How to read a book efficiently?
The simplest task is reading a textbook and writing an article about it doesn’t make any sense. The problem most of us feel while reading textbooks is that after a while of reading the book starts to feel a little bit boring. The reason behind that is we are reading with a close mind. We eventually space out and forget what we just read in the past couple of hours.
Reading a textbook is an important habit which can add a lot of knowledge to you being a student. Listed down are a few tips and practices that can make your reading time an amazing experience.
- Comprehension is the way to go.
Of all the things the first thing we should take care of is our speed with which we are reading. It is important to comprehend the couple pages we have just read and it is b better than finishing a dozen pages without having a context about it. It is considered as a bad practice to read a book with a fixed number of pages in a specified amount of time. Doing this is of no use as we would not have any idea about the idea or the content. The main focus of the reader should be on the comprehension of the content and the speed will follow. There would be a significant change in the speed and eye span.
- You should read to think.
Have you ever read a book to collect jus some facts or some information? It is not a good practice. We should understand the construction of information which is a cornerstone in reading.
Work breakdown structure (WBS) is a technique which is most commonly used by managers which are at a higher level. This concept can be used in reading as well. As its name suggest it is breaking the words down in smaller fragments to help in understanding better. If foundation of a building is strong then erecting a building is not difficult.
Now to understand the meaning of critical thinking let’s take an example. While reading a mathematical textbook if we are mugging up the equations and important formulas without understanding them then it is useless. Let us take an example to understand the meaning of critical thinking. If you are reading a chapter in mathematics and mugging the equations and formula without thinking, it’s all useless. After a day or two we won’t be able to recall what we learnt. So what can we do to learn a formula like Sin^2 (X) + Cos^2 (X) =1 , where X is the angle is radians? It is a basic trigonometry identity taught at a high school level. The best way to remember it is take paper and draw a triangle on left hand side and mark it accordingly and write the equations on the right and put the sin x and cos x values and see that it stands true. By this way we can solve trigonometry easily.
- Do not take notes.
Writing down notes while reading is considered as a common practice. It is encouraged by a lot of people to take down notes which help us understand the chapter better. However it is the other way around. Our mind has the capability to retain things for a short term so we make notes. We just pick up the content present in our short term mind and convert it into notes.
Most people follow this practice of making notes while reading. Students who make notes while reading scores less compared to students who read and understands. The best way of writing notes is to read and understand the content and then write notes after finishing the reading. By doing this we would be able to revise our chapters easily.
- Avoid distractions at all costs.
If we look around ourselves we are surrounded by a number of distractions in the form of internet, television and most importantly people. Hence avoid looking around and try to keep you focus on reading and analysis. It is not an instant process and our brain gains focus over time. If you are the one who takes frequent brakes then you would not be able to stay focused and your performance will degrade. So it is decided that taking frequent breaks is bad. An ideal study time should vary between 40 to 50 minutes and a small break of 10 to 15 minutes is permit able
