Day 18: Learning Technique 6: Reading Effectively

Today we discuss learning technique #6, reading effectively, which is about understanding what you read and remembering it longer. You will learn what this technique is, the science behind it, why you should use it, and finally how you can apply it to accelerate your learning.

Resources for this lesson:

• Transcripts
• Worksheet
• List of Scientific References

Summary

What is Effective Reading?

Reading effectively is about understanding what you read and remembering it longer.

• We will lean on previous techniques during reading, especially active recall because you want to be able to put the book away and recall the information you just read.

However, this is not about increasing your reading speed.

• You can increase your reading speed by building your vocabulary and background knowledge.
• But research shows that fewer than 1% of people can read at speeds faster than 400 words per minute, without loss of comprehension.

Why it matters: reading allows you to master the best of what other people have already learned. But this is only true if you can remember and apply the lessons and insights from what you read.

What does the science say?

When you read a word, you first recognize [1] the word. Next you silently pronounce or subvocalize it before finally converting it to the concept it represents.

• For example you read the word car, you sub vocalize the word car in your mind, and then you bring a picture up that that identifies the concept of car in your mind.

As you read a sentence, you identify each one of the words while your eyes jump from one word to the next word and stops and focuses again before jumping on to the next word.

• Speed reading programs will teach you how to look at two or three or four words together, and then jumping over to the next three or four words to minimize time wasted in jumping.
• But this doesn't necessarily speed up your brain's ability to process what the words are, has just minimizing the amount of time your eyes jumping around.
• Research [2] has revealed that your brain is processing the previous word when it's jumping to the next one.

What's holding everything up is the mental processing, the recognition of the word, the sub vocalizing it and the conversion from that word to an idea or concept.

• If you try to increase your reading speed by cutting back on focus, stops and jumps, you're not really addressing the real constraint on your reading.

If you do want to read faster, you need to speed up the word recognition and conversion to concept.

• Which is done [3] by having a good vocabulary, a good understanding of different concepts, the right foundational background knowledge, and of course, plenty of experience with reading.

Why should you use it?

Reading allows you to master the best of what other people have already learned. But this is only true if you can remember and apply the lessons and insights from what you read.

How do you use it?

Decide which books are worth reading, focus on great books and quit crappy ones.

• The more interesting and relevant we find a book, the more likely we are to remember it
• If you start reading a book and it's just not grabbing your attention, or it seems like it doesn't apply to your life, you don't need to finish it.
• So skim a lot of books, read a few and immediately reread the best ones.

When reading use the SQ3R technique:

• Survey: quickly skim or scan the content before reading it to prepare your mind for new information.
• Question: ask questions to increase motivation such as "how will this info apply to me? what do I expect to see in this book?"
• Read: more on this below
• Recall: Attempt to remember what you just read by recalling the information from memory. Strategies discussed below.
• Review: Analyze the content from multiple perspectives. Assess what you have learned and try and connect it to previous knowledge. Review notes from reading over time.

Engage in active reading based on the level of engagement the text requires. There are 4 levels of active reading put forth by Mortimer Adler:

1. Elementary Reading: The level of reading taught in our elementary schools. If you’re reading this website, you already know how to do this.
2. Inspectional Reading: A superficial read. You skim, dive in and out, and get a feel for the book and get the gist of things.
3. Analytical Reading:  The real workhorse of reading. This is a thorough reading where you chew on things and digest them.
4. Syntopical Reading:  reading a variety of books and articles on the same topic, finding and evaluating the contradictions, and forming an opinion.

To further engage in reading, take notes. One technique is using a blank sheet of paper:

1. Before you start reading a new book, take out a blank sheet of paper. Write down what you know about the book / subject you’re about to read, like a mind map.
2. After you finish a reading session, spend a few minutes adding to the map with a different color.
3. Before you start your next reading session, review the page.
4. When you’re done reading, put these ‘blank sheets’ into a binder that you periodically review.

Another strategy is to take conventional notes:

• At the end of each chapter write a few bullet points that summarize the main idea or specific points. Use your own words and not the authors.
• When you’re done with the book, put it down for a week.
• Pick up the book again and go through all your notes. In a lot of cases, reading your notes will be as good as reading the book again.
• On the inside cover write out the main idea of the book using your own words. If you find yourself stuck, review your notes.
• You can even make a custom index on the back cover with themes or topics.

Active Recall lies at the core of these reading strategies which, as research shows, allows you to remember and understand the key concepts of the book.

• Read a page as carefully as you can and try to pick out the key ideas, then look away and either tell yourself or write down those key ideas without looking at the book.
• One study [4] compared rereading to recall and found that students who used recall could remember 25% more of the text a week later.
• Another study [5] showed that recalling material one time doubled the long-term retention while repeated recall resulted in 400% improvement in retention.

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Activity

Choose something to read and go through the SQ3R process

• Survey what you need to read
• Ask yourself questions about it.
• Decide what level of reading you need to do and actively take notes during that reading.
• Recall the information once you've read the material.
• Creates summaries and notes that you can review later so that you retain the information long-term.

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Skill Lesson Mastered

Demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson by applying it to the above activity. If, and only if, you have a full understanding and have mastered the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson, select the next lesson in the navigation.