Tips for Reading Psychology adapted from Wood & Tavis, Psychology

Psychology students have a lot of reading to cover and not much time to do it. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your readings. You can maximize your learning by following five steps: Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review. You will learn and remember more, if instead of simply reading each chapter, you follow these steps. Here's how they work

  1. Survey — First scan the material you are about to read. Read all the section headings and look over illustrations and tables. If the material has a summary or review, read it over as well.

  2. Question — Before you actually read each section of the material, turn each topic heading (or title, if you are reading an article from a journal) into one or more questions. For example, if you were reading a textbook chapter on experimental methods in psychology, one of the headers might be, "Performing an Experiment." You might ask, "What types of studies are done in psychology?" or "If I wanted to test a hypothesis, how would I set up an experiment myself?" Even if you don't find the answers to your questions, just having the questions in mind will help you focus your reading.

  3. Read — Read the material. As you read, try to answer the questions you formed from the subject heading. After reading a section, stop.

  4. Recite - Try to quickly mentally summarize the material and see if you understand what you have just read. If you can't do this, you should read the material again. This will help you avoid "daydreaming" through the material. Once you have mastered one section, move onto the next.

  5. Review — When you have finished reading the material, review it to ensure that you have a full understanding of what you have read. If you are reading a textbook, try to define key terms, and answer any practice questions that may be included in the text.

Here are some links with more tips on successful strategies for reading:

How to read a research paper:

http://gradschool.about.com

Suggestions for improving reading speed:

http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/rdgspeed.html