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How to Read in College

blogs.swarthmore.edu

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Re: How to Read in College

#31

Post by rquantz »

lnanek2 wrote: post #28

I don't really find his initial assertion correct at all: > Professors assign more than you can possibly read in any normal fashion. I took a chembio and CS bachelors degree at an expensive private institution and a software development masters at a large public institution and read all assigned reading quite easily. Actually, I'd usually read all the textbooks before the semester even started. That said, I do find h…

This also is probably more focused on degrees in the humanities, where it is more common practice to have to a read a few books a week for a course, rather than a few chapters a week from a text book.

Re: How to Read in College

#32

Post by caminante »

to3m wrote: post #24
caminante wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I'm not following your ad hominem nor how its related to the thread.

I don't know if I've internalized its advice myself necessarily, but I used my stopwatch and it took me pretty much exactly 2 minutes to read. I studied subjects at school that required a lot of reading, and so I probably got the practice from that. (Of course, not all texts are suitable for reading this way.) What you appear to have done is: spend 10 minutes reading the article, then 5 minutes complaining about how…

You too are very presumptuous with your claims even with your humble attempt to frame another's point.

That said, I would like to address your claim of a 2min. read-through:

  "but I used my stopwatch and it took me pretty much exactly 2
  minutes to read. I studied subjects at school that required a lot 
  of reading, and so I probably got the practice from that. (Of course,
  not all texts are suitable for reading this way.)"
And how much comprehension did you get with a 2 min. flyby? With all due respect, you didn't read the equivalent of 10 pages of font-size=11 text in 2 min. If you're reading at that rate FOR comprehension then you're a savant. Otherwise, you're skimming, not reading.

Speedreading is snakeoil. [1]

[1] http://lifehacker.com/the-truth-about-speed-reading-15425083...

Re: How to Read in College

#33

Post by loevborg »

lnanek2 wrote: post #28

I don't really find his initial assertion correct at all: > Professors assign more than you can possibly read in any normal fashion. I took a chembio and CS bachelors degree at an expensive private institution and a software development masters at a large public institution and read all assigned reading quite easily. Actually, I'd usually read all the textbooks before the semester even started. That said, I do find h…

The problem is real. Reading assignments are much longer and often more challenging in the humanities than in the sciences. If you study history or sociology or philosophy, you're expected to read long and (initially) seemingly incomprehensible articles and books every week.

Re: How to Read in College

#34

Post by dwmtm »

gargarplex wrote: post #30
lnanek2 wrote: post #28

I don't really find his initial assertion correct at all: > Professors assign more than you can possibly read in any normal fashion. I took a chembio and CS bachelors degree at an expensive private institution and a software development masters at a large public institution and read all assigned reading quite easily. Actually, I'd usually read all the textbooks before the semester even started. That said, I do find h…

> I don't really find his initial assertion correct at all > any normal fashion >Actually, I'd usually read all the textbooks before the semester even started. Check your logic

He covered this:

> I'd usually speed read

Re: How to Read in College

#35

Post by gargarplex »

dwmtm wrote: post #34
gargarplex wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't really find his initial assertion correct at all > any normal fashion >Actually, I'd usually read all the textbooks before the semester even started. Check your logic

He covered this: > I'd usually speed read

Clarify the syllogism?

Re: How to Read in College

#36

Post by periphrasislove »

lnanek2 wrote: post #28

I don't really find his initial assertion correct at all: > Professors assign more than you can possibly read in any normal fashion. I took a chembio and CS bachelors degree at an expensive private institution and a software development masters at a large public institution and read all assigned reading quite easily. Actually, I'd usually read all the textbooks before the semester even started. That said, I do find h…

As others have pointed out, this is more specific to the Humanities. I had a Classics professor who probably averaged 150 page reading assignments per lecture -- of non-trivial authors like Thucydides, Aristotle, or Livy -- with many assignments going north of 200 pages. As a junior and senior Classics major, I probably read 1000 pages a week on average between all of my classes, plus maybe another 30 pages of reading in Latin and/or Greek, which obviously took a lot longer to get through, lol. Computer Science coursework always felt like a welcome relief from the time spent in front of the printed page: a lot of programming lab and project time, but only about 50 pages of reading per week, if even that much.

Re: How to Read in College

#37

Post by to3m »

caminante wrote: post #32
to3m wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if I've internalized its advice myself necessarily, but I used my stopwatch and it took me pretty much exactly 2 minutes to read. I studied subjects at school that required a lot of reading, and so I probably got the practice from that. (Of course, not all texts are suitable for reading this way.) What you appear to have done is: spend 10 minutes reading the article, then 5 minutes complaining about how…

You too are very presumptuous with your claims even with your humble attempt to frame another's point. That said, I would like to address your claim of a 2min. read-through: "but I used my stopwatch and it took me pretty much exactly 2 minutes to read. I studied subjects at school that required a lot of reading, and so I probably got the practice from that. (Of course, not all texts are suitable for reading this way.…

I thought I'd made it clearer than I did that I was skimming, but that was indeed what I was doing. This is after all what the article suggests you should do. And that's how I got through the article in 2 minutes. And that's why the article tells you to do it!

Once you've got through 3,000 words in 2 minutes, you might not recall all of it, but you'll at least be able to tell whether it's worth going back for a closer look, or just making a mental note, or forgetting the entire experience.

This isn't a useful technique for everything. But when/if you have a huge pile of big, thick books to get through, all printed in small type with thin margins - probably the sort of thing the author here is thinking of - your options are a bit limited.

Re: How to Read in College

#38

Post by cdcarter »

wyclif wrote: post #13
jacobolus wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This guy is a history professor. A history student at a school of Swarthmore caliber who has e.g. two upper division history courses plus one course in a related field like philosophy/political science/sociology/cultural criticism and maybe one physical science course or something to satisfy some general ed requirements is going to be assigned something like 1000+ pages per week of reading, in addition to a substanti…

I don't mean for this to be a "you kids get off my lawn" type comment, but back in my day 1000+ pages/wk was not unusual. But this rarely meant reading every word; the ability to summarise and skim is crucial to how easily you read that many pages: http://londoninternational-blog.com/2014/01/10/1000-pages-pe... At least the '1000 page rule' seemed to be the expectation if you were, like me, a humanities student at a…

That's exactly why this is an article on summarizing and skimming techniques!
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