0:08 Let's talk about how to remember
0:09 information that you read from a
0:12 textbook. Now, I covered this at the end
0:14 of last week's class, but I want to go
0:16 over it again pretty quick. And it's a
0:18 lot easier than you might think. Now,
0:20 the way most people normally try to read
0:22 a textbook is they start at the first
0:24 page of the chapter and they read to the
0:26 last page of the chapter. And that's
0:28 their approach. They read a textbook the
0:32 same way they read a novel. Bad idea. It
0:35 doesn't stay in their head. So, I'm
0:37 going to show you a few things that you
0:40 can do to be able to read any kind of a
0:42 textbook or any kind of a manual,
0:45 especially if you are preparing for an
0:48 exam. This is going to be life-changing
0:51 when you understand this approach.
0:54 So the first thing that you do is you simply
1:00 flip through and I'm going to abbreviate that
1:03 that each
1:08 page. What you're going to do is you are
1:10 simply going to take the beginning of
1:11 the chapter and you're going to turn
1:13 page after page after page and you're
1:15 just going to look to see what's on each
1:18 page. You're not going to read anything.
1:20 You are just going to look at what the
1:21 pictures are. You're going to look at
1:23 what the pages look like. It's going to
1:26 give you a sense of how long is the
1:28 chapter, how much is there words
1:30 compared to images, what are there going
1:33 to be graphs, does anything jump out at
1:35 you? That's the very first thing you're
1:37 going to do. Okay. Now, you're going to
1:47 again. This time, I'm sorry. I'm gonna
1:48 start over again. You're not going to go
1:50 to the beginning of the chapter. You're
1:52 going to go to the end of the
1:54 chapter. You're going to start at the
1:56 end of the chapter and you are going to
2:00 see at the end of the chapter, did they
2:03 give you any sort of a
2:07 quiz? In a lot of textbooks, not all,
2:10 but in most textbooks, there is going to
2:12 be some sort of a quiz at the end of
2:14 each chapter or at the end of each section.
2:17 section.
2:20 So, can anybody tell me why you think it
2:23 would be a good idea to read the
2:26 questions in the quiz before you read
2:28 the chapter? So, you know what to look
2:30 for. Say it again. So, you know what to
2:33 look for. You know what to look for.
2:35 What you're discovering is what did the
2:38 author of this chapter think was so
2:41 important you were supposed to have
2:43 gained from the information in the
2:46 chapter? This is what you're supposed to
2:49 get out of the chapter. So now when
2:51 you're reading, you're reading with a
2:54 focused attention. Here's what I'm looking
2:55 looking
2:58 for. Now you're going to go back to the
2:59 beginning of the
3:03 chapter and you are going to read the bold
3:09 print. You're not going to read all the
3:11 sentences. You're not going to read all
3:14 the information in the entire chapter.
3:17 You're just going to go read the bold
3:20 print. Who can tell me what is the
3:23 information that's contained in the bold
3:25 print? Stuff they want you to remember
3:27 and see. Stuff they want you to
3:30 see. The stuff that they put in bold
3:34 print for a reason. This is the titles.
3:37 These are the subtitles. These are the
3:40 topic headings. These are how they broke
3:42 down the information within that
3:44 chapter. In other words, they're going
3:46 to break it down for you. So now you're
3:49 kind of understanding how this stuff fits
3:51 fits
3:54 together. You're going to go through one
3:55 more time before you read the
3:58 chapter. And you're going to read the
4:09 sentence. You're going to read the first
4:17 In each
4:19 paragraph, you're going to read the
4:21 first and last sentence in each
4:24 paragraph. The first sentence of a
4:28 paragraph is the introduction is a quick
4:30 overview if it's well written and if
4:33 it's written by a good author. The first
4:35 sentence of a paragraph gives you an
4:37 indication as to what the rest of the
4:41 paragraph is about. And usually the last
4:44 of the paragraph helps you sum it
4:47 up right now. And I want to make this I
4:50 want to stress this at this point. You
4:53 are not reading this for
4:57 comprehension. You are reading this for
5:00 exposure. You're not going to understand
5:03 this stuff yet. Why? Because you haven't
5:06 been able to connect the dots. But now
5:08 you're going to have a map of all the dots.
5:10 dots.
5:12 Now, what you've got is preview of coming
5:13 coming
5:17 attractions. Now, your brain is set up
5:20 for here's what you're going to get.
5:22 Now, you read the chapter and take notes
5:25 on it. Let me tell you, if you follow this
5:26 this
5:28 formula, you'll only need to go through
5:30 the chapter like this
5:34 once. Now, I know what you're thinking.
5:37 Yes, even you. What you're thinking is
5:40 that's a lot of work. Well, Compared to
5:43 what? Compared to reading it and how to
5:45 reread it and how to reread it because
5:46 I'm lost after three paragraphs. Right.
5:50 Exactly. It It's a lot of work compared
5:53 to just blowing through it and putting
5:55 your book away and going back to your
5:58 video game or your TV show.
6:02 It is not a lot of work compared to
6:05 cramming for a test and and hoping
6:08 praying that it's going to stay in your
6:10 head and having to stay up all night
6:13 trying to squeeze this information into your
6:14 your
6:17 head because now what you've done is
6:19 you've got it as a a systematic
6:20 approach. Remember the old expression
6:22 that we talked about weeks ago,
6:25 repetition is the mother of learning.
6:29 Repetition is the mother of learning,
6:32 right? Repetition is the mother of
6:36 learning. You got that quick. So, what
6:38 are we doing here? You're giving
6:40 yourself multiple repeats. You're
6:42 getting a little bit of a quick overview
6:44 of what the whole thing looks like.
6:46 You're finding out what the author
6:47 thought was the most important stuff to
6:51 get. So, now your your radar is on. It's
6:55 called a reticular activating system.
6:57 reticular activating system. A very
6:59 fancy word for your internal radar. You
7:02 buy a brand new blue car and suddenly
7:05 you see blue cars everywhere.
7:06 You know what I'm talking about. Mhm.
7:09 You know, you happen to wear brown shoes
7:11 that day and you notice how many other
7:14 people are wearing brown shoes that day.
7:16 That is your awareness has increased.
7:18 That is called the reticular activating
7:21 system. And so this is what you want to
7:24 activate before you turn around and read
7:26 the chapter. Your awareness is now
7:28 heightened. Bold print. You're now going
7:30 to find out what they thought was so
7:32 important they needed to put it in bold
7:34 print. These are all your headlines. And
7:37 now the first and last sentence of each
7:40 paragraph of each paragraph, not just
7:43 the page of the paragraph is going to
7:46 give you a quick overview section by
7:49 section. Yes, it pay it's slower than
7:51 just reading through it once, but it is
7:54 a thousand times more effective.
