Best effective techniques to get the most out of a reading

This article describes some simple principles through the implementation of which you can get most out of what you read and write. Normally we read and simply forget whether they are of most importance or just to read. Students should remember this technique of SQ3R which is a short form of Survey, Question, Read, Recall, and Review. Students, researchers like doctors and engineers can be more benefited from this technique.

Importance of reading

Reading is the most valuable activity for anyone who wants to increase his/her knowledge in any field, any topic, and any subject. Reading always helps in any manner you cannot imagine. Whatever you read, will always be helpful in your life. If you are a student, it will help you to learn more out of it for exam points and learning points of view. Scientists and engineers, who used to read some research papers and research articles, need to concentrate more on the core objectives. One should not read for the sake of time passing but also remember what you read. You just observe how much do you get from the newspaper every day? Have you ever tried to follow some techniques which help you to remember and grasp more important articles and resources?

Follow this step by step procedure in any manner either by imagination in mind or on paper, if you implement this technique, you will surely get more out of your reading than ever before. You will see the change in how fast you get what you want from reading or any stuff that will ultimately give you some knowledge and some value. When you read anything for just the sake of reading, you are doing nothing but wasting time but instead of doing that if you follow the underneath steps of this technique you will sure get some more than ever before.

SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recall, Review):

Survey

First, just do the survey or simple scan the contents. Do not try to grasp anything at first reading. Look for the introduction of an article or chapter or book. Also, look for a summary if given. Now, this is the step by which you can come to know whether you should continue to read or go for a complete reading. This is an important step of reading and sometimes this step will save some time for wasteful reading if you get a negative view from the survey. You can see the index and contents to do fast scanning and survey about your reading.

Question

Very next step in reading by this technique is to start asking questions on the objective, aim, goal and purpose of reading. Start and note questions based on the survey. Try to answer the questions on your own. This will give you an idea of how important that article is for you. Some time questions will get you hidden aim of the article though it is not physically written in it.

Read

Now if you know the article is worth reading based on the first two steps, you can gradually start reading patiently a not in hurry. Sometimes you miss the concepts while reading in a hurry so slow down your speed when reading for the first time. This is equally applicable for those who want to read any research paper and related article. Start reading every section with details. Note important points and look for the idea/aim/goal/objective of reading finally.

Recall

Now it is time to recall what you read. Does it satisfy the aim of your reading? What are the benefits that reading contains? How do you rate that reading? Recall the reading several times in your mind. Isolate the important points and facts behind the subject.

Review

In the end, you can re-read the article/reading if you want to. The review also deals with expanding the notes that you do during your reading step. Finally, make a complete review of your reading and its outcome whether you got something out of it or not.

Example

Suppose, you are reading a new book - it may be related to your work or anything. You can simply follow the above steps to get ahead for reading or not. You can survey a book by seeing its index, preface, and contents as well as review for that book by other people. You then ask yourself whether to go for this book of so and so the author or just change the author of the book but the subject should remain the same. You can ask how important this book is for you based on the survey. If you get satisfied with your questions, you can now go for reading and note down the important points that you are looking for based on our goal or objective of reading. After complete reading, once again recall what you read and at last, you can review what is in your hand after complete reading based on your notes or findings from that reading.

Who will get benefited from this SQ3R technique?

Most students can get benefited from these techniques and of course, this method is more suitable for researchers and scientists, whether they are doctors or engineers; this method always helps them in reading research papers and related articles.

Article by Dr. Paresh Gujarati
The author is a mechanical engineer (B. E., M. Tech., Ph. D.) by profession and has a passion to write a simple but effective content that can help every layman to know more.

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Comments

Guest Author: Vageesha JM15 Jul 2013

Really nice article on the best reading techniques. One can easily understand how to read by this.

Author: K Mohan26 Dec 2016 Member Level: Platinum Points : 3

Lots of insight has been drawn in this wonderful article which suggests ways and means to have best remembrance out of various reading techniques. Though by writing some gets the knowledge of remembrance, what I suggest is that by reading one has to remember the important words in a particular sentence and that must be remembered to construct some sentence on our own. Right from the childhood we must inculcate the habit in children to form sentence with a given word. For example If I say the word water, the child should able to form at least two or three sentence on water. If this kind of knowledge has to be developed, we must concentrate on the important words in each sentence. And that is possible if we read the passage or paragraph with concentration and interest. Once we remember the words, then telling something or writing some thing own is definitely possible.

Author: Umesh26 Jun 2017 Member Level: Platinum Points : 5

Reading was once the only source of information and knowledge. In today's world now the information is flowing through gadgets and visual media so reading habit is pushed back to the backstage. Still, books are the source for immense knowledge and great experience of authors written down in immortal black and white.

The author has very elaborately explained the technique of good reading specially for articles.

I want to add that same technique can be applied to a book. Only difference is that in a book there are many chapters and you have to first see and select the chapters which are of interest or use to you in your work in hand and concentrate on those parts of the book and make your notes and use them later instead of opening the book everytime.

Please remember that a book is a treasure house and we have to pick up the parts which are required by us for our studies.

When I was doing my graduation with Mathematics as one of the subjects and we did not have knowledge of any technique of reading, we were casually told by our professor to look up the related books in library and pick up the relevant portions useful to us. It really helped us as something which could not be understood clearly from one book was available in a well illustrated form in other book.

So reading is also an art and more we learn it more we will be benefited from it.

Author: DR.N.V. Srinivasa Rao28 Feb 2020 Member Level: Platinum Points : 4

An excellent article from the author. The topic is dealt with in a very interesting way. Never read a book for the sake of reading. Read to understand. Read to remember. Read to implement.

When a new book is released in the market, if the subject is interesting to us we will purchase that. We will go through the foreword and other introductory remarks given by some good scholars about the book. If the reviews appear good and useful to us we will read it. While reading also we will not go fast page by page. We have to read the book properly and understand the subject and understand the content of the book. Then only you will remember the content of the book and you can use the knowledge/ information you acquired elsewhere.

There is no use going on reading the book without understanding the contents. If necessary, refer to other books and get the subject properly. Then only the time you have spent on reading would be useful.

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