buy.

Blaggers guide revealed!, 21 Apr 2004
I bought this for my little bro (off to uni) and won't be giving it to himuntil well after the event as i chuckle and chortle my way though thewhole thing.
Simply put it is a list of all the scams and blags that it took the likesof me and my mates three years to work out, tidily organised into oneconcise book. During the dark days of cash-flow problems (which tend toresemble the hoover dam)known as university, this seems like anindispensible aid to keeping your head above water in a variety of (legal)ways.
Since its not from the library there is a chance that they will actuallyread it well before the third year. I can only sit and be jealous of thisyears fresh crop of first years as they sit smug in the knowledge thattheir ride through the first tumultuous years of post-home life will be assmooth as... well picking up a book and reading it.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
I read this book in two sittings. The first while waiting in a hotel reception for my friend Darren. He was fairly late but I had plenty of time to kill. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
This book is remarkable for many reasons. It covers the entire cannon of greek myths and legends in a refreshing and illuminating way. Graves cross-indexes the entire book with a kind of "internet-link hypertext" (this book was written WAY before the WWW) that can lead to surprising connections. And yes, he does present his ingenious "key" to understanding the "true" meanings "hidden" behind these stories, but he had the decency to separate these from the more generally accepted "University course" interpretations. And, as even critical reviewers have pointed out, even if you disagree with what he has to say, he was an extremely well read and scholarly man with an astonishing knack for rendering the past vivid and meaningful. His opinions are always thought provoking and worth reading...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
Robert Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS falls between the Victorian bombast of Bulfinch and the popular style of Edith Hamilton, less stylistically intimidating than the former and more scholarly than the latter. Originally published as a two volume set in 1955 with author revisions in 1957 and 1960, this single volume text does not abridge the original text but merely confines it to a single binding.

One's reaction to THE GREEK MYTHS will depend to some extent on one's purpose in acquiring it. This is an exhaustive collection of Greek mythology that far outstrips any other modern anthology that I have encountered, including myths both better known and extremely obscure. Each myth is presented in concise, graceful prose, and where possible Graves includes genealogies of the characters and major variations of each myth; an interpretive essay also follows each myth.

While Graves' retelling of the myths themselves have been widely praised, his interpretations of the myths have been somewhat criticized--and justly so. Graves tends to see incarnations of the "White Goddess" and the "Sacrificial King" in every third story; more dangerously, he tends to tie the myths to historical events in a highly speculative way. While this does not undercut the interest of his interpretations, it does hold a number of traps for the casual reader, who may assume that Graves' essays offer standard, scholastically unbiased interpretations based on proven historical events.

For myself, I use Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS as both reference and pleasure-reading, and I enjoy it a great deal; it is an indispensable purchase for any one with a serious interest in Greek mythology or for any one who must frequently reference the same for scholarly purposes, and I strongly recommend it to them. At the same time, however, I would hesitate to recommend it to readers who have not previously been exposed to Greek mythology or who wish only a general knowledge of the major Greek myths; in such cases I would instead recommend Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY: TIMELESS TALES OF GODS AND HEROES.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
It takes a while to get through it but believe me, its worth it. Robert Graves gives an insight to the lives and the beliefs of the greeks all those years ago and puts all the confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

Really not worth it., 27 Sep 2008
The guide kicks off with a lot of irrelevant information about general application to medical school, UCAS, personal statement writing etc - not useless by any means, but definitely not brilliant.

The real meat of the book is the practice questions, and I'm afraid to say that this is where it really falls over. The verbal reasoning questions are terrible, there are multiple typos, huge logical inconsistencies, many ambiguous questions and some of the answers are simply entirely wrong.

The other sections seem to be of a better quality, but on the basis of the second chapter, I really wouldn't bother with this book - no academic text (especially one with an emphasis on comprehension and critical thinking) should contain such elementary mistakes.

So far, so bad, 20 Sep 2008
I'm a magazine sub-editor and my flatmate is a patent attorney - we're both professional wordsmiths in our thirties. Following considerable analysis and debate (with diagrams!), we agree that there are flaws in the reasoning and the explanations of some of the verbal reasoning tests in this book. The logic applied also seems to be inconsistent across different questions. As a result, some of the questions seem ridiculously difficult.

The text also contains grammatical and typographic errors, which contribute to the sense of a badly produced guide.

The rest of the book may be more useful, but I am not impressed so far. It gets two stars because it could be worse!

Helpful for some sections, 26 Aug 2008
The book will help you mainly for the abstract reasoning and decision analysis. However the verbal reasoning section is terrible. A lot of the answers are wrong and provide invalid explanations.
Helpful? Some parts
Worth the money? No
Better alternatives? Buy the succeeding the UKCAT book.


OK-ish, 17 Aug 2008
I found the first section helpful, applying for Graduate Entry by myself means I haven't been told some of the things that I'm sure those applying straight from college will have about personal statements etc.

The questions were however too few and disproportionately difficult; though I guess being overprepared is better than under. There were also 3 errors (that I picked up on; there may in fact be more) but they were quie obvious ones so don't really impede on your learning.

Worth the £10 I paid just to feel a bit more prepared but not great.

Disappointing, 30 Jul 2008
Like most people, I bought this book for the practice questions in order to supplement those already available on the UKCAT website, as well as some useful tips on tackling the questions, managing time etc.

However, I was dissapointed to see that the majority of the book was taken up with material irrelevant to the UKCAT (e.g. all the stuff about med school application in general, and the BMAT). I also found the practice questions VERY hard, which is odd as the test itself was comparitively easy and I scored well over 700 on each section.

If you're sitting the UKCAT and can borrow a copy of the book, then go for it, you might get something out of it, but not worth buying.

Fabulous!, 25 Aug 2008
This is a fantastic student recipe book. As a student I've owned many recipe books aimed at students but none of them have the content and quality of this one. It makes healthy eating seem easy and achievable, which for students setting out on their own can seem daunting. With the clever and helpful extras such as tips, tricks and games that other books don't have, it is an awesome guide for students - particularly freshers who are looking for an insight into what university life will be like. I wish I'd had it as a fresher!!

Would 100% recommend this book! :)

Definitely "Sorted"!!, 20 Aug 2008
This is a great book, bought one for my daughter who is just about to head off to uni and she loves it! It has plenty of tips as well as the recipes, so it covers all aspects of the student lifestyle.

We tried one of the recipes tonight, Portugese soup, and it was gorgeous!

Definitely not just for students, this book really hits all the right places!!

Sorted, 19 Aug 2008
Brilliant book, cleverly put together in "student speak" although clearly you do not need to be a student to enjoy the fabulous recipes.

It's okay, 28 Nov 2008
This book is okay as a basic guide, however it has a few flaws...

1) Most of the information is easily available on the internet.
2) It sounds as if the person writing it has never heard the opinions of the students at the universities or been to them, it's just facts and figures, so you don't really get a feel for the universities.
3) It doesn't include colleges, such as the university college for the creative arts, it's not a university but it has university courses and validated BA hons degrees. There are a lot of Arts colleges like this that have not been given university status because they only do one subject. Many are now being given this status but a lot still do not have it, so this guide was not very inclusive when it comes to looking for an art degree.

Overall i don't think this was worth the money as it was just facts and figures that i could find easily online. I would buy a differnt guide next time.

Very useful, but..., 01 Sep 2008
I had been using this book in careers class to help me decide which universities I was going to apply to, and this book was exceedingly helpful for this task.
This book gives a league table of universities and also ranks them by each subject for example, Law or History. Another important aspect of this book is that it describes the universities making it truly invaluable to any A-Level student.
However, I only gave this book four stars because the vast majority of information is available online - in the Times website and also through the universities' websites.
Overall I would say that this book is very useful and definitely needed for any student who wants to make the right choice of university - after all it is one of the most important decisions you will make!


Excellent, 23 Jan 2007
Required reading for anyone considering or planning to go to University in the UK. A mass of well-researched, well-analysed data and information that helps one make much better informed judgement on one of the most important decisions of one's life.

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A brilliant book on writing a research project literature review!, 08 Jan 2007
I used Chris Hart's book as a postgraduate student and I was more than satisfied to say the least. After reading the book I was able to advise my classmates as to how to write a good literature review.

There are a lot of interesting illustrations which thoroughly explain the process of prior research than needs to be done and then how it's all combined and written up as a document i.e. a literature review.

Moreover, the most important elements that are described within the book are the types of research available to the researcher, the goals of a research, the issues of different types of research, the different ways of argumentation, how to cite references, a checklist of do's and don'ts.

I recommend Hart's book to every postgraduate student bound to a literature review write-up and academics in general.

Excellent!, 01 Aug 2003
A brilliant book written in such a wonderful, transparent and
understandable style. A real gem that is best in its class. Excellent reference when judging graduate and post-graduate thesis works. Recommended warmly!

This is an excellent primer and useful for post-docs too, 12 Feb 2002
The book covers the typical issues in conducting a literature review in the social sciences. It covers the role of the lit review. How to review. Classifying and reading research. Analysing arguments. Organising ideas. Mapping and expressing ideas. The later sections bring to light the real purpose of the review: not to read everything written on x but to put the reasons for your study within the context of the past research in a topic and explore the ideas that have underlain progress in a topic. Excellent

Magnificent guide to literature review, 07 May 2001
Chris Hart's guide to doing a literature review presents a comprehensive perspective on the literature review as a research tool. While it is addressed to scholars in the social sciences, this book is useful in most areas of design research. Hart discusses the role of literature in research. He explains how reviewing earlier work releases the imagination rather than constraining it. He shows how to classify and read research literature, how to analyze arguments, and how to organize and express ideas. He also teaches the reader useful ways to map and analyze the ideas that each body of literature reveals. Finally, he demonstrates in careful, clear stages how to develop and write the literature review. At each point, Hart develops a serious, well-reasoned explanation that helps the scholar to understand why each step is important and how to do it well.

Ken Friedman
Professor
Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, and Denmark's Design School, Copenhagen

This review originally appeared in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

The most useful book I have read, 05 Sep 2005
When my mother gave me this book as a leaving present I did at first feel a little skeptical of its promises... well the title had a lot to live up to. However, having poured over this book during my train journey up to Manchester I kind of got the impression that this book had been written from experience rather than to simply make a fast buck. The sections are clear, the information useful and honest. I loved the section on Hedonism!
I especially liked the section on housing. Being a student and leaving home for the first time I found the information invaluable.

This is the one time my mother got it right. I think they should give it out on fresher's week.

The Virgin University Survival Guide, 31 Aug 2005
This book gave the most comprehensive guide to life as a student that I have come across in my travels and was an instant buy when I sent my first child off to university. My second child is off to university again this year and I will be buying another copy for her too.

Not the best of its kind, 01 Aug 2005
I checked this book out and a couple of other similar ones. Its okay, I suppose, but when I compared it to The Push Guide to Choosing a University which has similar content, at almost half the price and is much funnier and more readable, it's clear which is a better buy.

Blaggers guide revealed!, 21 Apr 2004
I bought this for my little bro (off to uni) and won't be giving it to himuntil well after the event as i chuckle and chortle my way though thewhole thing.
Simply put it is a list of all the scams and blags that it took the likesof me and my mates three years to work out, tidily organised into oneconcise book. During the dark days of cash-flow problems (which tend toresemble the hoover dam)known as university, this seems like anindispensible aid to keeping your head above water in a variety of (legal)ways.
Since its not from the library there is a chance that they will actuallyread it well before the third year. I can only sit and be jealous of thisyears fresh crop of first years as they sit smug in the knowledge thattheir ride through the first tumultuous years of post-home life will be assmooth as... well picking up a book and reading it.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
I read this book in two sittings. The first while waiting in a hotel reception for my friend Darren. He was fairly late but I had plenty of time to kill. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
This book is remarkable for many reasons. It covers the entire cannon of greek myths and legends in a refreshing and illuminating way. Graves cross-indexes the entire book with a kind of "internet-link hypertext" (this book was written WAY before the WWW) that can lead to surprising connections. And yes, he does present his ingenious "key" to understanding the "true" meanings "hidden" behind these stories, but he had the decency to separate these from the more generally accepted "University course" interpretations. And, as even critical reviewers have pointed out, even if you disagree with what he has to say, he was an extremely well read and scholarly man with an astonishing knack for rendering the past vivid and meaningful. His opinions are always thought provoking and worth reading...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
Robert Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS falls between the Victorian bombast of Bulfinch and the popular style of Edith Hamilton, less stylistically intimidating than the former and more scholarly than the latter. Originally published as a two volume set in 1955 with author revisions in 1957 and 1960, this single volume text does not abridge the original text but merely confines it to a single binding.

One's reaction to THE GREEK MYTHS will depend to some extent on one's purpose in acquiring it. This is an exhaustive collection of Greek mythology that far outstrips any other modern anthology that I have encountered, including myths both better known and extremely obscure. Each myth is presented in concise, graceful prose, and where possible Graves includes genealogies of the characters and major variations of each myth; an interpretive essay also follows each myth.

While Graves' retelling of the myths themselves have been widely praised, his interpretations of the myths have been somewhat criticized--and justly so. Graves tends to see incarnations of the "White Goddess" and the "Sacrificial King" in every third story; more dangerously, he tends to tie the myths to historical events in a highly speculative way. While this does not undercut the interest of his interpretations, it does hold a number of traps for the casual reader, who may assume that Graves' essays offer standard, scholastically unbiased interpretations based on proven historical events.

For myself, I use Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS as both reference and pleasure-reading, and I enjoy it a great deal; it is an indispensable purchase for any one with a serious interest in Greek mythology or for any one who must frequently reference the same for scholarly purposes, and I strongly recommend it to them. At the same time, however, I would hesitate to recommend it to readers who have not previously been exposed to Greek mythology or who wish only a general knowledge of the major Greek myths; in such cases I would instead recommend Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY: TIMELESS TALES OF GODS AND HEROES.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
It takes a while to get through it but believe me, its worth it. Robert Graves gives an insight to the lives and the beliefs of the greeks all those years ago and puts all the confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

Really not worth it., 27 Sep 2008
The guide kicks off with a lot of irrelevant information about general application to medical school, UCAS, personal statement writing etc - not useless by any means, but definitely not brilliant.

The real meat of the book is the practice questions, and I'm afraid to say that this is where it really falls over. The verbal reasoning questions are terrible, there are multiple typos, huge logical inconsistencies, many ambiguous questions and some of the answers are simply entirely wrong.

The other sections seem to be of a better quality, but on the basis of the second chapter, I really wouldn't bother with this book - no academic text (especially one with an emphasis on comprehension and critical thinking) should contain such elementary mistakes.

So far, so bad, 20 Sep 2008
I'm a magazine sub-editor and my flatmate is a patent attorney - we're both professional wordsmiths in our thirties. Following considerable analysis and debate (with diagrams!), we agree that there are flaws in the reasoning and the explanations of some of the verbal reasoning tests in this book. The logic applied also seems to be inconsistent across different questions. As a result, some of the questions seem ridiculously difficult.

The text also contains grammatical and typographic errors, which contribute to the sense of a badly produced guide.

The rest of the book may be more useful, but I am not impressed so far. It gets two stars because it could be worse!

Helpful for some sections, 26 Aug 2008
The book will help you mainly for the abstract reasoning and decision analysis. However the verbal reasoning section is terrible. A lot of the answers are wrong and provide invalid explanations.
Helpful? Some parts
Worth the money? No
Better alternatives? Buy the succeeding the UKCAT book.


OK-ish, 17 Aug 2008
I found the first section helpful, applying for Graduate Entry by myself means I haven't been told some of the things that I'm sure those applying straight from college will have about personal statements etc.

The questions were however too few and disproportionately difficult; though I guess being overprepared is better than under. There were also 3 errors (that I picked up on; there may in fact be more) but they were quie obvious ones so don't really impede on your learning.

Worth the £10 I paid just to feel a bit more prepared but not great.

Disappointing, 30 Jul 2008
Like most people, I bought this book for the practice questions in order to supplement those already available on the UKCAT website, as well as some useful tips on tackling the questions, managing time etc.

However, I was dissapointed to see that the majority of the book was taken up with material irrelevant to the UKCAT (e.g. all the stuff about med school application in general, and the BMAT). I also found the practice questions VERY hard, which is odd as the test itself was comparitively easy and I scored well over 700 on each section.

If you're sitting the UKCAT and can borrow a copy of the book, then go for it, you might get something out of it, but not worth buying.

Fabulous!, 25 Aug 2008
This is a fantastic student recipe book. As a student I've owned many recipe books aimed at students but none of them have the content and quality of this one. It makes healthy eating seem easy and achievable, which for students setting out on their own can seem daunting. With the clever and helpful extras such as tips, tricks and games that other books don't have, it is an awesome guide for students - particularly freshers who are looking for an insight into what university life will be like. I wish I'd had it as a fresher!!

Would 100% recommend this book! :)

Definitely "Sorted"!!, 20 Aug 2008
This is a great book, bought one for my daughter who is just about to head off to uni and she loves it! It has plenty of tips as well as the recipes, so it covers all aspects of the student lifestyle.

We tried one of the recipes tonight, Portugese soup, and it was gorgeous!

Definitely not just for students, this book really hits all the right places!!

Sorted, 19 Aug 2008
Brilliant book, cleverly put together in "student speak" although clearly you do not need to be a student to enjoy the fabulous recipes.

It worked for us, 06 Dec 2007
When my daughter was applying for university we bought the Virgin Guide and friends bought other guides so we could all swap. I preferred this one although it doesn't give huge detail about individual courses. Where it seems to score is on giving an accurate flavour of how it will feel to be at a particular university for 3 or more years. My daughter is in her 2nd year now and re-reading what the Virgin Guide said about her university and the city, I think the portrayal of the whole experience is remarkably accurate.

Shoulda read this before applying, 10 Nov 2007
This is by far the best guide to what it is like to actualy live at university and the practicalities of studying there which goes beyond league tables. It gives rankings of elements of a non academic nature such as the male female split and the national football/hockey/rugby rankings. It also rates the social life, and this is where I fell down. Because I ignored the advice of this book before I applied I am now at a university whose course is in the top 10 in the times however socially I hate it. I am now using this guide to help inform my decision on where to transfer to. I beg you to read this guide carefully and make a decision based on this and academic league tables, it will save your future and your life. Ive wasted 5 weeks at a university I now hate and as a result have missed the deadlines for one of the Oxbridge courses I wanted to re-appy for.

Generaly I dislike richard branson and most of his products (especially his trains) but this is one virgin brand product which is definately worth the investment.

It's okay, 28 Nov 2008
This book is okay as a basic guide, however it has a few flaws...

1) Most of the information is easily available on the internet.
2) It sounds as if the person writing it has never heard the opinions of the students at the universities or been to them, it's just facts and figures, so you don't really get a feel for the universities.
3) It doesn't include colleges, such as the university college for the creative arts, it's not a university but it has university courses and validated BA hons degrees. There are a lot of Arts colleges like this that have not been given university status because they only do one subject. Many are now being given this status but a lot still do not have it, so this guide was not very inclusive when it comes to looking for an art degree.

Overall i don't think this was worth the money as it was just facts and figures that i could find easily online. I would buy a differnt guide next time.

Very useful, but..., 01 Sep 2008
I had been using this book in careers class to help me decide which universities I was going to apply to, and this book was exceedingly helpful for this task.
This book gives a league table of universities and also ranks them by each subject for example, Law or History. Another important aspect of this book is that it describes the universities making it truly invaluable to any A-Level student.
However, I only gave this book four stars because the vast majority of information is available online - in the Times website and also through the universities' websites.
Overall I would say that this book is very useful and definitely needed for any student who wants to make the right choice of university - after all it is one of the most important decisions you will make!


Excellent, 23 Jan 2007
Required reading for anyone considering or planning to go to University in the UK. A mass of well-researched, well-analysed data and information that helps one make much better informed judgement on one of the most important decisions of one's life.

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A br