Comprehension
Scan the chapter first.
Identify the sections to which the author devotes the most amount of space. If
there are lots of diagrams for a particular concept, then that must also be an
important concept. If you're really pressed for time, skip the sections to
which the least amount of space is devoted.
Read the first sentence of every paragraph
more carefully than the rest of the paragraph.
- Take notes on headings and first sentence
of each paragraph before reading the chapter itself..
Then close your book and ask yourself what you now know about the subject that
you didn't know before you started.
- Focus on nouns and main propositions in each sentence.
Look for the noun-verb combinations, and focus your learning on these.
- For example, consider the following text:
Classical conditioning is learning that takes place when we come to
associate two stimuli in the environment. One of these stimuli triggers a
reflexive response. The second stimulus is originally neutral with respect
to that response, but after it has been paired with the first stimulus, it
comes to trigger the response in its own right.
Rather than read every word, you might decode this text graphically:
Classical conditioning = learning = associating two stimuli
1st stimulus triggers a response
2nd stimulus = originally neutral, but paired with 1st --> triggers response.
Rather than reading and re-reading your text, take notes in this form, so
that you've re-written the important parts of the text. Once you have written
notes, you don't have to worry about the text itself.
Adapted from
"Being a Flexible Reader"
by Gail Kluepfel, Rutgers University
See also:
Speed reading exercise
by TurboRead Corporation
Note taking from a
textbook in our Study Guides
Flash exercise by Eric Price, Interactive Media
DHA 5341
Fall 2006,
Interactive Design ,
College of Design; Brad Hokanson, faculty, College
of Design, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN.
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