some ways to quickly study one's school books

         

     
         I have tried speed reading previously, but the books are usually written in such a concise fashion as to make it impossible to quickly skim over it without missing half of what the author is trying to convey.

First of all, skimming and speed reading aren't quite the same thing. If you get really good at speed reading, your are taking in entire lines of text at a time rather than reading individual words. If you've tried it once or twice and have been unsuccessful, keep it up (although practice with non-school reading until you are sure you're doing it well enough to get the material.

Skimming can be a great tool, but as you say, it can be dangerous because authors are trying to convey a lot of information in a small space. It may be your reading has been condensed so much that the very text you have is speed reading. But that's not helpful to you (sorry).

When I teach (the main course I teach is a transitional course for a community college, giving study skills to those who aren't necessarily ready for the rigors of a college classroom, usually because they've been in the workplace for 10 years or more and not in a classroom) I tell my students they can absolutely skim, but then they need to read. Read introduction and concluding paragraphs for sections, titles and bold words if you have them. Then read the material. It will go faster, and you'll have a better idea of what the important material is if you know what dots you are trying to connect.

Writing in your margins can also help. While it may slow down the actual reading, you'll connect more deeply with the material and won't need to reread as much. Your marginalia will also give you a good study guide when you go back for exams.




If your studying approach is to remember, skimming or memorize stuff, then you are doing it wrong. You need to study to understand, this involves building a sense of direction in your studies by adding a reflection step at the end of each study session. This allows you to study to understand, which provides for solid memories, instead of studying to remember.

Here is the most important step when you study

In the last 15 minutes of each study session, you also do a reflection on what topics you have learned from the book and what topics from the book you still need to improve on. This will give you a sense of direction on what you still need to read again in every school book in your next study session. This also removes the need for you to keep reading or skimming the entire book all the time.

If you repeat this step in each study session, you will realized you are studying more efficiently by constantly focus on improvement.

All this allows you to study efficiently and still have time to have fun and a good night sleep