How to Remember Textbook Information: 5-Step Active Reading Strategy

Let's talk about how to remember information that you read from a textbook. Now, I covered this at the end

of last week's class, but I want to go over it again pretty quick. And it's a lot easier than you might think. Now,

the way most people normally try to read a textbook is they start at the first page of the chapter and they read to the

last page of the chapter. And that's their approach. They read a textbook the same way they read a novel. Bad idea. It

doesn't stay in their head. So, I'm going to show you a few things that you can do to be able to read any kind of a

textbook or any kind of a manual, especially if you are preparing for an exam. This is going to be life-changing

when you understand this approach. So the first thing that you do is you simply

flip through and I'm going to abbreviate that each

page. What you're going to do is you are simply going to take the beginning of the chapter and you're going to turn

page after page after page and you're just going to look to see what's on each page. You're not going to read anything.

You are just going to look at what the pictures are. You're going to look at what the pages look like. It's going to

give you a sense of how long is the chapter, how much is there words compared to images, what are there going

to be graphs, does anything jump out at you? That's the very first thing you're going to do. Okay. Now, you're going to

go back to the beginning of the chapter again. This time, I'm sorry. I'm gonna start over again. You're not going to go

to the beginning of the chapter. You're going to go to the end of the chapter. You're going to start at the

end of the chapter and you are going to see at the end of the chapter, did they give you any sort of a

quiz? In a lot of textbooks, not all, but in most textbooks, there is going to be some sort of a quiz at the end of

each chapter or at the end of each section. So, can anybody tell me why you think it

would be a good idea to read the questions in the quiz before you read the chapter? So, you know what to look

for. Say it again. So, you know what to look for. You know what to look for. What you're discovering is what did the

author of this chapter think was so important you were supposed to have gained from the information in the

chapter? This is what you're supposed to get out of the chapter. So now when you're reading, you're reading with a

focused attention. Here's what I'm looking for. Now you're going to go back to the

beginning of the chapter and you are going to read the bold

print. You're not going to read all the sentences. You're not going to read all the information in the entire chapter.

You're just going to go read the bold print. Who can tell me what is the information that's contained in the bold

print? Stuff they want you to remember and see. Stuff they want you to see. The stuff that they put in bold

print for a reason. This is the titles. These are the subtitles. These are the topic headings. These are how they broke

down the information within that chapter. In other words, they're going to break it down for you. So now you're

kind of understanding how this stuff fits together. You're going to go through one

more time before you read the chapter. And you're going to read the first and last

sentence. You're going to read the first and last sentence. In each

paragraph, you're going to read the first and last sentence in each paragraph. The first sentence of a

paragraph is the introduction is a quick overview if it's well written and if it's written by a good author. The first

sentence of a paragraph gives you an indication as to what the rest of the paragraph is about. And usually the last

of the paragraph helps you sum it up right now. And I want to make this I want to stress this at this point. You

are not reading this for comprehension. You are reading this for exposure. You're not going to understand

this stuff yet. Why? Because you haven't been able to connect the dots. But now you're going to have a map of all the

dots. Now, what you've got is preview of coming

attractions. Now, your brain is set up for here's what you're going to get. Now, you read the chapter and take notes

on it. Let me tell you, if you follow this formula, you'll only need to go through

the chapter like this once. Now, I know what you're thinking. Yes, even you. What you're thinking is

that's a lot of work. Well, Compared to what? Compared to reading it and how to reread it and how to reread it because

I'm lost after three paragraphs. Right. Exactly. It It's a lot of work compared to just blowing through it and putting

your book away and going back to your video game or your TV show. It is not a lot of work compared to

cramming for a test and and hoping praying that it's going to stay in your head and having to stay up all night

trying to squeeze this information into your head because now what you've done is

you've got it as a a systematic approach. Remember the old expression that we talked about weeks ago,

repetition is the mother of learning. Repetition is the mother of learning, right? Repetition is the mother of

learning. You got that quick. So, what are we doing here? You're giving yourself multiple repeats. You're

getting a little bit of a quick overview of what the whole thing looks like. You're finding out what the author

thought was the most important stuff to get. So, now your your radar is on. It's called a reticular activating system.

reticular activating system. A very fancy word for your internal radar. You buy a brand new blue car and suddenly

you see blue cars everywhere. You know what I'm talking about. Mhm. You know, you happen to wear brown shoes

that day and you notice how many other people are wearing brown shoes that day. That is your awareness has increased.

That is called the reticular activating system. And so this is what you want to activate before you turn around and read

the chapter. Your awareness is now heightened. Bold print. You're now going to find out what they thought was so

important they needed to put it in bold print. These are all your headlines. And now the first and last sentence of each

paragraph of each paragraph, not just the page of the paragraph is going to give you a quick overview section by

section. Yes, it pay it's slower than just reading through it once, but it is a thousand times more effective.

Can't wait to try it. Perfect.