Education

How to Skim a Textbook When You Don’t Have Time to Read

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The ultimate goal is to allocate your time wisely so that you can fit in all of the required reading&period; Failure to thoroughly read your course materials could certainly lead you falling behind the rest of the class&period; While you&&num;8217&semi;re working on accomplishing this goal&comma; however&comma; you may run into scenarios where you need to skim the textbook&semi; incorporating some specific strategies can help you to do so in the most effective manner&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">1&period; Own Your Book<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Engaging with a textbook often involves writing in it&comma; and this task can prove difficult if you don&&num;8217&semi;t personally own the reading material&period; The decision to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;booksrun&period;com" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener"><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;0000ff&semi;"><u>buy textbooks<&sol;u><&sol;span><&sol;a> helps you to avoid this issue&period; As you&&num;8217&semi;re skimming through the pages&comma; you can take quick notes on the most important material&period; In fact&comma; simply highlighting the information that stands out as the most important lets you know what to review later&period; Look into a purchasing program that allows you to return your book at the end of the semester or year even if it has some writing in it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">2&period; Focus on the Subheadings<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Textbooks generally include a number of subheadings&comma; and you may find multiple levels of them in each chapter&period; Making a quick outline of the subheadings can help you to gain a decent sense of what the chapter is about&period; If you pass by the subheadings&comma; some of the content is unlikely to make sense&period; When you first thinking of skimming textbooks&comma; you may think of a somewhat haphazard and disorganized process&comma; but you can actually complete this task in a focused manner by paying attention to the subheadings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">3&period; Look for Defined Words<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">One important reason why readings are assigned is to help you to develop the vocabulary necessary to understand and discuss the topic in class&period; Your textbook likely has some words in it that are bolded&comma; underlined or otherwise distinguished from the rest of the text&period; You may even see a list of vocabulary words at the end of each chapter or in a collection at the end&period; Ensuring that you know these words well can help you to ace the test or to contribute effectively to discussions in class&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">4&period; Review Your Class Notes<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">When teachers assign readings&comma; they sometimes tell students to pay particular attention to certain elements of a chapter&period; For example&comma; they may note the most important terms for you to focus on&comma; or they may tell you to give extra consideration to certain lessons in the chapter&period; Instead of reading through every word&comma; you can turn your focus to these elements&period; Once you buy textbooks and open them&comma; you might feel overwhelmed&period; However&comma; go back to the notes that the teachers provided when they assigned the readings in the first place&period; Here&comma; you may find valuable clues about which material to bring to the forefront of your studies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">5&period; Answer the Questions<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Some books are truly designed to enhance your learning experience and to help you assess your knowledge as you move through the pages&period; You might feel tempted to skip over the review questions that appear every few pages&comma; but these questions really provide you with an opportunity to see if you are understanding the material&period; Look for questions that have the answers provided in the book or ones that your teacher will provide the answers to&period; Otherwise&comma; you will not know if you are correct with your answers&period; Doing these questions gives you a strong sense of whether you are skimming through the right material&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">6&period; Work with a Partner<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You must know what the policies are about working with partners at your school and in your class&period; For example&comma; some programs may preclude you from working with a partner at all and consider it cheating if you do&period; However&comma; when you have the freedom to study with other students in your class&comma; you can divide the work up&period; Imagine that you have three chapters to read for an exam that is tomorrow&period; You could work with two other people and each skim one chapter&period; Then&comma; you can share the notes with one another and each teach your chapter&period; This method can help you to cut down on time in a couple of ways&period; Of course&comma; make clear that you are all only skimming&period; Also&comma; make sure that you work with people who you trust to do the work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">7&period; Skim Multiple Times<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You might wonder how this suggestion is useful since you are trying to cut down on the amount of time that the review of the chapter takes&period; Keep in mind that when you are assigned a reading for class&comma; you are supposed to generally read the material more than once to fully absorb it&period; In other words&comma; it is still quicker to skim the chapters more than once than to fully read the chapters more than once&period; Skimming through multiple times can certainly allow you to absorb more material and also to gain a stronger sense as to what the most important parts of the chapter are&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">When you are assigned many readings&comma; you may wonder how you are going to get the all completed&period; Learning how to balance your time is an important part of having a successful academic experience&period; However&comma; situations may arise where you must employ skills that help you to skim effectively&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Hardik Patel

Hardik Patel is a Digital Marketing Consultant and professional Blogger. He has 16+ years experience in SEO, SMO, SEM, Online reputation management, Affiliated Marketing and Content Marketing.

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