There’s a difference between reading it, and getting it.
Reading for class isn't just about getting through the material. It's about truly understanding it. If you've ever read the same paragraph five times and still couldn't tell someone what it said, you're not alone. Strengthening your reading and comprehension skills can make a huge difference in how much you retain, how quickly you study, and how confident you feel when it's time to write essays or take exams.
But your ability to truly understand what you read is one of the biggest predictors of academic success. Reading and comprehension skills help you go from just “getting through the chapter” to actually remembering it, connecting it to other ideas, and using it confidently when you write or take an exam.
On this page, you’ll find practical strategies, study tools, and real-life examples to help you go beyond surface reading and actually absorb what you’re learning. These strategies will help you slow down, absorb what matters, and walk away with real understanding, so you’re not just reading for the test, but actually learning for life.
When you come across a new word, you are presented with a great opportunity to learn. You can improve reading comprehension by following this process. Instead of reaching for a dictionary, guess the meaning of a word through context. This is an amazing opportunity to build mental associations that will anchor this terminology in your memory.
Free Study Plan Template
This workbook is full of super useful resources that can be applied to every aspect of your day.
Are you worried about running low on brain space? Learn what helps memory retention and how to optimize it for academic performance. How horrible would it be to wake up one morning and discover that your memory was full? Can this happen? How can you avoid it? Click here to find out how to optimize your memory retention so you will never have this worry again.
Lecture notes are stressful, messy, and chaotic. Getting all of the facts, from the professor's mouth to your paper, is priority number one. But before you cram that page full of scribbles, stop and check out this video, and you will never look at all the blank space on your pages the same way again.
Discover the best study activities for spatial learners to enhance your academic performance. From mind mapping to visual storytelling, learn practical tips and strategies tailored to your unique learning style. Perfect for university, college, and mature students looking to maximize their study efficiency.
They are complicated, they are illegible, and they are practically incomprehensible. Lecture notes are for more than punishing you with writers cramp. These are the starting point of vast amounts of knowledge to be absorbed. Walking out of class is not the end of their usefulness. Nor is merely rewriting them at home. Join us as we fill in these notes so that you can get the best understanding of your course material.
Linking relationships is a great way to solidify the understanding of foundational topics. Few methods have similar concept maps in the ability to perform this function. Creating concept maps and mind maps to demonstrate how theories come together to form complex concepts is an excellent study activity. See how you can incorporate them into your study strategy.
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