How to Read College Textbooks?

A large amount of the assigned reading you are likely to get in college is reading textbooks, an acquired skill. While every student is likely to have some classes where textbook reading is required, any student in a natural science major will need to hone in their skills to get through some pretty bland textbook reading. However, some textbook reading strategies can help make this tedious task a little more doable and allow you to get the most information possible from the book.

Is Reading a Textbook a Good Way to Study?

If reading the textbook is the only way you plan to study for a class, it is a terrible way to learn. Used in combination with other study methods, reading a textbook is a fantastic study tool. Relying on your book instead of your notes is a great way to minimize any potential misunderstandings based on unclear notes and help save you many points on tests and exams.

A textbook on its own is not particularly useful for most students, but a textbook combined with other study strategies is super helpful. Some students who are more visual learners may find that reading a textbook is a great way to study for them. Other students, who may be more kinesthetic or auditory learners, may feel that reading a textbook is a horrible way to study for them. Learning how you study best is an individual process since nobody learns the same as the person next to them.

However, reading a textbook is a great way to prepare for class, and being well prepared for class is a great way to do well on any tests or quizzes in that class. Understanding how to use your textbook is the key to using it as a study tool.

While reading the text in a textbook may not be the best study tool for everyone, reading and studying the diagrams in your textbook can be immensely helpful. These diagrams will be more detailed than what you scribble in your notes during class and will likely be more to scale. They are a great tool that you can use when studying, and while they aren’t reading the written text of your textbook, they are still reading your textbook in some way.

How Do You Focus When Reading a Textbook?

Maintaining focus while reading a textbook can be challenging, but some tips can help you get through those long days of studying. Practicing focusing is something that is often an underrated skill, and we can’t stress enough how important it is to practice focusing. While it might seem silly, starting by focusing on reading for a short amount of time and slowly increasing the time is the best way to help your brain get better at focusing.

No matter how good you are at focusing, don’t try to push yourself too hard. Try to find a good balance between reading and taking breaks. Many students like to study for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break, or study for 45 minutes and take a 15-minute break. Both of these are good ways to get yourself to focus. If you can’t concentrate for more than 25 minutes, just break your studying and reading into 25-minute time blocks.

Some students find that highlighting or underlining, which we’ll talk about more later on in this article, can help them focus on their reading, but this can also be deceiving. If you want to highlight or underline, that’s great. Just make sure that you are still able to focus on the reading and the material itself, not just the colors and the markings that you’re making all across the page of your textbook.

How Do You Read Textbooks for College?

Reading a textbook is not like reading a novel. To really read a textbook, you need to understand the general sections that are commonly found in college textbooks. Generally, the textbook will be divided into sections or chapters. Each chapter will likely start with an introduction paragraph, have a few main sections, each of which may have a few subheadings, and then end with a concluding paragraph that sums up what you should have learned from that chapter.

After the conclusion, many textbooks have summary questions specific to each chapter and can help study later on. Many textbooks also have more overarching questions at the end of the text that can be used to help you study for more extensive tests or for the final at the end of the class. Making sure you know your textbook’s parts and are familiar with its layout is a significant first step to getting better at reading your textbook.

The most efficient way to read a college textbook is to understand the general sections that you can expect to find in the chapter you’ll be reading before you even begin. Going over the sections first will allow you to track your reading and make connections across the reading and other readings from the same class or different classes.

Learning the information that each professor expects you to glean from your textbook reading will help inform you on the best way to read a textbook and take notes. Some professors will be relying on your reading of the textbook to supplement the class heavily, so for courses like this, you should read thoroughly and take detailed notes. However, many professors encourage you to utilize your textbook to help you learn dates and vocabulary terms. For courses like this, you only need to take notes on certain parts of the reading.

Another super useful part of a textbook is the diagrams and pictures. Once you’ve read through a section and have a good idea of what diagrams might come in handy for you later when you are studying for a quiz or test, you can make a note of the diagram number and page number in your notes. Writing down the page numbers will make it super easy to refer back to your textbook when studying without having to flip through a whole chapter for one picture.

How Do You Read a Boring College Textbook?

Getting through a boring college textbook can be challenging, but unfortunately, we all must do it. Reading a boring college textbook can be broken up into stages to make it more manageable and make it easier for you to retain your reading information.

Many college textbooks have questions listed at the end of each section. A great way to make the section slightly more engaging is to read those questions first. Reading the questions will give you a good idea of what information you should be paying attention to while reading—having something like a few questions to focus on while reading can often give boring reads a little more focus.

Sometimes it can help to understand why the professor chose this particular textbook for this class. Did the leading expert in the field write the textbook? This might give you insight into why your professor thought this was the best textbook for your class, even if it is boring to read.

What are the Best Textbook Reading Strategies?

One of the most common strategies for reading textbooks is to underline, highlight, or in some other way mark-up their book to make important information stand out more comfortable for them. Highlighting is excellent if you own the book and have a perfect way to highlight without just coloring the whole book in. Make sure that you own your book if you plan to do any type of marking.

Some professors will give you clear instructions on the type of information they expect you to get out of the chapter. This makes it super easy to know what information you should be emphasized in your book and your notes. Just make sure that you don’t get too carried away with any markings or highlighting your book since that is a super easy trap to fall into when trying to stay focused on an incredibly dull textbook.

If you find yourself marking up your textbook too much, each marking will begin to lose its meaning, and it will just make it more challenging for you to extract the information you need later on down the line. Figuring out a system of underlining or highlighting that works for you are essential if this is the path that you choose to go down.

Some students dislike highlighting or marking up their book at all. Many of these students like to keep a notebook and pen with them when reading their textbook to take their own notes of crucial information as they read. Using a pen and paper is a great way to retain information since writing down the information by hand will help to cement the knowledge in your brain faster.

Another common strategy for reading a textbook is to read the chapter backward. Reading backward doesn’t mean just starting at the back and reading towards the front; instead, this refers to starting with the chapter’s conclusion section. This will give you a good idea of the information that the book thinks you should be able to get out of that chapter.

After you read the conclusion, go back to the front and read the introduction. The introductory paragraph or section for a chapter of a textbook is often overlooked but can be really helpful. The introductory paragraph will act as your guide to the chapter. It lays out what order you should expect to find information in. Using the introduction and conclusion to guide your reading is a great way to fully understand the information you are expected to get out of your reading section.

If none of these strategies are helpful for you, you can also ask your professor if they have any suggestions that might help you focus and get through your textbook reading. Remember that your professor was once a student, so they might be able to help you.

Should You Read the Textbook Before or After Lecture?

The most effective way to utilize your textbook to your advantage in a course is to read it both before and after a lecture. Think of reading your textbook as the bookends to the information you will learn throughout the class. The book introduces the material before the lecture and reinforces the material after the lecture, making it an invaluable tool.

Before class, you should read the textbook chapters that you will be covering that day in class. This is a great way to have an idea of what you will be covering in class before you get to class and give you some idea of what you already know. While you should be paying attention to your whole lecture, if you have some idea of what you already know and what sections you have no previous experience with or are likely to be confused on, you can pay extra close attention to those.

We cannot stress enough the importance of reading textbooks before your classes in college. It might seem like overkill, but primarily throughout your first year of college, this is a great way to give yourself every advantage possible to do well in your classes.

Reading your textbook after the lecture is a great way to fill in any blank spots in your notes. We’ve all had those days where you can’t write fast enough to keep up with your professor’s lecture, so going back through your notes after class and using your textbook to fill in any gaps is a great way to go over the material again. The key to studying thoroughly is to go over the material many times since this gives your brain the best chance of putting that information into your long-term storage.

Wrapping Things Up: How to Read College Textbooks

While you may not find yourself reading your college textbook for fun, there are some reading strategies to help you get through reading even your most boring college textbook. Understanding how to read your textbook and retain information from your reading is an acquired skill that takes practice and time, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you find it hard to get through your reading at first. Just know that it will get easier to read effectively the more you practice.