by Adit Mittal
Have you ever read a book over and over when preparing for a huge exam, but when the day comes and you sit in your seat, you just go blank? Well, that’s not uncommon. Ebbinghaus, a psychologist in the late 19th century, concluded students forget about 56% of what they learn within the first hour, and over 66% within the first day. However, there are numerous strategies designed to help students retain information for a longer period of time, and one strategy is the SQ3R Method.
What Is It?
The SQ3R method is a five-step approach that helps you learn more effectively and retain what you read. It enables you to concentrate on what you require from a paper and understand the information clearly. The SQ3R method is made up of 5 key steps: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review.
Survey
- Gather the necessary information to help you focus and formulate your goals
- Read the introduction and/or summary to get a sense of how each chapter fits into the author’s overall goals, and pay special attention to the author’s summation of the most essential topics.
- Each boldface heading and subtitle should be noted – Before you start reading, organize your thinking and create a structure for the thoughts and facts that will follow.
- Any graphics — charts, maps, diagrams, and so on – are there to illustrate a point. Don’t forget about them.
- Italics, bold type, chapter objectives, and end-of-chapter questions are all provided as reading aids to help you organize, comprehend, and remember.
Question
- Create a list of questions based on the topic of the reading. Convert headings and subheadings into questions, then hunt for answers in the text’s content.
Other, more generic questions could be posed, such as:
- What is the purpose of this chapter?
- What is the question that this chapter is attempting to answer?
- What is the value of this knowledge to me?
Read
- The most crucial event of the method.
This is where all of the previous two steps’ preparation comes into play. You begin reading the book in this step while answering both the chapter questions and the self-generated questions you made in the “Question” Step. As a reader, you’ll have to pick and choose the material you need to answer all of the questions, and this process will take a lot of concentration. The SQ3R method requires you to read actively rather than passively, which is more engaging but also intellectually taxing.
Recite
- Most time-consuming part of using the SQ3R since it requires you to put all of the information you’ve gathered thus far into your own words. Take your time with this stage, because bypassing it will prevent the SQ3R system from reaching its full potential.
- Recite in your own words and cover all of the significant topics and questions
- Slow down when cramming information into your brain and give it more time to digest it by reciting it.
Review
- The material is reviewed in the fifth and final step of the SQ3R approach. Since the human brain forgets knowledge quickly, it is best to begin the review process as soon as possible. You can interfere with the forgetting mechanism by completing a quick review, which will help you achieve the best possible retention.
- Go over all of the same headings you identified in step #2
- Summarize everything into replies in your own words. Aids in the storage of all the data you’ve gathered up to this point.
Through the SQ3R method, you’ll be able to learn the fundamental elements of reading and increase your overall understanding of a document by following this strategy. The SQ3R approach pulls out the information you need and stimulates constructive retention rather than absorbing superfluous texts.
tl;dr
The SQ3R approach is a simple way to memorize material and get the most out of books and other readings. By focussing on the text’s structure, you can create a firm foundation on which to build fresh content. It consists of 5 key components:
- Survey: Read the objectives, introduction, bolded words, conclusion, summary, headings and subheadings, and the diagrams.
- Question: Formulate your own questions based on the information you have gathered at the pre reading stage.
- Read: Read actively by underlining and marking in your text and by answering your questions.
- Recite: Recite, from memory as much as possible, the important points under each heading after you read a section.
- Review: Review the information as quickly as possible/summarize into your own words.