Study Prof

If you think that excellent students read everything they are assigned for their college classes, think again. The best students know what material to read thoroughly, what material to skim, and what material to skip altogether. That saves them a lot of time and a lot of mental effort, since they aren’t focusing their attention and studying on materials that won’t be on the test.

Think about readings from the prof’s perspective. In general, it costs a professor very little to assign you a given reading. As they assemble their syllabi, it takes them all of thirty seconds to type “Read War and Peace, by Tolstoy, for the March 2nd class.” Doing the reading, however, will take you days! Assigning it is easy for them, so they err on the side of thoroughness. You, on the other hand, now have to do hours of work that may contribute almost nothing to your GPA. So don’t waste your time and lose your focus by blindly reading everything assigned.

Principal: Read for class like you read a magazine. Most of us don’t pick up a magazine and read it cover-to-cover. We might flip through it first, looking at pictures and article titles. Then we go back and fully read articles that we find useful or interesting. Certain articles, or portions of articles, we may skip altogether, while others we may read several times even taking notes or making clippings of useful information that we plan on referring to again and again. Read for class the same way.

Principal: Decide whether to read, skim, or skip each assigned reading. For each assigned reading, gauge it’s importance. Will it be explicitly tested (these readings often show up many times on the syllabus and in the professor’s lectures)? If so, then read it thoroughly. Is it supplementary, referred to only once or twice in the syllabus or in the professor’s lectures and designed to give you a deeper understanding of the course? Skim it looking for key ideas. Is it background material the prof doesn’t ever mention in class and doesn’t test over? Then skip it. But when in doubt, at least skim it!

Key texts must be read thoroughly, preferably before the class. Skim them first (more on that below) Please log in or sign up to read the rest of this content. Find out more.