READING:
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COMPREHENSION
- Do you understand most of what you read? – How do you know?
- Do you understand 'boring', but necessary study material?
To ensure that you really 'comprehend' the material you are reading, you really need to adopt an 'active reading' strategy. In addition to the ideas on active reading noted in the previous section (Speed Reading > Active reading) you could also try the following:
- If you are struggling to make sense of a complex book ask yourself if you have the right background knowledge of the subject. – It might be easier to start with a more basic text in order to gain an understanding of some of the key words and issues of the subject before you jump in to the complex ones. Did you cover any of the same subject but at a simpler level during a previous year? – If so look back at your previous notes or core textbooks.
- Monitor what you read. After every few sentences stop and try to summarise what you have just read. – Is the writer trying to make any particular point? – Are these key points? If so, add the summary to your notes. If you cannot do this, then you really need to re-read the sentences again because you have not really understood them. – Don't panic if this happens. Academic texts often contain difficult parts (that's why you are attending a university) so you are bound to have to re-read some parts more than once.
- Underline, or highlight relevant information (your own copy of the book, not a library copy please), and put a line in the margin against important passages. – You must be selective, you cannot read it all again and if you underline everything how will you determine the 'important' or key words?
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