Reading textbooks can be a chore. The language used is usually uninteresting and contains many words or phrases whose meanings are unknown. You may feel overwhelmed by the number of pages you have to read. However, there are various ways that you can use to make you feel comfortable and confident when reading it. The method used is to study textbooks (before starting to work on assignments), take sufficient time to read, read actively, and review book material.
Step
Part 1 of 3: Studying the Textbook
Step 1. Look at the cover of the book
Does the cover of the book contain pictures that can provide clues about the topic of the book to be studied? How about the title? Is this book for beginners or for more advanced people?
- Look at the title for clues on the subject of the book. If the book you are going to read is a history book, will you read World History or Indonesian History? What do you know about the subject of the book?
- What about the author, publisher, and release date of the book? Is this an old book or has it just been published?
Step 2. Review the table of contents, index, and glossary
How many chapters are there in the book? How long is the chapter? How about sub-chapters? What are the chapter and sub-chapter titles?
Does the book contain a glossary and appendix? How about a bibliography? What types of words are indexed?
Step 3. Apply skimming techniques when reading a book to find headlines and images
Turn pages quickly. What first caught your attention? Record chapter titles, words in bold, vocabulary, photos, pictures, graphs, and diagrams. What can you learn about books from these things?
You can also apply skimming techniques to evaluate the difficulty of the text. Choose a page that contains a lot of text (and a few pictures) at random and read it to understand it. Measure how long it takes to read and understand it
Part 2 of 3: Active Reading
Step 1. Read the last chapter first
By reading the summary and questions in the last chapter, you can find out what subjects this chapter covers. This step prepares the brain and helps it analyze and understand the detailed information contained in the chapter.
Next, read the introduction to the chapter. This can help the brain to be ready to absorb and digest information
Step 2. Divide the reading by ten pages
After reading every ten pages, look at the highlighted text, notes at the edges of the book, and the writing in the notebook. This can help absorb what you have read into long-term memory.
Complete the next steps in this section using this method of dividing the book into tens of pages. After finishing ten pages and reviewing them briefly, start reading the next ten pages. You can also take a short break before reading the next ten pages
Step 3. Highlight the important parts of the text
If you have a book (not borrowed from someone else or from the school), you should highlight the important parts using the highlighter tool. There are specific ways to properly highlight a book, so read the following steps carefully.
- On the first reading, don't stop reading to highlight or take notes. If you stop, this can disrupt the process of digesting information and you may be highlighting things that are not really important.
- We recommend that you highlight text after reading entire paragraphs or short sections (depending on how the pages are divided). This way, you will know which parts are important to highlight.
- Don't highlight a single word (too little) or an entire sentence (too much). You can simply highlight one or two phrases per paragraph. The function of highlighting a book is so that you can still understand what you have read a month after reading it and find the main idea of the text without having to reread the entire book.
Step 4. Write the questions in the margins of the book
After reading a paragraph or section of a book, at the margins of the book (or on a post-it note if the book you are reading is not yours) write one or two questions per paragraph or per section that you must be able to answer. Here's an example of a question you could ask: "When did the Renaissance happen?" or “What is meant by metamorphosis?”
After you've read all of your teacher's assigned reading, you should try to answer the questions you've created without rereading the book
Step 5. Take notes
Write the main idea of each chapter in your own language in a notebook. It is very important that you write notes in your own language.
Taking notes in your own language can help you avoid plagiarism when writing essays. In addition, you will also be able to understand the material better if your notes are not just a copy of the textbook
Step 6. Bring notes to class and prepare questions
This step can help you get ready for class discussions or book-related lessons. Make sure you pay attention to what the teacher teaches and participate in teaching and learning activities. In addition, make additional notes. Your teacher may tell you if the exam uses books or classroom lessons as a source of questions. However, sometimes the teacher won't tell you what kind of questions will be given, so you should be prepared for any eventuality.
Part 3 of 3: Scheduling Reading, Reviewing, and Studying Time
Step 1. Double the number of pages to read by five minutes
The result of the multiplication is the average amount of time it takes students to read and complete the textbook pages. Use this method to schedule reading time.
For example, if you have to read 73 pages, it would take you 365 minutes or 6 hours to read them
Step 2. Take a break
If you schedule time to read for four hours a day, it's best not to do it all at once because you'll be exhausted and unfocused.
Read for an hour during your lunch break, an hour in the afternoon, and so on. Try to make a reading schedule that is not too busy. Also consider how many days the teacher gives you to read the entire assigned page and how many hours it will take you to read it
Step 3. Read it every day
If you're stuck, there's a good chance this will make you skimming and reading so fast that you'll lose a lot of information. Schedule time to read each day, so you can pay off reading assignments slowly without creating too much stress.
Step 4. Read a book in a quiet place
This step is very important because you will have a hard time digesting the information if there are noises near you.
- If possible, avoid reading books in bed. It's possible that your brain will associate bed with bedtime, so even if you just want to read in bed, your brain will probably make you sleepy. Experts researching sleep state that "working" in bed can cause sleep problems. Therefore, only light reading and relaxing activities should be done in bed, so you won't have a hard time falling asleep at night.
- Read in a quiet room, library, quiet coffee shop, or park. You should read in a place where there are not many distractions. If you have family (or roommates) or have a lot of responsibilities to do at home, read outside. If your house isn't too noisy and you can't concentrate when you're surrounded by lots of people, read at home. You have to experiment to find the best places to study and read.
Step 5. Know the form of the exam
Are you being asked to write an essay or are you going to work on questions that include reading material? If you will work on questions, does the teacher provide learning guidelines? Consider all of these questions when you are trying to determine which passages of passage should be reviewed the most while studying.
Step 6. Read the notes many times
If you read carefully, highlight important passages, and take notes, you only need to read the textbook once. The texts that should be reread while studying are highlighted phrases, questions or notes written in the margins of the book, as well as writing on a notebook.
Read the texts as often as possible until you fully understand the material in the book. If you don't take enough notes, you may have to reread the textbook
Step 7. Talk to others about the material you are studying
Research has shown that reading material that is studied aloud has enormous benefits.
- Create study groups with classmates or talk to other family members or friends about the material you are reading.
- Make sure you stay in school or attend college, not just on exam days or essay submission deadlines. There will likely be a discussion or teaching that discusses the textbook material and this is very useful for understanding the book.
Step 8. Complete all the given tasks
If the teacher gives you a math problem to work on or a short question to answer, do the assignment even if the assignment is not part of the assessment. The function of this assignment is to help you understand the book material.
