Learning Skills
How can I read smarter and faster?
In order to improve your speed and understanding of a text, try the following strategies. Lots of students have - they work!
Reading for the main ideas
- In order to skim a text for the main ideas, open a page from your textbook, preferably one you have to read anyway.
- After reading the page, stop and ask yourself what the main ideas are. Don't worry about remembering all the examples or the unimportant information ('padding') at this point.
- Write the main ideas on a piece of paper or in your notebook. How many main ideas could you remember? Lots? One? Two?
- If you remembered more than one main point, decide which ones are important. You might find that only a few are really important. Underline them.
- Now tell yourself what the main ideas on that page are. Do this aloud, if possible, because repeating the information aloud will help you to remember it much better. Excellent!
This kind of reading is usually quite sufficient for pre-reading for lectures or if you want to prepare yourself for discussions in tutorials. After you have practised this, you might decide to underline or highlight the main ideas in your text and not to write them down. Do whatever works for you.