Reading to learn. In your university classes, you're going to do a lot of reading; textbook chapters, journal articles, stories, news reports. It could be hundreds of pages a week in all your classes together. You'll want to read efficiently and get the most learning possible out of all that reading. Here are some tips for how to do that. Let's say you're going to read a chapter of a textbook. How do you read it? You open your book to the beginning of the chapter, start reading from beginning to end, and you're finished. Actually, there's a better way to read a textbook. You'll be better able to understand and remember what you read if you use active reading and know what to do before you read, while you're reading, and after you read. To practice active reading takes some time before you start reading to prepare. Ask yourself, why are you reading this chapter? Will you have to talk about the main ideas in a class discussion, or will there be a detailed test on the material later, or maybe this is background information for a lecture the professor will give? Knowing this will help you focus on the ideas that will help you later. Next, preview the chapter. Read the title and the main headings and see how long the chapter is. Look quickly at illustrations, graphs, or other visual elements. If there's a summary at the end, look over it quickly. This will give you a general idea of what you're going to read. As you preview the idea, think about what you already know about the topic and how the chapter might connect to what you've learned in earlier chapters or classes. After you preview, close the book and ask yourself, what is the main idea? What do I expect to learn? What's the author's purpose? What's the general organization of the material? Now, you're ready to read. While you're reading, you'll learn better if you engage with the text, think about it and work with it, instead of just letting the words flow into your mind. How can you do that? Take notes about important points, annotate the text. That is write questions or comments in the margins, underline or highlight important information. Predict what will come next. Whether your prediction is right or wrong, it'll help you make sense of what you're reading. Ask yourself questions about the material. These could be questions you might expect to be on a test someday or questions about things you're not sure about. Think about the organization of the material. Is it a series of events in chronological order, a description of a problem and possible solutions, a comparison between two things? Also stop now and then to summarize the material. Tell yourself the main points of what you've already read. Make sure you take a break now and then, your brain can't keep working at its best for hours at a time, and your eyes and body get tired if you're sitting and reading for too long. Relax for a few minutes, every hour or so. Get up and walk around. You'll feel better and it'll be easier to stay focused when you return. What should you do after you read the chapter? You're not quite done yet. Think back on what you've read. Quiz yourself about the main points. Summarize the chapter by speaking or writing as if you were explaining it to a friend. Now imagine it's a few weeks later and you're about to have a test on the material you read. How can you review? Surprisingly, the most effective way is not to simply read the same chapter again. It's better to look over the notes and annotations you made while you read and ask yourself questions. Try to predict what kinds of questions will be on the test and practice answering them. Draw pictures, charts, or diagrams to help you understand and remember connections within the materials. Make flashcards to help you review key terms and facts. Create mnemonic devices to help you remember. These are acronyms or images that help you remember something like when we think of the imaginary name ROYGBIV to remember the colors of the rainbow. Think about the connections between bits of information. How did the pieces fit together? Did you notice a common theme in all this advice? It all comes down to being a critical reader. Try to think about more than simple facts, to think more deeply about what you're reading, and trying to recognize the author's purpose. Recognize any bias that the writer might have and make connections with what you already know. When you're a university student, you'll have a lot to read. How can you read faster and still understand what you're reading? One suggestion is to read in chunks of words instead of focusing on each word. When you read, your eyes make small stops in the line of writing. These stops are necessary, but they slow you down. Slow readers make many eye stops as they read. Faster readers take in several words with each eye stop, making their reading faster. Reading in chunks also makes comprehension easier because your mind can take in the meaning of a whole phrase at once. Try not to keep rereading the same phrase. This slows down your reading and doesn't really help. If there's a word you don't understand, you can stop and look it up, or if it doesn't seem crucial for understanding, skip it and keep reading. For most reading, try not to read out loud or mouth the words. While there may be times when reading out loud is helpful. For example, when you're reading poetry or when you want to practice pronunciation. For most reading, saying the words will just slow you down. Finally, vary your reading rate depending on what you're reading. You can read a light novel or the sports news much faster than a difficult textbook or academic journal article. Not all material needs the same slow, careful reading. You can build your reading skills. Think about what you do before, during, and after reading to improve your comprehension. Practice critical reading, and use the tips you've learned to increase your reading speed. Instead of being an exhausted, frustrated reader, you can be a confident, effective reader.
