(2) Study the section headings if the book is so constructed; this gives you the broad divisions of the topic. (3) Study the paragraph headings; this puts you on speaking terms with the subject matter of the chapter or assignment. Having made the preliminary survey you know what you are going to learn from the assignment, and you already know, in five minutes, more than the person who has started with the first sentence and waded laboriously through the whole assignment, with no achievement other than being able to say to the teacher, “Yes, I read every word.” The few minutes spent on the preliminary survey will save you much time because it will afford you a background for understanding what you are reading and why you are reading it. Neglect this preliminary survey and you become lost in details, unable to see how they are related to each other, unable to establish a relationship between what you have studied and what you are studying.
The textbook is arranged as a guide to help you from one important point of interest to the next. It is actually a series of mental stepping stones leading to one of two heights—information and knowledge. The rules, the definitions, the notes all have bearing upon the next step. Ignore them and you cannot hope to write the exercise, solve the problem, or convert the information into knowledge. The student who ignores rules and definitions is all too soon overcome by ideas that cannot be understood. Without mastery of the fundamentals, you work toward disaster.
The student who accomplishes the difficult task of effective study is not satisfied with a preliminary survey, followed by a thorough study of the assignment. The real student goes one step farther, making a final survey to be sure of what has been studied. The one outstandingly inefficient method of study used by the failing student is to read an assignment over and over, ad infinitum then close the book without the slightest idea of what has been absorbed and not absorbed about the assignment. Unless you check by asking yourself what you have studied, you can neither locate nor remedy your weak points. Reciting to yourself is one of the best ways of clinching the essential information of an assignment, and it is the first step in converting information into knowledge.
Since your book is a tool and your own possession, use it as such. Read footnotes and information under illustrations. Make use of questions, study helps, and review exercises at the end of the chapter if the book provides such. Learn the time-saving purpose of the index. The textbook is a tool only if used wisely; it is a burden and obstacle if approached blindly and without interest.
Probably the greatest single source of information available to the majority of students is the textbook. The most practiced classroom activity is some type of elaboration of textbook material. It is the common ground where student and teacher meet. It is doubtless true that more student hours are spent in studying textbooks than in any other form of study. While the nature of textbooks in different subjects varies greatly, the fundamental practices for successful study are basically the same for all books.
The following suggestions have proved successful in giving students more respect for the material they are required to study, and more self-confidence in their approach and mastery of the material in the textbook. Try them on your own assignments.
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