How to read like everyone else.

[DarklordKyo]

A while back, my Dad told me that an essential study method is to read through my entire textbook three times in the first few days to week. Since I'm probably the only person in the universe who can't do that, anyone have any tips to train the proper attention span? (or, at least, enough of one that's, like everyone else's, not as small as an atom).

 

[Saelune]

...What? The trick is to not have an insane dad. I don't truly think there is a proper attention span. I think a lot of people with seemingly poor attention spans are just people who value their time better. Its easy to pay attention when its something interesting, and I think many people don't value learning cause too often what they are trying to learn isn't being presented in an interesting way. Memorizing a textbook is not an interesting or engaging way to learn.

I suppose my tip is try to find ways to make learning what you need to know interesting and fun. Don't know what it is or what you like, so I cant get specific.

 

[DarklordKyo]

...What? The trick is to not have an insane dad. I don't truly think there is a proper attention span. I think a lot of people with seemingly poor attention spans are just people who value their time better. Its easy to pay attention when its something interesting, and I think many people don't value learning cause too often what they are trying to learn isn't being presented in an interesting way. Memorizing a textbook is not an interesting or engaging way to learn.

I suppose my tip is try to find ways to make learning what you need to know interesting and fun. Don't know what it is or what you like, so I cant get specific.

Then why is it that hard studying, and routine memorization, is the only study method that's emphasized by our educational system?

 

[Saelune]

...What? The trick is to not have an insane dad. I don't truly think there is a proper attention span. I think a lot of people with seemingly poor attention spans are just people who value their time better. Its easy to pay attention when its something interesting, and I think many people don't value learning cause too often what they are trying to learn isn't being presented in an interesting way. Memorizing a textbook is not an interesting or engaging way to learn.

I suppose my tip is try to find ways to make learning what you need to know interesting and fun. Don't know what it is or what you like, so I cant get specific.

Then why is it that hard studying, and routine memorization, is the only study method that's emphasized by our educational system?

Cause our education system sucks and stuck in old thinking. We expel kids who need education more than anyone, we rely on faulty testing, and regular deny money to schools that do bad, instead of giving then MORE funding to become non crappy schools. Bad teachers are tenured in and untouchable while progressive and passionate teachers are under appreciated and prone to being neglected.

 

[NPC009]

Wait, what? Why would you read the whole thing three times? Even if it's all about memorization, there are much better methods. The one I recommend is making summaries, preferably chapter by chapter (or other bite sized chunks). Don't just go wild with a highlighter, write the important things down. Carefully, neatly. That alone will help you remember the important parts. And no0t only that, it will force you to make connections, adding more context to the things you're trying to learn. Once you have your summary, you can read it as many times as you want/feel the need to. As a bonus, your neat summaries will help you become popular among classmates! (Well, maybe. The whole learning aspect of it works, though.)

I always wrote mine with a fountain pen, and if a part of the summary didn't look quite right, I'd write it again. I think that really helped my brain figure out that I was trying to make it store something important.

 

[Nemmerle]

There are a couple of big things I've found help:

1) Explain the subject to someone else. If there's no-one else, make a video of you explaining it.

2) Flashcards. There are flash card programs out there, like Anki[footnote]http://ankisrs.net/[/footnote], that handle the spaced repetition algorithms for you[footnote]Spaced repetition is a method of repeatedly reviewing information over time and altering the relative frequency of questions and reminders about those things based on how easy they were to remember. It's very effective for aiding long term recall.[/footnote]. Those are awesome sauce.

3) Make notes. Writing stuff down and making sure that when you write it down you're explaining the key concepts in your own words really seems to help for some reason.

A while back, my Dad told me that an essential study method is to read through my entire textbook three times in the first few days to week. Since I'm probably the only person in the universe who can't do that, anyone have any tips to train the proper attention span? (or, at least, enough of one that's, like everyone else's, not as small as an atom).

Are you sure your dad wasn't... joking, perhaps? I've basically never had reading something a bunch of times work.

 

[DarklordKyo]

Are you sure your dad wasn't... joking, perhaps? I've basically never had reading something a bunch of times work.

He was being completely serious when he said that.

 

[vare]

I mean, he is right in one aspect... Read the literature ahead of time. Before the lessons or lectures or seminars or workshops.
Even if you don't necessarily understand the content, it will be in the back of your head, and then you will be reminded of it in class or whatever you have.
I mean, the more work you can do ahead of time (taking notes, reading it all multiple times, talking to people about it) the better, but at least make sure to read everything you should read at least once.
Of course, not all of the book at once, just the relevant chapters for the next lecture or class!

 

[Smooth Operator]

Yes sadly the education system insists on filling cabinet process, and many people take that as gospel even though it is a prehistoric process and wrong.
Human brains are not filling cabinets, people remember things they find important at the time. If it's not a subject the person is interested in they will barely know a thing at the end of it, and in all cases we muddy up our memories real fast. Most things people remember from school are pretty defective(i.e. wrong) because they got intermixed with everything else happening in their life.

Reading the entire book in advance is mostly a waste and by the end of your year you will have no idea what you even read, except in cases where you just adore the topic and it keeps going through your head.
The only way to help is breaking down the topic into logical chunks that make sense to you, yes that should be a teachers job but if they go by ye olden filling cabinet rule then they only feel obligated to give you tons upon tons of nonsensical info.

 

[SummerHaze]

lol i have never hear about such ridiculous method, search on the web about speedy reading

 

[The_Sacred_Flame]

There are a couple of big things I've found help:

1) Explain the subject to someone else. If there's no-one else, make a video of you explaining it.

2) Flashcards. There are flash card programs out there, like Anki[footnote]http://ankisrs.net/[/footnote], that handle the spaced repetition algorithms for you[footnote]Spaced repetition is a method of repeatedly reviewing information over time and altering the relative frequency of questions and reminders about those things based on how easy they were to remember. It's very effective for aiding long term recall.[/footnote]. Those are awesome sauce.

3) Make notes. Writing stuff down and making sure that when you write it down you're explaining the key concepts in your own words really seems to help for some reason.

Basically this. I would also like to add that focusing on the highlighted bits in the textbooks are a great way to save time.

 

[TakerFoxx]

Um, practically nobody does that. Hell, I'm an insanely fast reader and I couldn't do that.

 

[renegade7]

A while back, my Dad told me that an essential study method is to read through my entire textbook three times in the first few days to week. Since I'm probably the only person in the universe who can't do that, anyone have any tips to train the proper attention span? (or, at least, enough of one that's, like everyone else's, not as small as an atom).

This is the exact opposite of how you should be using a textbook. The key with textbooks is to go slowly and methodically, taking the time to think about and reflect on everything. My own rule is to spend at least an hour on each individual section, that breaks down to something like ten to fifteen minutes per page, followed by an hour of reflection and thinking about what I just read. It takes a lot of time, but it's never time wasted.

As for training the proper attention span, you have to find what works for you. For most people, this means a completely quiet, distraction free environment where it's just you and the book. If you genuinely think that your reading comprehension and attention abilities aren't at an age-appropriate level then that's something you need to discuss promptly with a doctor.

I prefer to read the book after the lecture, using the notes as a sort of roadmap through reading the chapter, but that's mostly because I have an extremely independent learning style and I can see the merit in reading before the lecture instead of after.