Reading is an inevitable part of being a student, so it is important to be effective at this skill.

Online learners, in particular, are required to do extensive reading. But regardless of the format of your learning, when you learn to read effectively, you can process new information faster and improve your grades. There are many ways of becoming a more effective reader, but most require more than just reading! Different course materials, such as texts, journal articles, and course guides, require you to use different approaches to get the most out of the material. The following strategies give you options for tackling your course readings. If you are unsure which strategy you need, consider the following suggestions: Make a chapter map as a previewing strategy to give you an overview of a chapter or longer journal article Use PQRST when you need to learn all or most of the material in great detail. This technique is particularly useful with textbooks. Try multi-pass reading when you are unsure if an article will be useful to you or if you require guidelines on how thoroughly to read your material. Check out the online reading tips for ideas on improving your reading skills when working at your computer.

Create a Chapter Map

PQRST
As a student, you may find reading textbooks is a difficult or boring task. Fortunately, there are strategies that can help you become better at it. However, these techniques require more from you than just reading the chapter from beginning to end! To be successful, you should do certain things before, during and after you read. PQRST, which stands for Preview, Question, Read, Summarize, and Test, is a valuable technique you can use to actively tackle your textbooks

PQRST: A Textbook Reading Strategy

Step 1: Preview (5-10 minutes) Before reading a chapter, you should preview it. When previewing, you want to

get a sense of where you are going with your reading. It is like planning for a trip to an unfamiliar destination you most likely wont get in your car and drive! Before leaving, you most likely make a plan; you look at a map, determine your destination, and figure out what youre going to see along the way. Previewing a textbook is a similar process: you want to get a sense of what you will be learning about in the chapter before you start to read. 1. Read the title and the chapter objective. Ask yourself a few questions, such as What do I already know about this topic? What key concepts is the chapter going to discuss? What has the instructor said about these concepts? 2. Skim the introduction, looking for hints about key concepts. 3. Read and think about the headings and subheadings. They outline the major topics and subtopics within the chapter. Consider making a chapter map. 4. Notice pictures and diagrams, charts, bolded or italicized words and marginal notes. 5. Read the summary, noting which points have received emphasis. 6. Scan the review questions. Step 2: Question (1-2 minutes per heading) After getting an overview of the chapter through previewing, it is time to start asking questions. In this step of the process, you generate questions to help focus your reading and find the key points in each section. Follow these steps: 1. Read the heading. 2. Predict questions based on that heading. Include questions based on who; what; when; where; why; and how. For tips on generating good questions, check out the Critical Thinking and Questioning section. 3. Jot your questions down in the margin of your text for easy reference. Step 3: Read After generating a few questions, you finally get to read - but youre not going to read the whole chapter at once! At this stage, only read the section of text that applies to the heading with which you are working. As a general rule, usually one key idea is introduced in each paragraph. In fact, about half the time the key idea is found in the first sentence of textbook paragraphs. (Hint: About half the time it is found in the first sentence.) While you are reading the section, do the following: 1. Look for the answers to your questions. 2. Notice the bolded and underlined words or phrases. 3. Reread sections that are difficult. If necessary, break larger sections down into smaller sections or even paragraphs. Step 4: Summarize After you finish reading a section of text, summarize your learning by recalling the important ideas from the section you just read and recording them in your notes. When summarizing, you might do the doing the following: Locate and underline the key ideas. These ideas should answer many of the questions you generated. Summarize and record important concepts in the margins of your text. Take notes on paper or on your computer. Write the key ideas in point

form and in your own words, so you understand the information better. The Cornell note taking strategy works well here because you can include the questions you have generated alongside your notes. Draw diagrams, if appropriate. Relate the new information you have learned to something you already know, and consider recording any helpful ideas in your notes. Ask yourself: o What does it remind me of? o Can I think of a real world example? o Can I connect it to something in my own experience? Next step: Now go back and repeat the Question-Read-Summarize process (Steps 2-4) for the next section of the textbook. Repeat this process until you reach the end of the section or chapter you are reading. Then, review the chapter summary to ensure that you have captured all the key ideas. Step 5: Test Now that you have finished Steps 2 through 4 for the entire chapter, you can move on to the test, or review, stage. Keep the following strategies in mind: Read the questions you wrote and try to answer them aloud or in writing. Create a mind map of different concepts from the chapter. Make mnemonic devices to help you memorize facts. Create charts to summarize large chunks of information. Textbook reading can be challenging and, sometimes, tiresome. With practice, the PQRST reading strategy can help you remain active and alert, so you can make the most of your study time.