Is there anything more dry, dull, and tedious than textbook reading assignments?
I have 64 pages of reading to do tonight in my “Understanding Politics” textbook. Textbook reading assignments tend to rule the college homework load, and I get lost in information-overload after just a few pages of reading my text. How do I make the most of my reading and maximize what I learn from my text?
What to do when you’ve read the same sentence three times:
- Break out the highlighters. In every paragraph, search for the sentence that carries the most meaning and best sums up the information you’ve been reading, then highlight it up. When you’re highlighting, you’re more alert and focused on the information you’re reading so it’ll keep you from reading a whole page without picking up on anything important.
- Utilize Post-It notes. There are some really cool types of Post-Its out there. I have skinny ones with either question marks, exclamation points, or quotation marks at the end. These are awesome because they stick out from my text and I can reference pages quickly where I have a question, where there’s really important information, or where there’s a good quote to remember. You can also do this with different colored Post-Its and write your own notes to yourself on them.
- Take a break. Get something to eat or drink, stretch, go the bathroom… Just get away from your textbook for 5-10 minutes once you start to lose focus. Breaks sometimes seem unproductive, but really you’ll find you’re more attentive if you leave your textbook for a bit and come back refreshed and refocused.
- Find your reading niche. For me, I need to be someplace with minimal distractions… specifically, someplace far from my friends or my laptop (I tell myself that I’ll just check my facebook, and then I end up on there for a good half hour– how does that always happen?!) Whether it’s a cozy chair, outside under a big tree, or in the library, just make sure you’re picking a spot that allows you to concentrate on the content of what you’re reading.
- Review. After you finish a chapter or even a section of a chapter, get your notebook and pen out and summarize in your own words key terms and the important information you highlighted. This will be helpful come midterms or finals when you don’t have time to re-read the full chapter. Also, take note of anything you put a “question” Post-It note on so you can remember to ask a friend or your professor before that big test.
