High School Study Skills
Related Links
Motivation
Get Motivated
Stay Motivated
Monitoring Input
Listening
Note Taking
Reading
Class Participation
Managing
Process
Self Management
Time Management
Concentration
Managing Your Learning
Managing Your Memory
Class Participation
Test Preparation
Mastering Output
Test Taking
Dealing with Test Anxiety
Learning from Tests
Preparing Written
Reports
Preparing Oral Reports
Class Participation
Reading
There are many different kinds of reading. Many students make the mistake of reading their text book the same way they would read a novel. When reading difficult material with lots of new vocabulary and terminology, you should use a method called study reading. Study reading is different from studying in that you are reading to gather information to study. Study reading is very similar to listening in class and taking notes. You realize that you are not studying as you take notes; you are taking notes on material that you will study later. When you study read, you should think of yourself as listening to the author of the text, just as you listen to your teacher in class. See the chart below to compare the steps of study reading and listening.
Study Reading |
Listening |
Preview what you're going to read about by reading all titles, subtitles, and boldfaced text, picture captions, charts and graphs, introductions, and summaries. |
Prepare to listen by looking over the material being lectured on. Guess what the teacher is going to say. |
Read it very actively; first by skimming the material, and then by reading and taking notes |
Listen actively. Question in your mind what the teacher is saying by asking in your mid the five w questions--who?, what?, when?, where?, and why? -- and one h question, how? |
Summarize the material. As you read, you should be summarizing in your mind so that when you finish you can restate the content in your own words. It is also helpful to think of questions you might ask during a lecture. |
Summarize whatever the teacher says and rephrase it in your own words. At the end of the lecture, try to restate in your own words what you've learned. Identify 5 to 9 ideas you learned from the class. |
Assess your reading skills at Road to
Reading.org
How to read essays you must analyze
Reading Tips from St. Thomas University:
PQ4R method