Learning to Learn
Did you ever mosey up to a fifty-five pound textbook? You know, the kind you need the warehouse guy to load on your truck with his forklift. Your brain winces at the thought of trying to read all of those words. Ouch!
Of course that was before you entered The Technician Shop. Now you are quite comfortable taking portions of learning in small, bite-sized chunks. No worries, right?
Today we’re going to turn you on to a method that will help you to organize those bite-sized chunks and make more sense out of them. It’s called SQ3R and it’s a method to help retain information that you read.
Survey
- Review text to be read
- Read titles and subtitles
- Notice words and phrases in bold type and italics
- Determine the general idea of the overall content
- Focus on main ideas
- Read the final summary
- Read questions at the end of the chapter
Question
- Turn main topics into questions ( use who, where, what, why, when)
Read
- Actively read to answer the questions
- Pay attention to details and supporting examples
- Highlight, underline or write important facts after reading one section
- Visualize as you read
Recite
- At the end of each section, stop to silently or orally answer questions
- Use your own words
- Jot down cue phrases
- Quiz yourself on what you’ve just studied
Review
- Reread section. Aim to recite main ideas in each section
- Write a summary
- Make a study guide
- Review again within 24 hours and again within 72 hours and twice more within a week
Survey then Question then Read then Recite then Review. See? SQ3R!
The information on SQ3R is from a book titled Learning to Learn. This is an excellent book that will help you to study and learn!
