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Study Tips

Learning itself really is a skill. The SQ3R study method is a simple technique that ensures each time you sit down to give yourself some study time, you can make the most of it. SQ3R is a study method that requires practice, but only involves these five easy steps:

1. Survey
2. Question
3. Read
4. Recite
5. Review

Survey

Before beginning your session, set a goal on how much you expect to accomplish before calling it a late night. Be realistic, but challenge yourself. Start your study session with a quick survey of the material you have set for the goal. Make it a quick review but concentrate. Look at each page for no more than a few seconds each. Try to avoid thinking out individual words in your mind, just seek to understand what is on the page. Well written text is "scan-able" in a logical pattern for this very reason. Pay particular attention to headings, and the first and last sentences of paragraphs. Your subconscious takes in much more during this step than "you" are completely aware of, and having given yourself this overview, the finer details will be easier to place into context later.

Question

As you gain an understanding of what the material is, think it terms of questions. Wonder about the "what for" and "why" of the material. Curiosity is the key to successful comprehension, it isn't always easy, but you have to want the information to be understood. Mix your questions in with what you already know, it make the material seem familiar and less intimidating.

Read

Start back at the beginning of your text for this session. This time read with the intent on noticing greater detail. Look for answers to the question you have now formed about the material. Do not read passively, try to involve other senses such as the touch and motor activity of taking notes or hi-lighting. Get over your fear of writing in a book, mark up the margins and scribble little drawings in them. Notice that "light bulb coming on" feeling and jot down keywords whenever that sensation occurs. When you have completed this step, walk away for a few minutes. Take a quick break and don't think about what you have just done. Move around, take deep breathes and do something routine or mindless for ten to fifteen minutes. (Now is a good time to do the dishes, according to my Wife)

Recite

Return to your material and recite your notes. Make sense of your drawings, highlighted text and list of keywords. Think as though your are briefly explaining to someone else what you have just studied. Make sure that your questions have been answered, and perhaps new ones have surfaced for use in your next study session. Write them all down. Quickly read over any parts of the text that don't come back into focus. Reinforcement of the material occurs at this stage by involving as many of these four components as you can; Seeing, saying, hearing, and writing.

Review

This is probably the most difficult part in terms of discipline yet is the most important part of the learning process. We feel pressure to move on to new things and forget to review material we studied recently. The mind will store many things it learns, but will only leave certain things available for quick retrieval if there is a proven need for that information. In other words, by reviewing recently studied material, within 20 days of the session, your mind's "filing cabinet' will keep that material close at hand for use in subsequent study sessions, and building upon that newly achieved understanding. Regular use of these concepts is necessary to cement this understanding into your "presence in the moment".

The subconscious mind continues to work on difficult concepts even after we have turned our waking attention elsewhere. Revelations occur when comprehension turns into natural effort, and can occur at the most surprising and unlikely moments, often when totally unexpected. How much energy is put into this continuing development however, depends on will and perseverance.

There are things you have learned recently that have became very natural to you. You can't remember a time when these concepts weren't second nature, but in fact, at one time they were as mysterious as the next thing you are about to learn is to you right now. Review your progress regularly and don't be shy about crediting yourself with your far you've come.

Proof of the payoff

Just as dropping an apple from a tall tree provides that apple no choice but to fall because of the way gravity works, learning can be approached in the same way. Just have faith and confidence in yourself that "sticking with it" will absolutely bring results when your mind is ready. By using these techniques, there is no option for failure because we are utilizing fundamental laws of the working mind.