UnLocK

For some of us out there reading the text book can be mind numbing.  Just sitting there reading page after page after page.  Need I say more?

Whether you in high school or college it’s important to figure out a strategy to make your text book studying more interesting and less numbing.

The key for me and this might not work for everyone is to first learn the focus of the book.  We may know the subject like American History, Biology, Marketing etc.  What is the core of what the book wants you to get out of it?  To do this just read the introduction and try to understand the thoughts and ideas of the author(s).

Tackling the Chapters:

My suggestion is not to read 5 chapters in a row but read them one at a time.  But before even doing that check out the chapter reviews first.  Knowing the key points of the chapter before sitting and reading will take the memory out of reading.  What I mean is that if you memorize the key points first then you can focuses on thinking and comprehension while reading.

Trying to tackle memorization and comprehension at the same time can:

1. Take the focus away from each other.
2. Takes focus away from the material.
3. Gives you that numbing feeling.

Communicate with the Teacher/Professor:

Talking with your teacher/professor about the specifics of the exams, quizzes and tests can dramatically cut your study time.  Sometimes they will have practice exams, lecture notes or a syllabus with key need to know test information.

Sometimes professors won’t cover every chapter in the text book so make sure you know which chapters to read other wise you may end up doing unnecessary work.

Don’t get caught up in too much detail of the text book:

Don’t try to memorize every word of the text book.  Meaning don’t spend all your time memorizing.  Place more focus on understanding and comprehension.  For example you may sit and think for a few minutes after each section of the book and quickly go over the key terms and what they mean but try to get the big picture and apply that to every key term.  All the key terms will have relevance to the big picture or big topic of the chapter and section.

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