Please read this lesson after you finish with lessons 2 and 3
Let's revise few important points that I have covered in my previous lessons: .
Reading and comprehension are different elements and shouldn't be combined.
When you are reading, you should read for comprehension and not for recall.
You read to understand the text and memorize to recall the information.
The Best way to Learn from a book is :
a. Read first – 100 % focus on reading and nothing else. Read to understand the text without the expectation of recall
b. Make notes
c. Memorize the information
1) What is the use of understanding if you can't recall?
Treat Reading and Memorizing differently and not combine them. First read to understand and then memorize to recall .
Note: Re-Reading the same text again and again is not memorization and does very little help to recall in long term.
Important point : if you are a student, the most important aspect is recall and not understanding. I understand that and I know it. The mistake many students make is they read and expect to recall. This is not the way it should be done.
2) It takes lot of time if I follow this process
I know it seems like it will take lot of time if you follow this process. It isn't true. If you follow this process, you will familiarize with the text more than 2 times. It will be go faster each time you do it. Your reading speed will be more than your present reading speed and you will read faster.
This process is tried and tested. I have done it when I was a student and also with many students whom I have coached.
I recommend you to follow this process without any doubt in your mind and report your experience here.
3) I can't follow this process for text book
You need to repeat these steps for every chapter. You read one chapter, make notes of it and then memorize it. It may seem odd if you haven't done something similar before. It is quite normal. If you have right expectations then everything will go smoothly.
Lets understand what the student wants
If you are like majority of students, then all you want pass out the exams, if possible with merit. For students, passing exams is more important than understanding the text. Many students also want understanding of the text. What every student wants is recalling the text in exams.
As I have pointed out, you can't expect to recall everything you have only read. You need to spend some time in memorizing as well. This process is very well suited for reading text books.
4) Do you want this process to be done for all the books?
The process I have shared is the best method for learning a book inside out. There will be many times you don't care about recall for e.g. While reading a novel, you only want to enjoy. Recall comes secondary or has no importance. In this case, you may skip steps – making notes and recall completely.
My recommendation
I am sure many of you have been introduced to this process for the time. It may look odd or impractical. It is quite normal. You don't have to believe anything I say. At the same time, don't reject anything without first doing it.
I believe I have answered many issues her. If you have any further issues, please share them with us.