A new school term will be starting soon, and for students who are in their first year at university, it can be a difficult time of year. They’ve had one term to find out how much heavier the workload is at this level, and just how much more reading they have to do to keep up with their classes and prepare for examinations. If you’re one of these students, you might be tempted to give up, or to take easier or fewer classes, which may have a negative impact on your plans for graduation or your eventual degree program. There are ways you can cope with this workload, though, and we encourage you to not give up. Check your campus resources for student support groups or tutoring sessions, find other students to work with, and above all be sure you get enough sleep and good food. Even if you think that those extra late-night study hours help, you might find that you have difficulty remembering what you’ve read if you’re too tired to absorb it as you read.
You’ll find that you have more time for reading if you take a good look at your schedule and see where reading can fit in. For example, do you have an hour or so for breakfast in the morning? Find a quiet place to eat your toast and drink your coffee and read your texts instead of reading the newspaper or your favorite internet sites. Another way to get more time to read is to learn to read more efficiently. If you increase your reading speed, you’ll be able to read more in less time, and that will help you fit all of the work into your schedule. Many of the suggestions that we’ve given on this blog will help, so look through the archives. Here are a few speed reading tips that are specific to students working with standard research and textbooks:
Read the summaries. Many textbooks have summary sections at the beginning or end of each chapter, Read these first so that you’ll know what the main points are that the author is going to make in that chapter. This will help you get a good overall understanding of the text.
Review the questions. Another feature of many textbooks is a set of review questions at the end of each chapter. Read these after you read the summary section, and you’ll get excellent clues about the specific facts and concepts that will be covered in the chapter. By reading these before you read the text, you’ll have those questions in mind and so your brain will automatically target the text that deals specifically with that information. This will help you quickly skim over the less-important text in the section.
Refer to notes. When you’re reading, take notes of the information related to the concepts and questions covered in the summary and the review sections. When you’re done with the chapter, use those notes to see if you’ve answered all the questions and have a thorough understanding of the text. You can use these notes later to review for your examinations.
Though you may not think you have enough time in your busy class schedule, take some time to practice speed reading, and you’ll find that you gain time in the end.
