<p>Three weeks in to freshman year and I feel that I am about to fall behind with my reading at the current pace I'm going with the amount assigned. I feel my tendency to read word for word and attention to detail is partly the problem.</p>
<p>I currently have history, psychology, chemistry, and biology. I've aced all the quizzes so far but just feel I am not using my time as efficiently as I should.</p>
<p>As an example, it took me a whole day to read and take notes for one chapter of biology (using Campbell, for those of you who are familiar with the book and can provide more personal insight). Is that normal? I was hoping to work on reading and notes for my other three courses but it seemed impossible to do this weekend!</p>
<p>How do you all get through all the reading in such limited amount of time? </p>
<p>I've turned down socializing with friends and roommates over the past couple weeks and I still feel that I am on the verge of playing catch up.</p>
<p>All course syllabus's explain that I should focus on what's in the lectures but there may also be questions that ask about facts presented in the book and not in the lecture. I fear that if I just focus on studying the lecture notes, there will be tons of questions on the test about the reading. How do you find that balance? Mind sharing any tips for this inquiring freshman?</p>
<p>YMMV but I rarely ever cracked my books in science classes unless I needed an explanation further than the lecture. I would flip through them a week before an exam and look over what they talked about, but my lectures always went way further in depth than the book did so it ended up not really mattering. </p>
<p>If it’s taking you an entire day to read a chapter of Campbell, you really need to reassess what you’re doing and how you’re studying. Those chapters should take you MAX an hour and that’s only if you’re really really reading everything. You also shouldn’t need to take intricate book notes, as the same material should be presented in lecture. If you’re getting lecture notes in detail on topic X, there’s no reason why you should be taking intricate book notes that are only an overview on topic X. You’re just wasting your own time</p>
<p>I don’t know if this would work for you, but to get through reading faster while taking notes I usually read a paragraph or small section and just summarize that in a line/bullet point. This usually helps me avoid taking unnecessarily detailed notes.</p>
<p>ALSO, try to stay extremely focused and sometimes sections in books (especially biology) will be really detailed and you could just end up summarizing a page in a line.</p>
<p>Another method would be limiting yourself to a page or two of notes per chapter to avoid writing down unnecessary details.</p>
<p>You may be focusing too much on the “trees” (details) and not enough on the “forest” (big picture). Rather than starting at the beginning of the chapter and working your way to the end, here’s what I would do:</p>
<ol>
<li>Flip to the end and read the summary if there is one.</li>
<li>Page through the chapter and figure out what the major subheadings are. Use those t organize your notes (sort of like outlining).</li>
<li>Do the same thing with the minor subheads for each major subhead.</li>
<li>Look at the topic sentences only for the paragraphs for each minor subhead.</li>
<li>Only then read through each paragraph, making sure you understand it’s relationship to the larger picture.</li>
<li>When you’re comfortable with a section, add in any images/charts/boxes in the text.</li>
<li>When you’re done with the chapter, go back and read the summary again. Does it make more sense?</li>
<li>Skim through any questions at the end of the chapter, especially when you’re studying for a test. Even if the prof doesn’t use any of them as is, they might show you the kinds of things being asked on the exam.</li>
</ol>
<p>It should not take you an entire day to read and take notes on a single chapter. Campbell’s a pretty easy text to get through, IMO, and that time can definitely be better spent. It used to take me a while (granted, not a day) to get through a chapter or two because I would take notes as I was writing. Then, when I got to lecture, I found that I went into considerably more detail than necessary. So I still skimmed through the chapter before classes but didn’t really take hard-core notes from the book. Unless you have a professor telling you otherwise, structure your notes around lecture and take it from there. The books are designed to provide a lot of information and most professors won’t expect you remember every single piece of information that was on page 348. If you’re going to use the book at all (I stopped completely after the first week and went almost 100% off lecture), pay attention to the concepts unless, like I said, you have a professor saying otherwise.</p>
<p>If the syllabus is telling you that most of the test questions is coming from lecture, trust that. In my experience, there have been things taken from the book, but we’ve always been told to “pay special attention to slide 13 because it’s taken directly from the book,” or something of that nature. Relax. Do not read each and every chapter word for word. You’ll fall madly behind when exams start up.</p>
<p>I also had Campbell (like most everyone, it seems) and I never used a full day to outline a single chapter. However, I also had excellent resources available from my professor. I would suggest finding someone else in your class to work with- you each read the chapter, take notes/outline, and then talk about it. That’s what always helped me.</p>
<p>College should be fun, too- relax! Freshman year goes by so fast, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. Enjoy it while you can.
Good luck!</p>
<p>For science classes, read the first and last sentence of every paragraph. The first paragraph usually introduces an idea and the last sentence usually solidifies it. The body of the paragraph is usually just an example. Only read the middle part if you’re confused by the first sentence.</p>