A great video on how to read text effectively

Here is a video on how we can read a text book effective.

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How to Read Books Effectively

One commonly used approach to reading, which works well for texts, is the Survey, Question, Read, Review and Recite (SQ3R) Method. The main steps are as follows:

Survey - Before you start reading a chapter, scan the title of the chapter, the main headings,    pictures given in the chapter and summary of the chapter. This will help you to understand the concept which is going to be discussed in the chapter.

Question - Actively ask yourself questions as you read such as what the key topics in this section/chapter are, and what the different concepts of the chapter want to convey. By framing questions, you are also increasing your understanding of the chapter as well as these questions can help you prepare well for your exams.

Read - Read for comprehension, locate concepts and facts, record and reduce information in the margins. When reading, underline the main points and examples that can be later referred quickly.

Review - Practice and rehearse the main concepts, reflect on key learning, predict exam questions. Before closing your book, just go through all the headings and main points of the chapter once again, as this will help you to remember the concept for a long time.

Recite - Transfer information to long term memory of your mind. This you can do by revising the concepts three or four times in a week. This is the best way to remember any chapter for long time.

By using this technique you can increase your understanding of the chapter as well as remember a concept for a long time.

Improving Reading Fluency

As a student you need to study many subjects and learn a lot of things from various text books. Here are 10 tips which will help you to improve your reading speed.

1. Do most of your reading assignments when you are most active. It will increase your level of understanding.
2. When reading try to avoid reading word by word, in place of it try to read blocks of words. Your eyes can read four to five words at a time.
3. When you are starting to read, just take a quick snap of whole page by looking for headings, bullet points, and things in bold. This will help you in skipping some of the text of the page.
4. Pronouncing each word from the text can make your reading speed slow. So pronounce only some important words from sentence.
5. When sitting for study make sure your mind is focussed on study and not worrying about other things.
6. Keep a pen and pencil near you to underline the main points in text. Next time you need to focus only on underlined text when studying.
7. Keep the lighting of the room good while studying. It will help you to study for  long time, without straining your eyes.  
8. When studying don’t let your eyes to stay at same place for long time. Move your eyes when you find your eyes stuck on some page.
9. Keep your place distraction free for studying long time with interruptions.
10. Last but not least practice, practice and practice.

Setting Study Goals

A goal is target you want to achieve. Goal setting is important in academic life as it gives some targets to achieve. Goal setting also helps you in achieving new heights in our lives. Goals setting can be of two types. Short-term and long-term.  A short-­term goal is a target you want to achieve in one or two month. Examples of short-term goals are finishing your homework and doing well in coming tests. A long-term goal is a target you want to achieve within one year. Examples of long-term goals are passing the class with highest marks.

To set right goals, you must know what is exactly you want to accomplish. Then you must write down specific and clearly stated goals with a specific date. If you don’t have clear and specific goals your efforts will lack direction and focus.

Features of Appropriate Goals

Your goals should be:

1. Set goals which are within your skills and abilities. Before setting goals know your strengths and weaknesses and set goals accordingly. It will help you to set right goals.
2. Realistic. Your goals should be realistic. This means they should be achievable. Setting goals of learning five new words is a right goal. Trying to learn 100 new words each day is unrealistic goal.
3. Flexible. Sometimes things do not go as thought and you may need to change your goals according to changed circumstances. So keep your goals flexible so that you can change them as situation arises.
4. Measurable. You must measure your progress toward a goal. It is important to recognize when you have accomplished your goal and when you need to set new goals to accomplish further. Failure to measure your progress will result in effort that is misdirected and wasted.
5. Time bound. Your goal should have a specific time to achieve it. Without time bound, it is difficult to achieve a goal.  
6. Within your control. Your goals should be under your control. No other person should have control on your goals. This means if you are involving some of your friends in your goals but at last moment they did not help you in achieving your goals. Then you should take responsibility of situation and achieve goals yourself. Nobody else should have control on your goals.

Sometimes your parents and faculty members set goals for you. Accept these goals and achieve them. These people always want good for you, and goals set by these people will only help you to achieve success in your academic years.

Set goals in your academic years to get right direction which will lead you to success.

Tips for Remembering

To keep things remembering is a tricky business. Sometimes we remember tough things for long times on the other hand we forget easy things we learned yesterday. There is no definite way for remembering. Here are 10 tips which you can use to keep remember for long time.

1. First of all while trying to remember something, try to understand it. Understanding the content will allow you to remember the information for long time.
2. Form an association between the information you want to remember and how it can be related to a person, object, situation and place.
3. When you want to remember large amount of information, try to break it in smaller, more manageable categories. Then try to remember the information from each category.
4. Create the graphics of information to remember it. Graphics helps in remembering information for long time.
5. Bring personal touch to the information you want to remember, try to relate the information to something about you; it will make it easier to remember.
6. Frequently recite the information and write it many times to remember it for long time.
7. Apply the information in daily use to remember it. For example if you want to remember some new English words then apply those words in your daily life you can remember them easily.
8. Try to visualize the information you want to remember, visualization will help you to remember information for long time.
9. To remember information for long time you can test yourself. To test, write a question related to information on one page and then try to answer the question on next page. This technique will surely help you.
10. Make remembering a fun activity by creating some games related to your information. 

So use these techniques to remember things for long time not in your academic years but through out your life. 

Speed reading - Increase your speed of reading

Here is a great video on speed reading.

How to be active in class

10 Tips to get active and involved in class

Being active in the class will help you to learn faster. In many cases, participating in class is an important criterion that teachers use to assign final grades. Many students do not participate in the class due to the fear of being judged and criticized. Here i am giving you some suggestion to participate in class and get recognized by teacher.

1. Come prepared to the class everyday. Complete all assignments and readings and review notes form previous class. This will help you to avoid from asking inappropriate questions and making uninformed comments. 
2. Sit in the front row of the class, this way it will be difficult for you to stay uninvolved in class.
3. Put your words in front of the class with confidence, it will leave a good impression on teacher and you will be recognized in the class. 
4. Raise good and meaningful questions in class which will help you to increase your knowledge base.
5. When raising an issue be sure that it is relevant to the class topic. Don't waste the time of teacher and other students by raising off track issues. 
6. When getting ready for the class, think about important questions and concerns that may come up in class. Be prepared to handle these.
7. Don't be a person who has opinion on all the topics, it will not leave a good impression on teacher as well as class mates. 
8. Don't be afraid to be wrong while replying on some topic. Sometimes you can even learn form your mistakes. 
9. Be positive while reacting to the comments of other students. You can disagree, but don't be harsh with other students. 
10. Don't take it personally if others disagree with what you say. Your class should be a good platform for exchanging ideas.

Be active in your classes. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by participating.