How to highlight for maximum retention and results

Do you use a highlighter when you speed read? Have you ever highlighted so much 'important' stuff that you end up highlighting more of the page than not? Have you ever wondered 'how do I know what is worth highlighting and what's not'?

I've done the same, myself. In fact, I used to highlight a lot of what I read on the page - not being sure what was really important and what was just important. Until one delay realised that I was wasting my time and not really remembering much of what I highlighted anyway.

On top of that, the stuff that I did highlight was often not even in the test! The reason for this is because the FIRST time you read and highlight anything, it's hard for you to know what's important and what's not. Plus, you end up reading slower and you highlight more often. And that's if you read normally! When you speed read AND highlight, chances are that your reading speed will be slower than your usual speed and you will highlight two or three times more. Which means you'll waste a lot of time reviewing and highlighting.

Because I know this, I advise students who learn to do speed reading to NOT highlight while speed reading something for the first time. And here's why... When you read anything for the first time, it's only when you finish the chapter that its meaning becomes obvious to you. You then understand what the important bits are that you will need to remember (and highlight) and you will be able to recognise these points in the text. More than likely, also, these important bits may have been different than what you would have highlighted when you started reading.

Now, I'll tell you what works best for me and for thousands of other students. These strategies I teach take time to implement, and the key is to TRUST them as you apply them.

• When CHOOSING to highlight something, you need to trust your instincts - to highlight LESS than you THINK you should...
• Highlight ONLY those items you feel you're not going to remember automatically. Yes, I know this takes judgment on your part.
• You have to trust yourself. Start with MORE highlights & REDUCE them as you get better at CHOOSING what to highlight.
• You'll soon know what you MUST highlight versus what you WANT to highlight. These are not often the same thing.
• You can TEST what I suggest - sometimes highlight WHILE you are speed reading and then AFTER... You determine what works best for you.
• IF you are the EXCEPTION, that's OK - DO what works for you, but DO IT because it works, not because you THINK it works.
• To KNOW IT WORKS, you have to track your time and comprehension BOTH ways, otherwise it's a value judgment and chances are you will be biased and wrong in your self-assessment.

posted by:

pak g

Read Before You Go To Class

Reading the course material before you go to class is a simple way to absorb, understand and remember the material with much less time and effort OVERALL than you otherwise would. Most people go to class and are hearing the content for the first time. They may not be familiar with some keywords or technical terms. They spend most of the time getting their head around all this new material as they struggle to put it into a logical order or "framework".

Once that framework is in place, they begin to actually UNDERSTAND the material being taught. When the class is over, this process is often incomplete. So how can they begin to study or reinforce what they never understood in the first place! They can't -- it takes MUCH more time to revise partially - understood material, resulting in poorer study efficiency and results.

Consider the alternative: When you briefly read the course material prior to your class, you start to become familiar with the concepts. You come across newwords and terminology. You look at a few sample questions. You might even make a couple of notes of questions to ask. Then when you get into class, everything seems familiar. You're hearing everything for the second time and you begin to remember and reinforce key points. Then you leave the class with a pretty good understanding of the topic. It takes much less time to revise and review information, and you have plenty of time to read ahead of the next class!

Try it. Read ahead before going to class and see how much EASIER everything becomes.

Posted by: Pak G

Note:

This writing was mailed by: Dr Marc Dussault

Getting The Best Grades

Pak G found an url (http://www.get-better-grades.com/) on tips how to get good grades with the least effort last April. Pak G gave our class e-mail so that Dr Marc Dussault can e-mail the tips. A number of e-mail came into our in-box. On of them is as follow (I made some editing):

The first strategy on Getting The Best Grades With The Least Amount Of Effort is "How NOT to Focus Your Energies on Important AND Urgent Tasks."

Have you ever found that you actually get the most work done when you have the least time to do it? Do you find yourself NOT completing the work you're supposed to do, when you have ample time to get it done? But then when you're given short sharp bursts of urgent timelines, you excel above and beyond what you ever expected? If you can identify with any of these situations, you'll definitelyVbenefit from managing your tasks using the "Urgent/Important" model.

There are four kinds of tasks: (1) Not Important and Not Urgent; (2) Not Important and Urgent (3) Important and Not Urgent; (4) Urgent and Important. If you spend time on the WRONG type of task at the WRONG time, all you'll do is escalate your stress and reduce your results. On the other hand, if you learn how to deal with each category of task, you'll get better results across the board while also making the urgency "work for you".

Here are a few scenarios so you can see for yourself how to treat different types of tasks to MAXIMIZE your results.

1. "Not Important and Not Urgent"

Example: You have a book report to hand in at the end of the semester. It'll take you 10 to 12 hours to read the book and 4 to 5 hours to write the report. You have 3 months and it's worth 10% of your final grade. You should get started as soon as possible so it doesn't become urgent and create unnecessary stress.

2. "Not Important But Urgent"

Example: You have a quiz tomorrow but you haven't reviewed anything. It's worth 5% but you need every mark you can get. You should have done this in-between other things when you had thetime. Now you will feel stress and anxiety that could have easily been avoided... "Cramming" becomes the only option, and it has been proven that cramming is far more STRESSFUL and far less EFFECTIVE than the strategies I reveal in:http://www.get-better-grades.com

3. "Important But Not Urgent"

Example: You have a project that is worth 35% of your final mark. It's due in a month and you estimate it will take you 20-25 hoursto complete. Once agains, what you want to do is avoid rushing and trying tocomplete the project at the last minute. You want to scale down thetasks into smaller bite-size chunks to make it easier to getstarted as soon as possible.

4. "Important and Urgent"

Example: You have a final exam in two days, it's worth 70% of yourfinal grade. You haven't put in enough time - so much new material to cover you just don't know where to start. Panic starts to set in. This is *not* where you want to be spending your time. You want tospend as much time as possible on the *important but not urgent*issues. Of course, this takes planning and preparation (plus better strategies for getting the best results with the least amount of effort).

Posted by:

Pak G