1. Scanning Scanning through the text is a reading strategy that is used for getting some specific points by looking at the whole text. For highlighting the important points of a book the readers can skim through the summary or the preface or the beginning and end chapters of that book. This technique is used for looking up a name from the telephone guidebook. 2. Skimming This reading technique is used for getting the gist of the whole text lead. We generally use this technique at the time of reading a newspaper or magazine. Under this technique, we read quickly to get the main points and skip over the detail. It is useful in getting a preview of a passage before reading it in detail or reviving understandings of a passage after reading it in detail. 3. Active Reading Active reading aims to get an in-depth understanding of the text. Under this technique, the reader actively involved with the text while reading it. Getting in-depth knowledge of the text at hand is not possible by reading to skim through or scan through the text.
4. Detailed Reading This technique is used for extracting information accurately from the whole text. Under this technique, we read every word for understanding the meaning of the text. In this careful reading, we can skim the text first for getting a general idea and then go back to read in detail. We can use a dictionary to find the meaning of every unfamiliar word.
5. Speed Reading Speed-reading is actually a combination of various reading methods. The aim of speed-reading is basically to increase the reading speed without compromising the understanding of the text reading. Some of the strategies used in speed reading are as follows:
Identifying words without focusing on each letter
Not to sounding-out all words
Not sub-vocalizing some phrases
Spending less time on some phrases than others
Skimming small sections
Get More Out of Your Textbooks Professors tend to assign too much reading and usually you don’t need to pay super-close attention to everything you’re assigned to learn the necessary information to ace your tests. We will figure out which reading assignments are actually worth doing, and we will also guide you through the best strategies for completing those readings quickly and retaining as much important information from them as possible.
Don’t Do All Your Assigned Reading Here’s the thing about assigned reading: you can’t do all of it. And you probably shouldn’t.
Two reasons: 1. The professor will cover the same material in class, or… 2. You won’t ever be tested on it
Your time in college is extremely limited, especially if you’re 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.
How do you figure out which assignments are necessary: Readings can be separated into different categories:
1. Primary readings 2. Secondary readings
1. Primary readings generally include the required textbook for the class and possibly other readings based on what you’re learning. In general, you should make your best effort to do these readings.
2. Secondary readings are things like smaller books, articles the professor wants you to read but are not necessasary in order to achieve a good grade. So either quickly scan them or skip them altogether.
Constantly gauge your classes. Be mindful of how much overlap there is between what’s presented in class and what’s 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, you’ll be able to intelligently adjust your workload to fit your grade goal as the semester goes on without wasting too much time on reading. You can gain this insight by focusing on how you’ll 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 you’ll be facing should help you define the specific information you need to pull out of your readings. You can’t 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 you’re reading. Your reading notes should reflect this as well, and you should later convert them into 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, it’s better to practice the most important points of a reading by trying to summarize them once you’ve finished reading.
Don’t Read Textbooks Like Newspapers People generally read newspapers passively, and they do it just to get the gist of the day’s events. If you were to ask someone about specific details they’d read in a newspaper the day after they’d read it, you probably wouldn’t get good answers in response. When you read your textbooks, you’re reading to learn and actively apply the information. You’re not just trying to passively read and to only get the basic facts.
Think of your textbook like an art museum. Passively walking through a museum won’t give you a detailed knowledge of the art in it, passively running your eyes over the words in a textbook won’t help you really learn the material. And trying to re-read it multiple times won’t 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 activereading, and it’s the key to dealing with your textbooks in the most effective way.
5 Active Reading Strategies
The only acronym-based reading system I recommend is SCAR:
• Stop • Complaining • And • Read
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 don’t really need to read. Filler paragraphs can include: • Background story • Asides • Exceptions (because professional scholars want to be thorough) • Extra details
Paragraphs containing those types on information should be quickly skimmed as you won't be tested on them. However, a good number of paragraphs in any reading will contain important material that you should learn. These paragraphs should be read intently. Enter Cal’s pseudo-skimming method; essentially, you’re going through your readings at a staggered pace. One moment you’ll be quickly scanning and skimming through paragraphs, the next you’ll 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.
Read the Chapter Backwards Read backwards before you dive into a chapter, flip to the back of it and see what’s there. Usually, you’ll 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 you’ve loaded what you can from the review section into the front of your consciousness, you’ll be able to pick out those bits more easily when you read them in the actual text.
Create Questions While You Read Active Recall is 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 headings of 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 section’s most important points.
Pay Attention to Formatting Text in your reading assignments that’s:
bolded
italicized
sitting nicely
in lists
Should be given special attention. If text has special formatting, it’s a good sign that it represents a main idea, vocab term, or important process that you should learn. When I took a class, I actually got to the point where I’d 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 you’re reading. Both of these techniques emphasize active reading over simple, passive exposure, and both will make your later study sessions easier. If you’re renting your textbooks, plan to sell them, or otherwise can’t 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 you’ve 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. I’m generally not a fan of highlighting. For me, using a pencil works 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 Potter’s 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.
Get more interactive with your readings 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 or OneNote and create outline-style notes of all the details I remember (I’m trying to use Active Recall during this part to maximize my learning). Once those details are down, I’ll scan through the chapter once more and add anything else I think is important to the notes. However, when I’m digging through textbooks while trying to find specific information I’ll have a notebook open while I’m reading and will be jotting down flow-style notes as I go through the book. Summarize What You Read Summarizing is 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, you’re 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:
Teaching something results in higher retention in your own brain. This is because you’re 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 it’s a perfect strategy for efficiently learning the most important material from your readings. Try 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 you’re doing is for a class that’ll 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).