Three simple tricks to read textbooks more effectively

- Just because you can read words doesn't mean that you can read textbooks very effectively. Textbooks are different than most other reading material. 

They're dense, so they pack a lot of information in a very small space. They're efficient. They don't tend to repeat themselves very often. And they have a hierarchy to them. You can't skip a bunch of chapters and read Chapter 11 and expect to know what's going on. 

Finally, in math and science texts in particular, there are also worked examples or problems or proofs. All of this means that you have to read textbooks differently than a newspaper or a novel. 

Tip number 1 is that reading a textbook should be a lot more like sipping a beverage than chugging it. What I mean by sipping is that you should limit yourself to ten, 15 minutes, or maybe a half an hour max of time that you spend focused on reading the textbook. And this can just be as little as a few pages. You know, three, four, or five pages. 

Now, you're not going to read this straight through. You're going to be backtracking. You're trying to put the pieces together. In most cases, it's better to understand the fundamentals of something really well rather than get little tidbits here and there about the subject. If you don't understand how to multiply vectors really well, all of the later physics is going to be hard for you. 

Tip number 2 is to read actively, and I mean something very specific by this. One of the drawbacks of textbooks is that everything is laid out there. They're not going to lie to you, absent some mistake that was made in the textbook. 

And the tendency that we have is once we read over something and we think it makes sense, we just accept it as being true or being natural or normal. But you want to try to resist that temptation. It's better to think of yourself as a fact checker or a very suspicious detective. You want all the pieces to add up, and you want to be sure that you yourself have added up all the pieces. You don't want to rely on someone else to just tell you what the pieces are. 

So when I come to an example problem, I try to cover up the answer to that problem so that all I'm focusing on is the question itself. And I try to answer that question before I look and see how the textbook answers it. 

Now, maybe I get that question right, and I understand everything, and it's great. Or maybe I make a mistake somewhere. Maybe I make a stupid mistake. Maybe it's a big conceptual mistake. Whatever it is, the process of doing that lets me understand what I know more deeply. 

Now, this is a kind of metacognitive knowledge, so it's increasing your understanding of what you know. And that makes your studying more efficient in the long run. 

My third tip here is to read proactively. Now, I mean something very specific by this as well. Before you crack open your textbook for that next study session you have, I recommend that you get out a piece of paper and you write down what you remembered from the previous reading or studying session that you had with the textbook. 

This has a couple of different benefits. One is that it is a check on your understanding. What were your major takeaways from what you read before? The second is that it helps you remember that material more effectively. It is a bit of free recall practice that you're incorporating into your studying. 

But the third, and perhaps most important benefit is that it engages your prior knowledge so that you understand what you are about to read more effectively. So you're bringing to the fore the relevant ideas and problems and examples that the textbook is going to build on. Remember that a little bit of forgetting is quite beneficial for deep, long-lasting learning. Here is a video about why. Good luck. I'll see you next time.