How to Take Notes and Study for Success: Sq3r

It is the day before exams, and although you have read through your textbook, your notes and handouts from class throughout the week, you still feel like you are not fully prepared to take an exam on this material. You have read the information, but are not fully confident of your retention of the reading material. You admit you put in time to study, but that’s it-time. Did you waste your time studying the wrong way?

When we read personal letters, entertaining magazine articles or reviews we seem to have little or no difficulty absorbing its content. We have no need to search for the main idea, underline, highlight, or take notes, in order to gain meaning from personal or entertaining information; we read and comprehend enjoyable material. In order to comprehend material we may not find as interesting, certain reading and comprehension skills should be applied. We all struggle in some way to comprehend a manual or text reading, whether it is in an academic, professional, or employment environment. Individuals are considered inactive learners when they are exposed to expository text material. Although comprehension difficulties exist among a variety of learners, there are strategies to assist individuals in obtaining meaning from text content. In order to read and retain what you have read from your exhausting textbook chapters, you must learn to use the SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review) study method. The SQ3R method is an effective learning strategy that enables the learner to comprehend material using a manageable chunking technique.

Survey: Scan your chapter in your textbook. Take a “preview peek” of the chapter.

Look at the title of each chapter; also examine the outline of the chapter; this will enable you to preview the content to come. Next, you will want to read each bolded section heading, and look over the objectives /questions, if appropriate; these are designed to assist the reader to focus on important key details. Read and scan any illustrations, graphs or tables; these are included for a reason that helps organize and summarize key terms or ideas. Read the summary at the end of the chapter to help give you an overview of the chapter.

Question: When approaching each chapter, read one major section at a time. Before you read each section, read over the learning objectives questions. Then, add a few questions of your own by using the subheadings/titles and or key terms. Remember, by creating and asking your own questions, you improve your focus for reading the chapter to begin with. Your questions may start with words like: Who, what, when, why, where, and how. Create each heading into a question. Self -questioning boosts your comprehension when reading a new passage.

What is the purpose for studying this?

What are the main ideas? (Check at underlined or highlighted passages)

Read and Underline: With your learning objectives in mind, read each section and consider the displayed examples for the major ideas in the reading. Try to make sense and grasp the examples, and try to create your own examples. If you have difficulty making sense of an example or table, reread over the related text and look back at your table. Be sure to look over any photos, captions and terms in the margins that may assist your understanding.

Read the beginning of the first section and highlight, underline, or place asterisk by the material. You may have to read and reread a passage several times to comprehend.

Recite: Once you have read and marked your text material, write a short summary about what you just read. Your summary should answer the objective question in your chapter. Read over the summary provided at the end of the chapter and compare.

Recite as you reread the summary and/or questions.

Review: After you have completed each section, look over the chapter review. Try to answer the related questions. Check your answers with the key word definitions provided in your textbook, and reread summary and key terms that are bolded. Be sure to complete items in the study guide (this may be the study guide you have just created).

Remember to relax, pace yourself, and take baby steps (chunks) of information and make them meaningful to you!