What’s up, everybody? It’s Thomas from College
Info Geek. Did you ever wonder how you’re going to get all the information in these
crazy, huge reading assignments in a freaking weekend? I want to share a quote with you
that I learned over the week-end while doing research for this video. It goes like this,
“The mark of a successful college student is the mastery of knowing not only what to
study, but also how to study it.” This applies to your readings as much as it applies to
anything else in college. In last week’s video, I went over some strategies
that you can use to figure out whether or not you actually need to do a reading assignment
at all. In this video, I want to start focusing on how you should actually tackle the reading
assignments that you do need to do. I have three main goals that I want you to keep in
mind here. Number one, you want to learn the right information from your readings. Obviously,
you can’t learn every single thing in the book so you want to figure out what is important
and get that into your brain. Number two, you want to retain that information for as
long as you can and be able to use it later. Number three, you want to reduce your study
time and the amount of time you have your nose stuck in the book. To start improving
in all of these areas, the first thing that I want you to think about is the ‘why’. Why
are you doing this reading? A lot of people would say, “You’re reading to learn,” and,
obviously, yes, that’s the point of the education. I think there’s another more immediately practical
reason that you’re doing a reading. That is how you’re going to be assessed on that reading.
Being a strategic reader means using different strategies for different reading purposes.
Those purposes are defined with the assessments you’re going to face in class which lead back
to your immediate goal of earning awesome grades. Most students tackle their reading
assignments like zombies. They look at the reading assignment and they go, “Must run
my eyes over x number of pages by tomorrow night.” That’s it. Don’t be a reading zombie.
Otherwise, your exams are going to turn into a chainsaw. Know what it is that your brain
needs to pull out of the reading and focus on that.
Here are four common reasons that you might do a textbook reading. Number one, you’re
going to be facing down a multiple choice test. Number two, you’re going to have to
do an essay, actually creating something from scratch in your own words. Number three is
the evaluation of data in labs which applies to more technical and scientific majors. Number
four, is the summarization of research for class presentations and reports. The type
of assessment that you have to do will dictate what kind of information you need to pull
out of your readings. For instance, if you’re going to have to do
a multiple choice test, then you’re going to want to focus on the details of the reading
assignments, taking smart, concise notes about all the little things in a class and then
turning those into questions that you can study rapid fire later on. If you’re in a
class where you have to write essays, then thorough knowledge of the main ideas is more
important. You’re going to want to focus more on summarization and making sure that you
can communicate what you learned in your own words.
There’s a tip from the video I did last week on figuring out whether or not you even need
to do a reading assignment that applies perfectly here as well. That is to gauge your classes.
As a semester goes on, be mindful of what’s in the syllabus and what your professor generally
uses to assess you and then apply that knowledge to your readings. This will take practice,
but as time goes on, you’re going to find that this mindfulness really pays off in the
time it saves you and the clarity it gives you when you’re looking at your book.
Once you’ve gauged those classes and figured out the type of information you want to pull
from your reading, how do you actually go about doing that reading? To start out, let
me give you a universal tip that applies to any reading you do. It’s this, “Don’t read
your textbooks like you read a newspaper.” People who read the newspaper aren’t reading
to apply what they’re learning. They’re just reading to get the gist of the day’s events.
You’re not reading for gists, you’re reading for application. Also, don’t expect that you’re
going to learn efficiently by just reading and rereading passages over and over again.
The writer, Virgina Voeks, said that, “How often you read something is immaterial. How
you read it is crucial. Think of a book like an art museum. You can walk through the Met
in New York ten times, look at all the paintings each time you go through, and still know next
to nothing about any of the art there. You might know the general layout, where certain
pieces are, but if I ask you for details, “Which artist created this painting? Where
was this dog-thing sculpted,” you won’t have a clue.
Books are really the same. Possibly running your eyes over the pages is like casually
strolling through an art museum and not actually studying any of the pieces. It’s actually
worse because the brain is better at remembering emotionally evocative pictures and imagery
than it is at remembering squiggly, arbitrary lines on paper. Instead, try to read in the
same way that you’d talk with a friend who challenges you intellectually. You listen
eagerly, you contribute your own words to the conversation, and, eventually, both of
you create information that comes together to make something new. This is called active
reading. It’s crucial for being able to retain what you learn from your textbooks and be
able to apply it later on. In my next video, I’m going to over a framework
of specific techniques that you can try out to start using active reading. To round this
video out, I want to leave you with a technique that you can use to create a small win in
your studies. Here it is. Create two different habits for your textbook readings. The first
one is going to focus on getting you to read consistently. The second one is going to focus
on getting you to start using active reading instead of passive reading.
The first habit I think you should try out is reading daily. This might mean planning
ahead in advance what you’re going to read for a certain week and maybe even reading
some outside material if you finish everything. It’s all about getting into the habit of reading
every single day, making a consistent effort. For the second habit, try to write down a
small amount of notes for each reading you do or create a small summary for each reading.
It doesn’t have to be anything large, you just want to get into the habit of doing it
and being more actively involved in your reading. With both these habits, you can experiment
with making them either input based or output based. Input-based habits have a fixed amount
of effort that you have to put in to them so read for fifteen minutes. That’s only fifteen
minutes of effort and then you’re done. On the flip side, output-based habits are based
on making something concrete. Write one page of notes could be an output-based habit. The
amount of time and effort you need to put into it isn’t fixed.
Personally, I use both of these types of habits in my own reading. For my actual reading habit,
I use an input-based goal, read for fifteen minutes every single day and then once I’ve
gotten into that, I usually read for longer and I start getting more engaged. Then, I
use an output-based goal which is to write half a page of notes on what I’m reading to
make sure that I’m actively learning. Whichever type you choose, it’s also important
to build a small reward into your habit. Getting good grades is a good reward, but it’s something
that’s a little too far off to really count. I would say, find something else that rewards
you for getting the reading done every single day. For me, that’s ticking off a daily habit
[inaudible 06:13] which I’ve made a little bit more valuable by creating a challenge
in the College Info Geek guild. If you want to join that, you can go to the companion
blog post for this video which you’ll find linked down in the description.
Otherwise, you could do something else like watching an episode of your favorite show
on Netflix, playing a video game, or something else fun. Make sure that you’re building this
loop of, “Here’s a cue to do my reading, I’m going to do the reading, and take the notes,
then give myself a small reward to reinforce the positive feeling I get from doing that
reading.” That’s it for this video. If you want to get
my tips on active reading which will come in the next video, then make sure you subscribe
to this channel and you’ll get those right when they come out. Otherwise, I will see
you in
that next video.
What about a class where you have multiple choice, essays AND lab pics? :'D
No wayyy Thomas my psych teacher uses this video as a resource for us.
thank you it was very helpful you just gained a new sub please keep the good content coming
You blink too often!!
you might be the only reason I survive this semester. 🙌🏽
Good tips, yet again. Let me add: reading is like working out. If you lift light weights every day, you're not going to gain much strength. Reading dense or technical material on a regular basis (before or between semesters) builds your reading strength and stamina, just like lifting heavy weights. As a result of doing this kind of heavy reading practice, I find I can breeze through material so much more quickly, especially the lighter content.
This man is so goodlooking that I couldn’t pay attention to much of what he spoke. Lol.
I know it sounds really simple, but as someone who was taught at school to memorize everything in order to learn, I now realize that the best way I've come to learn what is on the pages is to understand everything. Treat it like a story you are listening to. You want to know the details, the relationships between subjects, you want to be capable of explaining it to someone else. I wish someone had told me about this during high school.
Can you explain what "Don't Be A Textbook Zombie" mean?
I read with Balabolka – it's strange how better I understand the paragraph, and being able to read at a faster rate, speeding up the 'text to speech' voice, saves time, if I am listening to an AI reader simultaniosly. I often need to copy and paste into Balabolka, but it then saves the copy in a text file, so this is great to proofread your own essay, when necessary.
hope to be translated for Arabic and more languages ❤️
Megaman X on the wall! awesome!
my reward, a 5 minute game of chess
College textbook readings are hard. But I actually been reading them everyday. And been writing a short summary. But still hard. But good video man. :). Read everyday, break down the readings everyday. And write some notes.
Thanks man totally needed this direction so helpful!
Thank you thank you and thank you
summary
1. Do Active reading by taking notes.
2. Determine the focus of reading: main concepts or details.
3. Measure daily progress by effort or outcome.
4. Reward myself after reading.
What is a course requires both an essay and a multiple choice quiz every week? What kind of reading does that require?
Awesome channel 🙋
Sir please give a video how to read technical books
2 hours before the exam and looking at the first page of the text book laughing my ass off
Outstanding video! We use a thing called dialectical journals when reading it really helps with active reading you should really try it out!!
Thanks man!
"don't be a reading zombie or your exams will turn into a chainsaw"
is there any way that i can retain information without spending hours creating "perfect" study notes because this is currently the only thing that helps
Zombie and chain saw nice
Actually, I need to improve my listening!
Thanks. A must try. I like St. Thomas Aquinas method on learning- have to digest slowly and learn fundamentals the trunk where the "leaves" hand on to said Elon Musk, you need a dictionary and thesaurus handy (via sites is good).
How many r going in between reader even though ur in 10th
Have focus -> Read to apply what you're reading 😍
My textbooks are full of formulas and examples on how to do advance math and engineering problems. Not much reading is required but there is a lot of actually understanding the material and being able to solve complex problems .-.
Great info …
What about… autodidacts. We don't study for a test. But we do study.
You didn’t tell us how to read ot
What's the meaning of "Smash bros" ?
thanks for the tips!
megaman is very distracting in this video
Hi, do you have tips for an open book exam? I study law and I have my first open book exam in a couple weeks, I have no idea how to study for it!
Gosh… I don't know how many videos I watch I still need to have an internal switch to be switched on.
I’m reading because it’s assigned otherwise I would never ever touch that god damn history book not even once.
4:00 whAt iF i hAvE n0 fREnS thAt cHAllEnGe mE inTElleCtUally… what if im intellectually challenged
Freshman taking Alg 2 and a few on ramps and AP courses. Love your videos!
I really feel like reading now thanks alot my dude.
It's sad that we have come to the point where one has to reward themselves for reading, Reading is a reward to me in itself.
Getting into the habit of reading everyday is the best decision I made since years. It helped me a lot prevail over feeling overwhelmed by huge texts.
Ummmm I’m in AP World history and I have to do essays and multiple choice questions for my final exams got a vid on that?
What is his qualifications?
Thank you, very helpful 🤙
ok ok
Brain: “Why must I read this?”
…”this is one of those useless classes they’re making me take. I don’t have to learn any of this.”
*Drops out of College*
In all seriousness, does this thought process enter anyone’s mind? I’m constantly going, “why the fuck do I really need to learn sociology if I’m majoring in computer science?”
*reading through the chapter*
“oh my f*cking god this is STUPID!”
i like it!
To those who say “I’m watching this instead of studying”, I’d rather “sharp my axe before cutting the tree”.
anyone who is supposed to be studying but is watching this video instead??
You are my friend Thomas
you are so handsome. thanks for the tips
Never mind multiple choice test. An oral exam is the real challenge. 😀
I know all the comments about your looks are about you being attractive but that aside you really look like jcole before he had dreads.
i'm a visual and listener learner pls help me how to read
Thank you for mentioning habitica, I am such a nerd and I think this may help motivate me.
6:14 The stuff on that list😂😂😂
YEAH right! i'll take college advice with someone with a Steam library in the background … show off
Nice speaking skills
Hi my name is Daniel I'm trying to understand what I read and what is important in the book.one of most hardest thing to do writing it in my own words
This is BS
I've never known anyone to have that Scooby Doo game. I still have mine but haven't touched it in years
Always focus when you read, a lot of people will simply read a chapter without even linking all of the ideas in a meaningful way.
Tips to read habit
NICE BACKGROUND BRO
Something about you makes me miss call of duty..
Thanks a billion
What if my exams are numbers 1-3 😭 I have to do short hand answers, multiple choice, short essays, and science-y stuff
Subscribed!! Great video!!
I’m sorry the haircut is distracting he looks exactly like Colin Farrell!
Thank you!!
please Tomas can you say something to me ..
My college had 10/week terms so by the time you figured out the way the class worked it was over. Fortunately we had a lot of the same teachers, so we knew what they were looking for.
This is probably the most frustrating thing about college is the readings. Compared to high school the readings are so much bigger and especially if the teacher doesn’t go through the readings much in class and quickly goes through each reading then it is very overwhelming. The only times I can keep up with the readings are if the subject is interesting, the class is 3 days a week and the teacher goes over it, or the teacher gives time. I love reading books actually but I strongly dislike how colleges expect to do readings in such a short period of time. I think readings should in 2 weeks each chapter or the class should try its best reviewing.
This was so helpful. You saved my life.
Can you do a video on how to annotated what you read?
i have 100 page book i have to finish it at 60 days any tip will be help full the exam is near and i am in depression
Best piece of advise every given about reading text books…Huge 👍
Active reading aka Synthesis! Awesome vid man!
Your video is awesome (After half the video is where the input based and output based assessment stuff – Je t'aime ca)
It takes me 4 hours to read 75 textbook pages help
Person:why do you have to read?
Me:………I'm forced to😑
Person:😶
My young man took part in reading support services when he was in 1st grade. This excellent reading guideline ( lovy.biz/1699 ) has helped a lot in improving the reading capabilities of my son while he is on grade level and his progress really amazed his reading tutor. For me, this program must be utilized in classes
what if we don't know the format of the test?
I was trying to learn every piece of information. 😬
I can’t focus on studying, when I am studying ^~*
“Ugh”
I’ll never get into college
“Sigh”….
How can I prepare my self?
Oh Tommy, you're so cute!
Love that rockman poster
Just comenting so that its 667
talk to my 6 month old in Filipino ( tinyurl.com/y6e8g2cn ) and my husband talks to him in English (his first language) because we want our baby to be bilingual. Would your program be effective if I teach him your program (i.e. reading in English) even when I don't talk to him in English. Or would it require for me to speak in English with my baby and so not teach him to be bilingual, in order to use your program?
Nootropics, if available.
thank you so much for this!!! I’m currently taking an 8 week (normal classes are 12-15 weeks) Abnormal Psych class where we have to read a 14 chapter book for the final exam; we’re halfway through and I’m only on chapter 3 and I was stressing out about how I was going to squeeze in 10 chapters of information in 4 weeks but your advice and tips on active reading and note taking gave me new motivation and now I’m thinking I could actually pull this off 😂
Hey Thomas, I am huge fan of your videos. I am going to start pursuing an M.M. in jazz performance in the fall and a lot of these tips are also extremely helpful for developing good listening skills 🙂
I usually just do the homework while reading the book and only find the stuff that’s on the quizzes and homework, then study that homework and quiz.
College teaches individuals how to collectively not think!
But the problem is, "small reward" is never a thing
You are the best studytuber man. You are such a positive energy. And your ideas work.