Think about a book you read last year. How much of it do you remember? Could you list ten things you learned from it? Can you even remember what books you read last year? Many would say no!
It's possible that you're taking longer to digest what you're reading, or that you'd like to improve your reading speed in general. Whatever the case may be, what’s truly blocking you from getting up to the right reading speed is the lack of a reading strategy.
If you are a student try this, it might be better than your current habits.
Underline or highlight important or memorable passages
Add symbols to denote things like lines you’re sceptical about, or things you want to research further
Write thoughts in the margin, in complete sentences
The most successful reading strategies for quick comprehension are as follows:
1. Determine the most important points
Every book has a summary to interest readers, but as you go through the chapters of a book, you may provide more in-depth summaries. If you want to understand a book quickly, you should look for the key idea that the book is conveying to you. You'll also have a better understanding of it if you put it into words.
2. Questioning
Another important reading method is to have questions in mind as you prepare to read a book. This may necessitate skimming the book and asking yourself questions depending on what you saw. Questions can arise from a variety of sentences or even the author's headers or headlines.
After you've created some questions, you may start focusing on answering them. Naturally, this leads to quick comprehension because the book should be able to address such queries.
3. Visualizing
Visualizing is one of the more exciting ways of swiftly learning anything because it covers the creative side of things. Visualizing is a useful strategy even if you're reading a nonfiction book or article.
The aim is to create mental images of the knowledge you have by constructing, painting, or imagining it. Examine the many aspects of the method outlined by the author for you to employ. Visualize yourself doing out these actions. Because you're working both sides of your brain to assimilate information, things like these keep you interested in learning and understanding more.
4. Write a report
This step can take a couple of hours. Your report should summarize and restate what you learned from the book, and it should include your evaluation. Writing things down will help you retain the information right now. But it also gives you a cheat sheet to check back on
5. Study your notes
A few weeks or months after reading the book, read your report. You can also make flashcards to review.
You can also make more of an effort to discuss what you’re reading with others. Remembering and distilling a book’s points to someone else is a great way to challenge yourself. So if sitting down with flashcards sounds tedious, try this “social studying” instead.
Conclusion
Understanding what you're reading necessitates having a system of reading skills at your fingertips. To quickly comprehend what they're reading, effective readers will use a combination of these tactics.
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