• Choose a well lit, comfortable study environment, quiet and free of distractions.
• For optimal concentration, study in a place where studying is all you do.
  • E.g., in your favorite nook in the library or in a study area at home
  • Not in your bedroom, a cafe, or a lounge area where you watch TV
• Plan your reading at a time of day when your energy levels are good.
• Avoid snacking while you are reading.

Be Flexible: Vary Your Reading Rate

• Use different speeds for different assignments. Some passages must be read slowly and digested as you go; others can be read rapidly; yet others can be skimmed; but overall you need to speed up and slow down variably.
  
  • Technical or unfamiliar concepts – slow
  • Instructions – slow
  • Deep philosophy or logic – slow
  • Concepts building on common experience – rapid
  • Information with which you are already somewhat familiar – rapid
  • A novel, newspaper article, magazine article, or other entertainment reading – rapid (or even skim if it isn't very interesting)
  • Illustrative examples of concepts that you already understand – skim
  • Information that you plan to read later after you hear it covered in an upcoming lecture – skim
    
• Learning to read faster involves learning to take in groups of words rather than individual words each time your eye rests on the print (i.e., with each fixation).
  
  • Reading perception happens in the brain, so reading more rapidly is a matter of retraining the brain by changing reading habits.
  • The most effective way to do this on your own is by running your finger under the line of text, just slightly ahead of where your eyes focus. Set a fairly brisk, steady pace with your finger and let your eyes follow. Stop to re-read only when you have lost comprehension.
  • Strive to comprehend the meanings of the words without having to sound them out in your mind. If you are mentally saying the words to yourself as you read, you slow your reading down to the pace of speech, and this is unnecessary. Our brains can function much more quickly than our mouths can move.
    
• Scanning is looking for specific information and involves skimming and slowing down when you think you’re getting close. Knowing your book’s anatomy can save you lots of time:
  
  • Table of Contents
  • Body
  • Appendices (may include answers to study questions, charts, tables, etc.)
  • Glossary (vocabulary definitions)
  • References (can be used for ideas for research assignments)
  • Index (sometimes separated into subject and name indices, etc.)

Read for Comprehension:

• Become conscious of your comprehension and expect better comprehension.
• Maintaining a brisk reading pace improves concentration, and improved concentration increases comprehension.
• Read with a questioning mind, a purpose. Want to learn.
• Take 'digestion' breaks periodically: get up and stretch, move around, and ponder what you have been reading before moving on.

Use the SQ3R Reading Method

Survey: Before you dive in, check out the water.

• Read titles and headings.
• Skim for bold or italicized vocabulary or vocabulary lists.
• Skim the chapter overview, if there is one.
• Skim the chapter summary.

Question: Think ahead.

• What are you are expected to learn here?
• What do you want to learn?
• How does this material appear to relate to what you have been learning in the lectures?
• What do you already know about it?
• Are there specific things you need to watch for?

Read: Dive in.

• Set a pace that’s appropriate to the topic; speed up and slow down as necessary.
• Read actively, looking for answers to your questions, trying to understand and learn.
• Jot notes, highlight or underline as you go (but don’t overdo it).

Recite: Look back and consider what you’ve learned.

• Skim through the material and summarize the information, putting it into your own words (preferably out loud).
• Thinking about the information long enough to paraphrase it helps to establish neural traces in the brain, the first step in remembering something.
• Immediate review improves comprehension dramatically.

Review: Come back later for further practice.

• Skim the material later to reinforce your learning
• Read your notes, highlights, and/or underlines
• Summarize the information again and any specifics that you need to memorize