Reading Skills
Reading efficiently is perhaps one of the most important skills you can have in college. The better you are at it, the better you will do in your courses and the more time you will have for other activities.
When I started college, I was under the impression that I had to read every word of a text. It didn’t matter what the text was. As a result, my assignments were not being completed, I was stressed out, and I didn’t get what I needed from the reading. In college you will have many reading assignments from a number of your courses, and often at the same time. It’s not uncommon to have more than 500 pages assigned in a single week.
Every reading assignment you do should start with a clear and specific goal. Your purpose will determine how you read. For example, reading a science textbook may be to find and remember particular terms for a multiple choice test. As a result, you will want to pay attention to keywords that are in bold and go to them directly. You will read the definition and then use the surrounding text if necessary to better understand the term, but not read every word in the chapter or text.
The conditions you read under will also have an impact on how you go about your assignment. These conditions may be time constraints, your prior knowledge, the author’s structure and style, and your level of interest. So, for example, if you already know what happened during the American Revolution, you could check your understanding against the questions at the end of the chapter. Then for those areas that you are a little weak on, you can go back and only read that portion of the text.
If the author doesn’t provide questions or bolded words, skim through the text and chapter to see if the introduction or conclusion holds a condensed version of the chapter. Also note if the conclusion and introduction are the same, providing no new information. In this case, skip one of them going forwards. Also look at the first and last sentence of a paragraph, where some texts provide the meat of the content. Effective reading is more like hunting than floating down a river, unless you’re reading a novel at home on the weekend.
Below you’ll find some tips for reading more effectively. There are other techniques too, such as P2R, SQ3R, S-RUN, and the related Feynman Technique.
I recommend using multiple methods, adapting them, and making your own.
When I started college, I was under the impression that I had to read every word of a text. It didn’t matter what the text was. As a result, my assignments were not being completed, I was stressed out, and I didn’t get what I needed from the reading. In college you will have many reading assignments from a number of your courses, and often at the same time. It’s not uncommon to have more than 500 pages assigned in a single week.
Every reading assignment you do should start with a clear and specific goal. Your purpose will determine how you read. For example, reading a science textbook may be to find and remember particular terms for a multiple choice test. As a result, you will want to pay attention to keywords that are in bold and go to them directly. You will read the definition and then use the surrounding text if necessary to better understand the term, but not read every word in the chapter or text.
The conditions you read under will also have an impact on how you go about your assignment. These conditions may be time constraints, your prior knowledge, the author’s structure and style, and your level of interest. So, for example, if you already know what happened during the American Revolution, you could check your understanding against the questions at the end of the chapter. Then for those areas that you are a little weak on, you can go back and only read that portion of the text.
If the author doesn’t provide questions or bolded words, skim through the text and chapter to see if the introduction or conclusion holds a condensed version of the chapter. Also note if the conclusion and introduction are the same, providing no new information. In this case, skip one of them going forwards. Also look at the first and last sentence of a paragraph, where some texts provide the meat of the content. Effective reading is more like hunting than floating down a river, unless you’re reading a novel at home on the weekend.
Below you’ll find some tips for reading more effectively. There are other techniques too, such as P2R, SQ3R, S-RUN, and the related Feynman Technique.
I recommend using multiple methods, adapting them, and making your own.
- Read the table of contents, the summary and the subheadings, and skim for keywords.
- Read the first and last paragraphs of a long chapter.
- Annotate.
- Think of your own questions before reading.
- Find real-life applications for the material you learn.
- If you are reading a passage over and over again, it might be a good time to take a quick break.
- Review often and consolidate your notes to the point that one word or phrase will quickly bring to mind the rest of the text.
- Depending on the subject, you may need to read the chapter a second time.