Studying With Active Reading

If you will soon be returning to school as a high school or college student, one thing that will be important in order for you to achieve success this this year is that you understand how to study properly. A lot of people go through school saying that they “have a hard time learning” or that they are “not a good test taker,” but the fact of the matter for many of the students is simply that they do not know how to study properly – which is to say, they do not understand how to study by actively reading.

There are two types of reading, active reading and passive reading; while passive reading is what you do when you are skimming, for instance, a magazine article or a blog post, active reading is what you should be doing when you are studying – paying attention to and absorbing every little thing in the writing.

Most people are not really used to active reading, and because of this, it can take a little while – and a bit of practice – before you become truly adept at it; one of the best ways to begin practicing active reading is by using your fingers or an index card to “guide your eyes,” which means moving your fingers or this index card underneath the words you are reading, so that your eyes are following both the words and the “guide” as you read.

Another great way to practice active reading is to stop after every 2 or 3 paragraphs and recap in your mind what you just read; although it might seem like this takes more time, it will actually save you time in the long run, as you will be continually learning things rather than having to go back and “study” these things later on before a test.

And the final thing you need in order to become adept at active reading is patience; if you have spent years passively reading when you should have been actively reading, it can take a little while before your mind is trained to read the right way, but as you continue working on it, and as you have some patience, the results will eventually come your way!