Get More Out of Your Textbooks!
Reading books is probably one of my favorite things ever, but when reading is
assigned… Im less than enthusiastic about it. Maybe youre the same. Still, a lot
of the information youll need to earn great grades is locked inside required
textbooks, so youll need to read them eventually.
Professors tend to assign too much reading, though; you usually dont need to
pay super-close attention to everything youre assigned to learn the necessary
information to ace your tests.
In this thread we will discuss how to figure out which reading assignments are
actually worth doing, and itll also guide you through the best strategies for
completing those readings quickly and retaining as much important information
from them as possible.
A few ways I use to determine what I have to read:
1) I compare the reading assignment to what was handled in class that day. I use the book as a way to fill out any questions I had / read on additional info / things I didn't understand.
2) If there is a list of topics that need to be studied (teachers sometimes give those during the first lessons), I focus on those things. Also, if the teacher says that we need to read certain chapters, I go over the beginning of the chapter if it has a "what will be touched upon in this chapter" and I note myself the questions I should know the answer to by the end of the chapter and read relevant info that way. If there is no intro to each chapter, I read the table of contents and try to form my own questions based on it.
3) For literary works, I sometimes skip dialogues (for example in Romeo and Juliet, which I can't stand reading :() if they're not important or use a "key" (a book that explains what's important to know) to determine the absolutely important parts.
4) For literary works I also note down quotes and what they say about the situation / person and after a certain amount of different examples, I feel it's ok to skip a bit if it's not interesting as long as I generally understand what's going on.
5) Sometimes there are summeries available on the internet about many topics and I try to read those first to understand what I'm going to read before I actually read a 200 pages long book (if I'm not motivated) and that way I can determine what I already know and what I should slow down on and read carefully.
I think that's all I do! :) Don't know if it would help anyone, but wanted to put it out there anyway.
@BeardedDragonThing Thanks for sharing! It will definitely help others ^-^
@BeardedDragonThing WOW! Outstanding performance!! keep up the good work! :D
@BeardedDragonThing Aww thank you so much for this!
@BeardedDragonThing thanks a lot for those useful, I learned new things
I often just copy down headings and key terms in between that relate to the topic we are studying. Anything that is talked about in detail can be summarized for the most part. It's impossible to note and remember everything in the textbook, but noting the main ideas is sufficient.
@stillfriends that's great dedication! :)
Dont Do All Your Assigned Reading
Heres the thing about assigned reading: you cant do all of it. And you
probably shouldn't.
Most classes assign way too much reading, and for many classes the reading
isn't even useful to do for one of two reasons:
1. The professor will cover the same material in class, or…
2. You wont ever be tested on it
While the material in those textbooks is objectively useful, remember the theme
of this book - reducing your study time! Your time in college is extremely
limited, especially if youre making good use of it by working on projects,
building relationships, staying involved in clubs, etc. Oh, and maybe a bit of
time to actually relax as well.
Put simply, if your reading assignments aren't absolutely necessary to do, you
shouldn't allow yourself the time to do all of them. That time can be better used
elsewhere.
But how do you figure out which assignments are necessary, and which ones
aren't? The first piece of advice I can give you is this: Readings can be separated
into different categories:
1. Primary readings
2. Secondary readings
Primary readings generally include the required textbook for the class and
possibly other readings based on what youre learning. In general, you should
make your best effort to do these readings.
Secondary readings are things like smaller books, articles the professor wants
you to read, case studies, etc. In my experience, large portions of my grade
never hinged on these types of readings, so they were prime candidates for
either quick scanning or skipping altogether.
The other thing Ill say is to constantly gauge your classes. Be mindful of how
much overlap there is between whats presented in class and whats in the
textbook. Pay attention to how much of your exams actually focus on things you
could only get from the reading.
By doing this, youll be able to intelligently adjust your workload to fit your
grade goal as the semester goes on without wasting too much time on reading.
Know How Youll Be Assessed
Gauging your classes isn't just useful for figuring out which reading assignments
you can skip; it also helps you figure out how you should tackle individual
reading assignments.
You can gain this insight by focusing on how youll be assessed in a specific
class. Different classes will have different types of assessments, including:
• Multiple choice tests
• Essays and written questions
• Data analysis in labs
• Reports and class presentations
The type of assessment youll be facing should help you define the specific
information you need to pull out of your readings. You cant remember it all, so
the most efficient strategy is to figure out precisely what you need to learn and
focus on that.
For example, multiple choice tests require you to learn lots of facts and details
from your textbook readings. To account for this, you should make sure you
focus on bolded terms, definitions, and any specific details that stick out when
youre reading. Your reading notes should reflect this as well, and you should
later convert them into rapid-fire questions that you can use to quiz yourself.
On the other hand, essays require you to have a firm grasp of the main idea of a
reading, and you need to be able to summarize it and build off of it in your own
words. To prepare for this, its better to practice honing in on the most salient
points of a reading and try to summarize them once you've finished reading.
@creativeLake92
Knowing how you'll be assessed is a great point.
I teach a college course and I do simple multiple choice quizes at the beginning of most classes to hold students accountable for at least glancing at the assigned reading. It is EASY to pass my quizes because all it takes is a bit of a skim and paying attention to the key terms that are in bold in the text. My goal with the quizes isn't to stump anyone. It's just to make sure they're prepared to participate in that day's discussion of the text.
@IntellectualPenguin123 wow! good leadership! :D
Dont Read Textbooks Like Newspapers
People generally read newspapers passively, and they do it just to get the gist of
the days events. If you were to ask someone about specific details theyd read
in a newspaper the day after theyd read it, you probably wouldn't get good
answers in response.
When you read your textbooks, youre reading to learn and apply the
information. Youre not just trying to get the gist.
Thats why you should do your best to not read your textbook like youd read a
newspaper. I call students who do this textbook zombies- theyre single-mindedly concerned with running their eyes over the assigned pages and then shuffling off to their next planned activity (possibly eating brains?).
Think of your textbook like an art museum. When I visited a Museum of Art and walked through almost every exhibit.
While I do remember that the it is the most amazing art museum I've ever
been to, I dont really remember the details of the pieces I looked at. Thats
because I just casually strolled through the halls and looked at the art - I didn't
take much time to note down the names of the paintings or who painted them.
Just like passively walking through a museum wont give you a detailed
knowledge of the art in it, passively running your eyes over the words in a
textbook wont help you really learn the material. And trying to re-read it
multiple times wont yield much of an improvement either.
How often you read something is immaterial; how you read it is crucial. - Virginia Voeks
Instead of reading passively, read as if you were having a conversation with an
intelligent friend. When she talks, you listen intently. When she pauses, you
contribute your own ideas and, together, you create new information. You come
away feeling energized, not drained.
This type of reading is called active reading, and its the key to dealing with
your textbooks in the most effective way.
5 Active Reading Strategies
For decades, professors who all belong to the ultra-secret society of Acronym
Lords (now that I've told you about it, theyre coming for you) have been trying
to push active reading systems that can be neatly packaged into - you guessed it
- tidy little acronyms.
These systems, like SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review), SQ4R (add
Reflect), and others contain some useful techniques - but I think trying to rigidly
follow one every time you read is far too time-consuming. Im not the only one
who thinks this; Cal Newport, the founder of the excellent Study Hacks blog,
wrote:
I've never met a high-scoring student who used a system like SQ4R. The reason: theyre too time-consuming! What these students do instead is discover simple, streamlined and devastatingly effective heuristics that can be easily adapted to specific classes.
The only acronym-based reading system I recommend is SCAR:
• Stop
• Complaining
• And
• Read
So, instead of appeasing the secret acronym society members and
recommending a cumbersome system, Im just going to share wirth you 5 active
reading strategies, in the following threads, you can adopt as you wish.
Use the Pseudo-Skimming Technique
The longer a reading assignments is, the more likely a large portion of its
paragraphs will be filler- stuff you dont really need to read. According to Cal
Newport, filler paragraphs can include:
• Background story
• Asides
• Exceptions (because professional scholars want to be thorough)
• Extra details
In many cases, information of these types wont make up the bulk of what youll
be tested over later - so paragraphs containing those types on information
should be quickly scanned.
However, a good number of paragraphs in any reading will contain important
material that you should learn. These paragraphs should be read intently.
Enter Cals pseudo-skimming method; essentially, youre going through your
readings at a staggered pace. One moment youll be quickly scanning through
paragraphs, the next youll notice an important paragraph and slow down to
take it in fully.
Deliberately attempting to read using the pseudo-skimming method will prevent
your brain from automatically giving equal preference to every paragraph in a
reading (which, in my case, meant diligently reading each one for the first 10
minutes while my willpower was high, then eventually scanning/skipping as I
got further into the chapter and became bored).
Read the Chapter Backwards
Heres the thing about textbook readings… theyre usually not suspenseful. They
dont have a narrative, and rarely will you spoil yourself by going to the end
first.
You can take advantage of this by reading backwards. Before you dive into a
chapter, flip to the back of it and see whats there. Usually, youll see a list of
key vocab terms, review questions, and other helpful stuff.
Use what you find here to prime your brain for the actual reading. Once youve
loaded what you can from the review section into the front of your
consciousness, youll be able to pick out those bits more easily when you read
them in the actual text.
Create Questions While You Read
One of the concepts Ill be diving deeper into later on in the book is Active Recall- the practice of forcing your brain to actually retrieve information instead of just passively exposing yourself to it. Doing this helps you learn much more efficiently.
An easy way to prep for Active Recall-based study sessions is to create
questions while you do your reading assignments. You should definitely take
notes when you read - either during or immediately afterward - and a great way
to process these notes for easy studying is to pull details from them and rework
them into questions you can quiz yourself on later.
In addition to the details from your notes, another great source of questions is
the section headingsof your actual readings. These generally pull out the main
idea of a section, so using them as a basis for a question is a good way to jog
your memory of that sections most salient points.
Pay Attention to Formatting
Text in your reading assignments thats bolded, italicized, or
• sitting nicely
• in lists
…should be given special attention. If text has special formatting, its a good
sign that it represents a main idea, vocab term, or important process that you
should learn.
in one of my classes, I actually got to the point where Id just scan
through each textbook chapter looking for bolded vocab terms and write them
down in my notes. I had figured out that the tests were largely based on these
vocab terms along with a few case studies, so I had no need to waste time on all
the other details in each chapter of the book.
Mark Up Your Book and Take Notes
Lastly, find a way to make reading a more interactive process by either marking
up your books or taking notes on what youre reading. Both of these techniques
emphasize active reading over simple, passive exposure, and both will make
your later study sessions easier.
If youre renting your textbooks, plan to sell them, or otherwise cant
permanently mark them up, you can use sticky flags instead to mark important
points in your assignments. These can stick out of your book slightly and give
you easy access to places youve marked, even when your book is closed.
If you can mark up your books, then you can either use a highlighter or a pencil
to make permanent markings. Im generally not a fan of highlighting; as a sort-of
OCD person, I always found myself spending too much time trying to make my
highlighted lines nice and straight. For me, using a pencil works so much better.
Not only can you easily underline and bracket important terms, but you can also
write short notes in the margins of your book. Remember why Harry Potters
Potions book was so useful in The Half-Blood Prince? Margin-notes can really
help jog your memory later because they help you connect the reading material
to things you already know, making it easier for your brain to solidify your
understanding of the topic.
Speaking of notes, one last way to get more interactive with your readings is to
take actual notes on them - in a separate notebook or on your computer. This is
where creating questions can come in handy; you can turn your section
headings into questions in your notes, then jot down details from those sections
with a goal of answering those questions.
For most books, my preferred method of taking notes is to worry about them
after I've finished a reading section. I'll typically read a chapter of a book I'm
going through once, then open Evernote and create outline-style notes of all the
details I remember (Im trying to use Active Recall during this part to maximize
my learning).
Once those details are down, Ill scan through the chapter once more and add
anything else I deem important to the notes.
However, when Im digging through textbooks while trying to find specific
information- for example, when Im researching a topic for a new video - Ill
have a notebook open while Im reading and will be jotting down flow-style
notes as I go through the book.
Summarize What You Read
I want to put special emphasis on summarizing, as its about the most useful
implementation of an Active Recall strategy you can apply to your reading
assignments. When you attempt to summarize what you've read, youre digging
into your brain and pulling out the information for, essentially, the task of
teaching what you read.
You may have heard of the Learning Pyramid before:
Now, many experts disagree about the accuracy and validity of the learning
pyramid, and I wouldn't venture to claim that the percentages listed on it are
completely accurate. There are a ton of factors that go into how well you can
retain information, not least of which is the actual nature of the information itself
- our brains are weird and built upon millions of years of odd, non-logical
evolution, so the way they remember facts about math wont be the same they
remember facts about the ninja creeping up behind you.
Still, both sense and my own experience tell me that the bottom of the pyramid
is more or less right - teaching something results in higher retention in your own
brain. This is because youre intensely processing the information with a goal of
being able to communicate it in a form that will be understandable to someone
less knowledgeable than you.
Summarizing does this really well, so its a perfect strategy for efficiently
learning the most important material from your readings. As I noted above, I
tried to summarize what I learned from each chapter in The Power of Habit by
trying to type out bulleted notes from memory before going back through the
chapter and fleshing them out.
You can do this as well, though if the reading youre doing is for a class thatll
be assessing you with essays, it might be better to try typing out your notes in
paragraph form - at least for sections and assignments you deem to be especially
important (which means you should definitely be paying close attention to your
syllabus and what your professor says).
I'm actually obsessed with reading books, what I cannot say about textbooks. Assigned reading is so daunting for me. Moreover, I could never understand why textbooks are so enormously expensive. That's why I always rent my textbooks using Booksrun service. Anybody else is renting their textbooks?
@Emma88 wow great idea!
Love this thread!
"...when reading is assigned… Im less than enthusiastic about it.". I feel the exact same way. I don't mind reading, especially things that interest me. However, even if it's a topic I like, if the reading is assigned, I lose ALL motivation to actually do the reading.
