I LIKE THE WAY YOU WORK! Also why add a "!" if you're not typing in all caps? I'M TALKING TO YOU Sir Meow The "Library Cat"! If that is your real name?
I usually have two voices in my head while reading my textbooks. One of them quite normally reads the text (subvocalisation), and the other screams in terror upon realizing how much there is still to read. Other than that, law school's great! 😅
Reading skills have always been my weakness in school, despite being a straight A student. (I especially had trouble with daydreaming or even just sort of zoning out while reading.) I learned a couple methods that helped me, all of which are pretty related to active reading. Marking and summarizing helps a lot, as does doing something with the information afterward, like talking to someone about it. But the biggest discovery I made was that if I moved while I read, I remembered the information a lot better. So when I was in college, I often took my homework to the Rec center and walked at a slow speed on the treadmill while reading. I often read faster, and I comprehended and remembered things better. Later, in grad school, I found a lot of research about the connection between movement and learning. So that's something that can help too!
When you're watching crash course study skills on how to read effectively, and by doing so, effectively procrastionating on your school reading assignment
Don't read chronologically! Read the conclusion first (that's where the real "answer" is). THEN read the introduction to get additional background. LASTLY read the body (where the "proof" is). This is especially helpful for supplemental readings on technical level or opinion pieces. :)
I like my inner voice. I get to change the voice so it can sound like characters from anime, cartoons, and others. It helps me remember what I read. 👍🏾
Unless all subjects for this specific series has been chosen, something I would personally love is an episode on focus. Especially with those who have ADD/ADHD or tendencies that go with those disorders. Like you mentioned here, staring off into space or completely zoning out is an issue I have often, or not finding enough time to really sit down and focus on material because when you have 5-6 classes going on.... It's hard to just focus on one at a time. Maybe some tips to keep focused on campus and at home? And how to balance juggling time appropriately?
I believe reading a particular topic from different sources adds more to perspective and helps retain more facts than reading something from the same source over and over.
Tip for highlighting: Consciously try to highlight only the keywords, so that later, when you have to look something up, you know at a glance where the information on the page is.
I wonder how many people here find school very important but can't seem to study enough. Then they see a video like this and hope to find some tips how to get over those problems but just end up realizing that these videos are mainly for people who already study a lot and are generally good students.
This is perfect. I had some woman who runs a "academic achievement" workshop lecture be about how I should speed read my philosophy texts. The frustration of trying for over a week and not being able to do it made me really feel like I lack some sort of skill. This video makes that all better. Thank you.
that recall/recognition difference is so important. i definitely noticed it without knowing it had a name lol. reading a definition and going, "oh yeah i know that" is way different than calling it up when prompted by a cue card
I don't know if this is optimal, but I was taught (for chapters/papers/etc) to read the introduction, then go back over and take notes. Then you read the conclusion/summary at the end of the chapter, then go back over and take notes. Anything you didn't understand or follow you look up in the main body of text (read the paragraph, then take notes) and lastly you summarize and write down vocab and/or questions.
personally I really like triple reading. First you look over heading and pictures. Then you read through the whole thing, and lastly answer any question located in the text.
I'm about to start my last year of law school. I could have benefited from this Crash Course series before now, but I'm still greatly appreciating this series! Thomas, you rock! Keep the videos coming!
The key to recall is understanding, if you know how a piece of information sits inside of the larger whole, than most times, even if you don't remember the exact thing, you can work your way to that information by working backwards from it. This also means you'll retain the information for decades instead of for the short term. You remember things on the edge of your comprehension better than things you already know by rote, or things that you don't have a good basis for. You can also improve recall by being open to the material first, approach everything you learn as something that, while it may not be useful now, or by itself, is part of the larger whole that makes you smarter as a person.
Test yourself. Write down questions about what you're learning about and the more you practice recall, the more likely you'll recall it at the time that you need. Also connect the things you're learning about to what you've learned about previously. If you listen to a particular song when you're studying, think of that song while you're doing your test :P your brain has associated it with what you were reading at the time and it may cue you to remember it.
For Literature classes I regularly read along with an audio book, it worked really well to keep my reading speed consistent and taking in the content through two senses instead of just one helped remember things.
About the first question my teachers say yes I need to read every book because mostly what gets out in the exams is from those huge books. What i find that helps saving my time is the review books instead of having 1500 it has 500 total. Btw great video, great series im loving them all.
RTFM: Read The F-ing Manual, and DRY: don't repeat yourself. Mathematics books generally follow the latter, so back up and read up on the bits you don't quite get.
If the novels aren't particularly large, they should be able to be ready in a night each, if they are large, 2. Get off youtube and go read, you might actually find you like them. Put your phone away too, dedicate the time and most novels are only actually around 4ish hours of reading, though this obviously depends on how difficult the book is for you, (if it's hard, then reading is great, you'll be a better reader when you're done!) and how large the book is (reading a 120 page children's novel isn't going to be the same as reading a monster 400 page book). The projects are the real bugger here, depending on what the project is, it may be time-consuming, but if the project is actually HARD after you read the book, perhaps reread the parts that you are struggling with, because you didn't read it very well that time through.
MissMaddieMakeup Hi. In order to make the reading easier, try listening to the audio books while following along in the hard copies. I would also strongly suggest visiting your city's public library to do the projects. Surrounding yourself by other productive working individuals can help your ability to focus. If your library is to loud with kids on summer vacation, try going to a library on a local college campus. I hope that this helps.
one of my math teachers gave an extended version of the morse code idea. decide on four shapes that are quick to draw and assign them to the folowing; Process, Info, Example, Diagram description, and Related concepts.
I've just started college again after finishing a bachelor in journalism, and I have made the decisions to not accept anything below a B. This is really helpful, so thank you for that!
Excellent suggestions for reading scientific texts. Might also suggest standing or taking notes while reading. It will help to keep you awake. Scientific texts are known to put people to sleep.
I'm reading "How to read a Book" by M. J. Adler. The book is outdated, the edition of the one I'm reading is from 1970, but he basically says this, the more time you spend in a book active reading it the more you'll understand. The requirement for this is that the book must be difficulty for the reader, the writer must have a deeper understanding of the subject than the reader. The book also states the difference between knowledge and understanding (although he states that too much knowledge can harm understanding, which I didn't get it, his example of this is pretty shitty). After reading this one I'll seek more updated books about reading, if there is any that you reading this recommends, please comment here.
Thank you for sharing that! I also stumbled upon that same book during my freshman year in an old corner of the library. It was so helpful throughout my college life. I kept getting back to it times and times again. Do you know any modern books or articles that refer to or expand upon 'How to read a book'? I'm very curious. Thanks
Not yet because I haven't finished the one from M. J. Adler, I put it on hold because of how many books I have to read for college right now. The ones that I know of talks more of writing like Stephen King's On Writing and one from Schopenhauer, but I haven't even started a search for books on reading specifically.
There is a way to train the eye muscles to read a lil bit faster. I went from 250 wpm tp 450 wpm. That's as far as i can go. You should use a "reading guide" which means grabing a pen, pencil or your finger and move it under the line your reading along your reading. It might seem dumb, but eyes fixate on moving objects, which will reduce the number of regression saccades that you'll do. To improve comprehension you should read a text 3 times, the first for skimming and get a general idea, the second a focused reading of everything, and the third to re-read main ideas and underline it.
Molly Fanton you might want to try pausing when you find a good idea, and writing it down onto a note doc with speech to text software, as you go. At least then you don't have to make huge notes at the end of a chapter, and there in your own words. I use the free one with Google drive as it's easy to assess my notes from my email.
Readings, whether in books, journals, handouts, or anything else, do not exist in little silos. It sometimes seems that way, though. We read one book, then put it away to be forever forgotten and move on to the next. Or we allow refuse to allow anything we read in one class spill over into a different class. But subjects can overlap a lot, and I like to keep track of how the things I’m reading relate to each other. To do this, I write in the margins a lot. I jot down cross-references to other pages within the same book, or to completely different books or sources. Margins are also good places to write questions, definitions, and other relevant thoughts that pop up. Having some notes right next within the text I’m studying can be very handy!
I've noticed that when I do all this stuff (taking notes, surveying, preventing myself from speed reading) makes me enjoy the reading less. When I read, I like to stop, re-read and think about what I've read.
After finishing my first semester of my 2nd bachelor's degree, I have formed the opinion that reading is the enemy of learning. I would hurry up and finish reading my macroeconomics chapter every week so I could spend the hours that it took to understand the concepts. A sentence like "interest rates and bond prices move in opposite directions" takes a few seconds to read but 10 or 20 minutes or more to really understand. You have to imagine yourself holding a bond, an IOU contract that says a company will pay you a fixed amount of money at fixed intervals. Then you have to imagine interest rates rising. People getting new loans will have to pay more to borrow money. But, you, with your bond, don't benefit from the rising interest rates because your payments are fixed as specified in the bond contract. Therefore, your bond is worth less than it was before. Then you have to imagine yourself in all the other roles in this scenario. Then repeat for falling interest rates. I recognized that this kind of thinking is where the learning is and reading a chapter a week is a threat to the time that I need to think through difficult concepts.
I was hoping that there would be something about reducing as much as possible distractions or intrusions into your consciousness when reading. Younger people are very used to having their phone with them at all times and immediately reacting to alerts, but doing this is a huge drain on your attention span and focus and has a very negative impact on your ability to focus on a specific task. Every time you divert your attention it takes about 30 seconds to get back into what you were doing, so potentially you can lengthen what would have been a 10 minute reading assignment into over half an hour and also not have retained as much. If you want to do some lengthy reading, turn your phone OFF and put it away. Knowing that it's not accessible will help you think about it less and keep you focused on the reading. This might seem hard at first, but like anything it gets easier the more you do it, you're essentially training yourself not to engage with your phone which is a skill it itself.
Starting today I do have a lot of researching to do for a graded assignment. So again, perfectly on time! In that sense: SCAR!!! I am heading out to the library.
In high school I struggled with history (which means I didn't pay attention or read anything), but I still passed (thank god). Then in my third year history class I simply read the relevant pages out loud into my phone and listened to it on repeat while walking to school. I wouldn't recommend this. It gave me amazing grades, but I don't really remember any of it. Less time consuming than any other form of studying and probably pretty sweet if you have dyslexia. In which case I suppose you could spend a long time on each sentence and just pause the recording, and just say the sentence in your own words. But you wouldn't have to read the text over and over.
most people misunderstand speedreading. the obvious reason is how bloated promises people use to market these, but the core system is more effective skimming of the material. It does work. Very important with speed reading is to scan the book quickly, then skim the material, read relevant things, and then get back to important issues. when you speed read the study material, you can review the material 4-5 times in the same time you slow read it, you get a lot better overview, you see the big picture better than with slow read. Danger is that you have to lose a lot of small details. Considering how memory works, you lose the details anyway, so it is a lot better to get the main points and the big picture, because those stay a lot longer.
As a professor for a higher-level science course (anatomy & physiology) I often come across a lot of students having difficulty managing the large bulk of material. I've also taught C.O.R.E. (Collect, Organize, Recall, Evaluate) methods to first-year students in attempts to arm them better as they proceed through their coursework. I have to say - I'm so incredibly excited about how this series is going even only after two episodes. They have stayed true to the Crash Course style while addressing a much-needed topic for many students.
I always wondered why, or if there was a difference between recall and recognition. I noticed how I could do really well on multiple choice because for me it's usually recall/ recognizing the words and/or certain patterns and words in questions and answers. Or when reading kanji, I can recognize them, but take it away and ask me to draw it, my brain suddenly goes blank and can't remember the strokes at all. Now it makes sense....
You are a legend! I like your study tips and crash course study skills very much and I really enjoy the time to study from you. And that spaced repetition really works on me!
I once did this exercise to train your peripherals to read so that you do less saccades. It sped up my reading speed and I could still understand what was being said, but I don't think it's something I could do all the time.
In my SAT prep book it literally says to learn how to read several words at the same time 😳😂 him saying that isn't too effective really does make sense, and now I don't really know what to believe from that book
Slow reading is ALSO very important technique when studying, it fits very well when material is not very large and packed with information, here speed reading is next to useless, only hinderance.
I miss reading text books. I’m a poli sci major, so most of my reading assignments are academic papers, and you know... they aren’t written for students, so it’s kinda hard to go through all of them 😅
THE SERIES THAT IS GOING TO SAVE US ALL
BabyOpal 😖 Not while you comment in caps! Just commenting . . .
Sir Meow The Library Cat um sorry I guess?
yeah right you're so dumb and this video is a ripoff of mine
I LIKE THE WAY YOU WORK! Also why add a "!" if you're not typing in all caps? I'M TALKING TO YOU Sir Meow The "Library Cat"! If that is your real name?
Curi-Us No one watches your videos
I usually have two voices in my head while reading my textbooks. One of them quite normally reads the text (subvocalisation), and the other screams in terror upon realizing how much there is still to read.
Other than that, law school's great! 😅
Reading skills have always been my weakness in school, despite being a straight A student. (I especially had trouble with daydreaming or even just sort of zoning out while reading.) I learned a couple methods that helped me, all of which are pretty related to active reading. Marking and summarizing helps a lot, as does doing something with the information afterward, like talking to someone about it. But the biggest discovery I made was that if I moved while I read, I remembered the information a lot better. So when I was in college, I often took my homework to the Rec center and walked at a slow speed on the treadmill while reading. I often read faster, and I comprehended and remembered things better. Later, in grad school, I found a lot of research about the connection between movement and learning. So that's something that can help too!
KunoichiN3rd yo I zone out when reading, too.
I have the same exact problem so I’m going to try that out!
Bless you
I zoned out while I was reading thus comment....
Remember why cartoons love to exercise while reading?
When you're watching crash course study skills on how to read effectively, and by doing so, effectively procrastionating on your school reading assignment
Currently doing this lol
Funny ...this video was assigned to me.
lol true
Currently me
Don't read chronologically! Read the conclusion first (that's where the real "answer" is). THEN read the introduction to get additional background. LASTLY read the body (where the "proof" is). This is especially helpful for supplemental readings on technical level or opinion pieces. :)
The "close your eyes and think of a specific color" example was impressively effective at demonstrating how helpful Surveying can be.
That's why this video has so many likes
+
+
I like my inner voice. I get to change the voice so it can sound like characters from anime, cartoons, and others. It helps me remember what I read. 👍🏾
Haha I never knew I could do that 😂
Wow, that's actually a really smart idea.
Unless all subjects for this specific series has been chosen, something I would personally love is an episode on focus. Especially with those who have ADD/ADHD or tendencies that go with those disorders. Like you mentioned here, staring off into space or completely zoning out is an issue I have often, or not finding enough time to really sit down and focus on material because when you have 5-6 classes going on.... It's hard to just focus on one at a time. Maybe some tips to keep focused on campus and at home? And how to balance juggling time appropriately?
I believe reading a particular topic from different sources adds more to perspective and helps retain more facts than reading something from the same source over and over.
If you want a music crash course like!
I would LOVE a crash course on music theory.
I live for this series.
Beco Loco Your profile picture makes me unconfortable,
And thinking a deep voice saying
I *kill* for this series
weirdly makes me laugh
SrLupinotuum LMAOOO I don't even remember where I got my profile pic from
You can just go on his TH-cam channel. It's awesome. The channel is named after him. Thomas Frank
"Stop Complaning And Read" Best Advice Ever. In History. Really
Tip for highlighting: Consciously try to highlight only the keywords, so that later, when you have to look something up, you know at a glance where the information on the page is.
This is essential for me. Otherwise, who has highlighted multiple sentences and wondered what was the keyword...
I wonder how many people here find school very important but can't seem to study enough. Then they see a video like this and hope to find some tips how to get over those problems but just end up realizing that these videos are mainly for people who already study a lot and are generally good students.
This is perfect. I had some woman who runs a "academic achievement" workshop lecture be about how I should speed read my philosophy texts. The frustration of trying for over a week and not being able to do it made me really feel like I lack some sort of skill. This video makes that all better. Thank you.
that recall/recognition difference is so important. i definitely noticed it without knowing it had a name lol. reading a definition and going, "oh yeah i know that" is way different than calling it up when prompted by a cue card
I'm really glad they're releasing these videos in the summer so we can start the new year on the right foot :)
I don't know if this is optimal, but I was taught (for chapters/papers/etc) to read the introduction, then go back over and take notes. Then you read the conclusion/summary at the end of the chapter, then go back over and take notes. Anything you didn't understand or follow you look up in the main body of text (read the paragraph, then take notes) and lastly you summarize and write down vocab and/or questions.
I can't believe that I'm procrastinating on a reading assignment by watching a video on how to do reading assignments
personally I really like triple reading. First you look over heading and pictures. Then you read through the whole thing, and lastly answer any question located in the text.
I've always loved crash course, but this is far by the most valuable series they ever came up with. So helpful!
Study: the act of texting, eating and watching TV with an open textbook nearby.
I'm about to start my last year of law school. I could have benefited from this Crash Course series before now, but I'm still greatly appreciating this series! Thomas, you rock! Keep the videos coming!
Will you be doing a video on techniques to improve recall?
The key to recall is understanding, if you know how a piece of information sits inside of the larger whole, than most times, even if you don't remember the exact thing, you can work your way to that information by working backwards from it. This also means you'll retain the information for decades instead of for the short term. You remember things on the edge of your comprehension better than things you already know by rote, or things that you don't have a good basis for. You can also improve recall by being open to the material first, approach everything you learn as something that, while it may not be useful now, or by itself, is part of the larger whole that makes you smarter as a person.
Test yourself. Write down questions about what you're learning about and the more you practice recall, the more likely you'll recall it at the time that you need. Also connect the things you're learning about to what you've learned about previously. If you listen to a particular song when you're studying, think of that song while you're doing your test :P your brain has associated it with what you were reading at the time and it may cue you to remember it.
Ahhhhhh!!!!! Thomas Frank is on crash course!!!!!!!!! My two favourite channels combined😍😊
fruity_spirit ikr!!
I'm blown away at how good this video is.
1.Arguement > description > context
2.Set timer
3.Pseudo skimming
4.Highlighting :
"." for main idea
"-" for explanation and example
5.SQ3R
For Literature classes I regularly read along with an audio book, it worked really well to keep my reading speed consistent and taking in the content through two senses instead of just one helped remember things.
You did more help than the study seminars they hold in my uni. Thank you so much!
Just about to start university as an engineering student, and I am sooo happy you've started making these videos!! Thank you so much!
The timing of this video is impeccable. I start college next week!
Aaaand now I can't stop staring at the blue periodic table of elements because I've suddenly recognized how blue it is
Me too!
I did that and ended up looking at my XMPlay window and keep looking back at it.
Y’all that’s called ADHD
I'm loving this crash course and am so happy to see you doing it, Thomas. Thank you all :)
Are those The Winter Soldier's trigger words I see? 2:47
Yeah!
Iraj Tariq ready to comply
I saw them too!
Iraj Tariq oh my goodness yes!!! 😄😄
When I started today I wasn't expecting to watch two videos almost back to back that made this same joke.
About the first question my teachers say yes I need to read every book because mostly what gets out in the exams is from those huge books. What i find that helps saving my time is the review books instead of having 1500 it has 500 total.
Btw great video, great series im loving them all.
The most important question--"how to read MATHS book???"
RTFM: Read The F-ing Manual, and DRY: don't repeat yourself. Mathematics books generally follow the latter, so back up and read up on the bits you don't quite get.
Studying how to study - Before I'm even studying anything. 🤔
It's august 15, school starts September 6 and I have to read 3 novels and do 5 projects for said novels soooo... I should've started earlier
u fuked
imVerzuhL u right
If the novels aren't particularly large, they should be able to be ready in a night each, if they are large, 2. Get off youtube and go read, you might actually find you like them. Put your phone away too, dedicate the time and most novels are only actually around 4ish hours of reading, though this obviously depends on how difficult the book is for you, (if it's hard, then reading is great, you'll be a better reader when you're done!) and how large the book is (reading a 120 page children's novel isn't going to be the same as reading a monster 400 page book).
The projects are the real bugger here, depending on what the project is, it may be time-consuming, but if the project is actually HARD after you read the book, perhaps reread the parts that you are struggling with, because you didn't read it very well that time through.
Procrastination is a wonderfully terrible habit.
MissMaddieMakeup
Hi. In order to make the reading easier, try listening to the audio books while following along in the hard copies. I would also strongly suggest visiting your city's public library to do the projects. Surrounding yourself by other productive working individuals can help your ability to focus. If your library is to loud with kids on summer vacation, try going to a library on a local college campus. I hope that this helps.
one of my math teachers gave an extended version of the morse code idea. decide on four shapes that are quick to draw and assign them to the folowing; Process, Info, Example, Diagram description, and Related concepts.
I've just started college again after finishing a bachelor in journalism, and I have made the decisions to not accept anything below a B. This is really helpful, so thank you for that!
You released this just as I got assigned 2 reading assignments. Lol.
n1na you must start school early. I dont start for another 5 weeks
Toastie Toastington lucky! I started on august 4th
Toastie Toastington i start in three weeks :)
i started first week of August
n1na I
Excellent suggestions for reading scientific texts. Might also suggest standing or taking notes while reading. It will help to keep you awake. Scientific texts are known to put people to sleep.
SCAR has changed my life, Thanks Crash Course!
This is going to be my first year taking 3000 and 4000 level courses (I'm a sophomore oh my) so you have no idea how awesome this is!
SCAR is probably my favorite reading technique I've ever heard.
The science behind studying... I love this.
the pseudo-skimming technique is how I make all A's. highly recommend it!!!
Watching this while avoiding my reading assignments.
I'm reading "How to read a Book" by M. J. Adler. The book is outdated, the edition of the one I'm reading is from 1970, but he basically says this, the more time you spend in a book active reading it the more you'll understand. The requirement for this is that the book must be difficulty for the reader, the writer must have a deeper understanding of the subject than the reader. The book also states the difference between knowledge and understanding (although he states that too much knowledge can harm understanding, which I didn't get it, his example of this is pretty shitty). After reading this one I'll seek more updated books about reading, if there is any that you reading this recommends, please comment here.
Thank you for sharing that!
I also stumbled upon that same book during my freshman year in an old corner of the library. It was so helpful throughout my college life. I kept getting back to it times and times again.
Do you know any modern books or articles that refer to or expand upon 'How to read a book'? I'm very curious. Thanks
Not yet because I haven't finished the one from M. J. Adler, I put it on hold because of how many books I have to read for college right now. The ones that I know of talks more of writing like Stephen King's On Writing and one from Schopenhauer, but I haven't even started a search for books on reading specifically.
I am so thankful for this series
There is a way to train the eye muscles to read a lil bit faster. I went from 250 wpm tp 450 wpm. That's as far as i can go. You should use a "reading guide" which means grabing a pen, pencil or your finger and move it under the line your reading along your reading. It might seem dumb, but eyes fixate on moving objects, which will reduce the number of regression saccades that you'll do. To improve comprehension you should read a text 3 times, the first for skimming and get a general idea, the second a focused reading of everything, and the third to re-read main ideas and underline it.
Perfect timing! Thanks Thomas!
Idk why, but he always made me feel so much motivated to study because of his videos about studying and etc
Thank goodness for this new series! And they picked the perfect host, this is totally up Thomas's alley! 👍👏
LOVE THIS! And Thomas Frank is a perfect pick for this series :)
I'm visually impaired and use audio textbooks to read. Any good study skills for reading in audiobooks?
Molly Fanton listen well give it ur full attention and make sure, bc I made this mistake, make sure not 2 fall asleep
Andy Holzinger same
😴
Molly Fanton speed playback up to 1.5-2x
Molly Fanton you might want to try pausing when you find a good idea, and writing it down onto a note doc with speech to text software, as you go. At least then you don't have to make huge notes at the end of a chapter, and there in your own words.
I use the free one with Google drive as it's easy to assess my notes from my email.
If you're reading audio books, you're probably doing it wrong.
I'll see myself out.
I feel like I know this guy. Is he thomas frank?
Rizkita Milenia yeah he runs the college info geek TH-cam channel and podcast
Gabriel cazorla persson yeah I wasn't focus when he introduce himself on the intro, there was so much noise here so I didnt hear it hahahaha
Hyemi Byun yupp I subscribed his channel
Sorry you got the wrong guy. It's James Dean's millennial ghost, mix them up all the time.
Readings, whether in books, journals, handouts, or anything else, do not exist in little silos. It sometimes seems that way, though. We read one book, then put it away to be forever forgotten and move on to the next. Or we allow refuse to allow anything we read in one class spill over into a different class. But subjects can overlap a lot, and I like to keep track of how the things I’m reading relate to each other. To do this, I write in the margins a lot. I jot down cross-references to other pages within the same book, or to completely different books or sources. Margins are also good places to write questions, definitions, and other relevant thoughts that pop up. Having some notes right next within the text I’m studying can be very handy!
Starting school again in two days, I must say this series was very well timed for me, thanks!
I've noticed that when I do all this stuff (taking notes, surveying, preventing myself from speed reading) makes me enjoy the reading less. When I read, I like to stop, re-read and think about what I've read.
After finishing my first semester of my 2nd bachelor's degree, I have formed the opinion that reading is the enemy of learning.
I would hurry up and finish reading my macroeconomics chapter every week so I could spend the hours that it took to understand the concepts. A sentence like "interest rates and bond prices move in opposite directions" takes a few seconds to read but 10 or 20 minutes or more to really understand. You have to imagine yourself holding a bond, an IOU contract that says a company will pay you a fixed amount of money at fixed intervals. Then you have to imagine interest rates rising. People getting new loans will have to pay more to borrow money. But, you, with your bond, don't benefit from the rising interest rates because your payments are fixed as specified in the bond contract. Therefore, your bond is worth less than it was before. Then you have to imagine yourself in all the other roles in this scenario. Then repeat for falling interest rates. I recognized that this kind of thinking is where the learning is and reading a chapter a week is a threat to the time that I need to think through difficult concepts.
I was hoping that there would be something about reducing as much as possible distractions or intrusions into your consciousness when reading. Younger people are very used to having their phone with them at all times and immediately reacting to alerts, but doing this is a huge drain on your attention span and focus and has a very negative impact on your ability to focus on a specific task. Every time you divert your attention it takes about 30 seconds to get back into what you were doing, so potentially you can lengthen what would have been a 10 minute reading assignment into over half an hour and also not have retained as much.
If you want to do some lengthy reading, turn your phone OFF and put it away. Knowing that it's not accessible will help you think about it less and keep you focused on the reading. This might seem hard at first, but like anything it gets easier the more you do it, you're essentially training yourself not to engage with your phone which is a skill it itself.
Kinda ironic how Crash Course-- which people usually use to cram-- is teaching us how to study.
Starting today I do have a lot of researching to do for a graded assignment. So again, perfectly on time! In that sense: SCAR!!! I am heading out to the library.
All CC videos have summaries at the end except this one? That's a learning technique right there
Smart, creating this series right before school starts
This course was timed perfectly. Just when school's starting!
Ah, thank goodness for this series. This video basically highlights one of the larger problems I'm aware that I have. :P
Vlog brothers, scishow, crashcourse all at once I love it
In high school I struggled with history (which means I didn't pay attention or read anything), but I still passed (thank god). Then in my third year history class I simply read the relevant pages out loud into my phone and listened to it on repeat while walking to school. I wouldn't recommend this. It gave me amazing grades, but I don't really remember any of it. Less time consuming than any other form of studying and probably pretty sweet if you have dyslexia. In which case I suppose you could spend a long time on each sentence and just pause the recording, and just say the sentence in your own words. But you wouldn't have to read the text over and over.
How to become straight A student is one of the book I've ever read.
The only class that assigns me long readings, and they release study guides
most people misunderstand speedreading.
the obvious reason is how bloated promises people use to market these, but the core system is more effective skimming of the material.
It does work.
Very important with speed reading is to scan the book quickly, then skim the material, read relevant things, and then get back to important issues.
when you speed read the study material, you can review the material 4-5 times in the same time you slow read it, you get a lot better overview, you see the big picture better than with slow read. Danger is that you have to lose a lot of small details.
Considering how memory works, you lose the details anyway, so it is a lot better to get the main points and the big picture, because those stay a lot longer.
As a professor for a higher-level science course (anatomy & physiology) I often come across a lot of students having difficulty managing the large bulk of material. I've also taught C.O.R.E. (Collect, Organize, Recall, Evaluate) methods to first-year students in attempts to arm them better as they proceed through their coursework.
I have to say - I'm so incredibly excited about how this series is going even only after two episodes. They have stayed true to the Crash Course style while addressing a much-needed topic for many students.
I'm in love with the videos and so for animation
Oh dear god, classes start today! I needed this series to have started weeks ago!
Yep, this series is as good as I hoped it'd be.
I like how they have the courses that school doesn't teach us!!!!!! GREAT
Am I the only one who was daydreaming when he talked about it? I lost focus and only realized he was talking about it the third time I went back
For people interested in working and long term memory, chunks etc. I would like to recommend "A Mind For Numbers" by Barbara Oakley!
This series is really useful. Thank you, Crash Course!
It's like TH-cam knew exactly what I needed
Compy is here! Another level of abstraction!
Woah it's cool how in the description at the bottom, they put their patrons
I always wondered why, or if there was a difference between recall and recognition. I noticed how I could do really well on multiple choice because for me it's usually recall/ recognizing the words and/or certain patterns and words in questions and answers. Or when reading kanji, I can recognize them, but take it away and ask me to draw it, my brain suddenly goes blank and can't remember the strokes at all. Now it makes sense....
Can't name one time a 'study skill' from school has helped me in my career as an Engineer.
I'm i the only one that has always pseudo-skimmed when reading books? If you do it a lot it becomes pretty easy to do and is a handy trick for school
You are a legend! I like your study tips and crash course study skills very much and I really enjoy the time to study from you. And that spaced repetition really works on me!
I just got to see both Comply from CC:Computer Science and the little brain guy from CC:Psychology.
I love this series.
Wish I had this while I was in college. If I go back, I will use these videos to get me on that dean's list!
Thomas Frank's first thought bubble, they are going to have to cover this in Crash Course history!!
This was scary. How did you know I was here for help on how to read my Psychology book? 😨 💦 Anyway, awesome video. Ty for the help.
I once did this exercise to train your peripherals to read so that you do less saccades. It sped up my reading speed and I could still understand what was being said, but I don't think it's something I could do all the time.
In my SAT prep book it literally says to learn how to read several words at the same time 😳😂 him saying that isn't too effective really does make sense, and now I don't really know what to believe from that book
I love how I have to study right now but instead I'm watching videos on how to study better...
Procrastination station, next stop: Despair.
Slow reading is ALSO very important technique when studying, it fits very well when material is not very large and packed with information, here speed reading is next to useless, only hinderance.
Haha, I saw those Winter Soldier's trigger words at 2:47. Also, awesome video, I've always wanted an official Crash Course series on Study skills.
I am so glad to see this course opened, especially with TH-cam's Study Master, Thomas Frank!
I miss reading text books. I’m a poli sci major, so most of my reading assignments are academic papers, and you know... they aren’t written for students, so it’s kinda hard to go through all of them 😅
It's 11pm and I've got a reading assignment due in a week, why am I watching this?
Wait...