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How Too Read Your Text Book Efficiently And As A Result, Get Better Grades

Below are eight tips to help you read and understand your text book so you can guarantee yourself better grades.

1. Skim through all titles and headings before reading thefirst paragraph. This will give you an idea regarding thematerial covered in the chapter or section and help youcreate a mental picture of the material as you read.

2. Quickly read through the material in the section the firsttime to pick out the basic concepts. Do not try to rememberor write down specific details yet. Just get an idea of whatis discussed in the reading.

3. Re-read the section carefully and take notes as you read.Read a paragraph or even a few sentences if theparagraphs are complicated, stop, and think about whatyou read. This is the RST method. Read, Stop and take afew minutes to digest the material and Think about whatyou read. Paraphrase the material. Put it in your ownlanguage; what does it mean to you? You may even wantto recite what you read out loud. A lot of students find theThinking part easier when they actually get their thoughtsdown on paper. Do not try to write everything, just littlephrases to remind yourself of what you just thoughtabout.

4. Be sure to look at figures, diagrams, and inserts. Onepicture or graph may contain the same amount ofinformation found in a lengthy paragraph and be mucheasier to decipher. Be sure to read all captions.

5. Record all boldfaced words and their meanings in your ownwords in your notes. They must be important if thetextbook authors and publishers went out of their way toboldface them!

6. Once you are finished reading, summarize what you justread out loud. Your ability to discuss this will serve as atrue test to determine whether or not you understoodwhat you just read.

7. Skim through the text a few more times, especially prior toand after lectures that compliment the material in the text.

8. Try to organize all of your notes to create the big picture.Add information from your class notes to your text notesand/or add information from your text notes to your classnotes. This combination is easily accomplished if you typeover your notes, leaving yourself with a neat, organizedand thorough copy of everything you need to know forthat chapter/unit.

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