The Fundamentals of Efficient Reading
Main content start
By putting in the time and effort to learn the following sequence of strategies, you can enjoy more engaged, rewarding, and efficient reading that will prepare you for section discussions, reading reflections, and paper writing.
When reading online, resist typical unhelpful habits
- Why this works: Reading challenging online texts successfully requires different mental and physical habits than those that work for typical web-based reading. If you build the habit of focused digital reading, youʼll learn more effectively and efficiently.
- How to do it: Resist the urge to skim your eyes over the text without thinking, to open a new tab in reaction to a random thought, and to jump back and forth from the reading to email, social media, or some other work youʼre doing on your device. Instead, reduce digital distractions as much as you can, set a timer for focused work, and follow the remaining suggestions on reading.
Understand what “skimming” means in college
- Why this works: Professors often assign more reading than you can possibly complete if you read first word to last word, and everything in between. To do well usually requires you to skim. But first, itʼs important to understand what that means.
- How to do it: Forget thinking of skimming as passing your eyes quickly over the text to get the main idea. That might work for an article in an online newspaper, but not for deep college reading. Instead, think of skimming as setting a reading goal and then reading selectively to meet that goal.
Figure out the goal of the reading
- Why this works: If you know what the goal of the reading is, you're more likely to meet it
- How to do it: To determine the goal of a particular reading assignment, look through your course materials, such as the syllabus, relevant assignment sheets, or the reading itself. Is the goal to contribute to class discussion? To better understand the lecture? To develop a response to a particular writing prompt? Write the goal at the top of a sheet of paper. It can be as basic as “To prepare for section: Write the 5 main points” or as specific as “To understand the lecture: Define bases, alkalis, and acids and explain why they matter.”
Hunt for what matters
- Why this works: When you concentrate for a short chunk of time on extracting only what you need, youʼll learn more, faster.
- How to do it: Decide on a short period of time (e.g., 25–50 minutes) or segment of reading (e.g., intro, section headings, conclusion) in which you will pursue your reading goal. Instead of reading word for word, read as if you were trying to get a specific answer to a question. Identify the parts in the article that will probably help you answer your question and hunt through them. Focus on building knowledge in your mind (known as a “mental model”) by talking to yourself. For example, “Okay, what theyʼre saying is…that reminds me of the professor saying…”
Test yourself
- Why this works: Writing down what youʼve built into your mental model via self-explanations—without looking at text or notes—will strengthen the model. Many studies show that self testing is an effective way to build durable knowledge.
- How to do it: Hide the reading from yourself. Return to your reading question(s) and write answers to them based on your mental model. After writing down all you can remember, determine what you need to hunt for next in the text, and do so. Afterward, repeat the self testing. Feeling challenged? Youʼre doing it right!
Download a pdf version of this page
The Fundamentals of Efficient Reading
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License. You may reproduce it only for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: Center for Teaching and Learning, Stanford University.