Reading Comprehension problem?

Question

The text book my college recondmends are so hard to understand. I have to read it at least 3x and ask someone.

I'm a great student and all. 3.6 or 3.7 average but is there a better way to understand what i'm reading. The easiest is reading stories.

No adderall suggestions. I hear about adderall all the time on campus.

Answer 1

I totally understand this problem.  I am in the dissertation phase of my second doctoral degree, and can assure you that I needed to buy supplemental books for almost all the classes I took on the doctoral level.  For example, I had two years of statistics and only one time was the textbook the book from which I learned.  This is true for most of my classmates as well.  Sometimes on the syllabus your professor will list supplemental books.  I take that list to the library or her office and look through the books before I buy them.  Some books are helpful and some are not, but they are all expensive, so I always review them first.  If she doesn't include a list, go ask her for some suggestions.  

Read in small bits and take notes on the book as you read. To start, learn one paragraph at a time; don't read the whole page or whole chapter at once.  Type them in bullet-point form and organize them in a way you understand.  A textbook can be like someone else's house.  Other people organize ideas in the way that makes sense to them, but it might be all wrong for you.

Answer 2

Textbooks can be very wordy. I have found that the point sometimes gets lost in the author's need to feel scholastic, leading to a lot of repetition and purple prose. Weed out the excess by hi-lighting the actual information and leave out the redundant and "overly-explanatory". Reading only the hi-lighted parts, take notes and take them in your own words.

Also, try apply the concepts to examples you are familiar with. I once taught a very weak student economics concepts using video game systems. Endless reading had done nothing for him, but when put into terms he understood, he not only "got it", he was able to expand on it independently.

One last thing, I have an 8-Pack of coloured hi-lighters. Colour coding works wonders for me. For instance, you may want to hi-light different theories different colours, or hi-light all definitions one colour, theories, another colour, criticisms another colour, etc.

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

HOOKED ON PHONICS!! lol j/k.. I would just read more and more, learn any words in that book you might not know, or just try to find the meaning out by seeing if you can guess it by how it is used in the sentence, or get a partner and have him/her read it aloud and see if you understand it like that.. that's all I can think of for right now.. I hoped I help..

Happy Holidays!

Answer 4

My son also has this problem. If things are read aloud to him, he understands better. Many books are available on cassette or CD. You could try that. Does the college you attend have learning support? Check into it, many do but you have to access services on your own.

Answer 5

I'm a bit of a nerd but while in a graduate program to become a reading specialist, I took a lot of notes as I was reading.  They were effortful paraphrases of the text so that I could understand the gist of what the author was saying.  If I didn't get it, I'd tackle the challenging vocabulary with more extensive notes and look for another author who might express the ideas more clearly.  

After spending a lot of time with an author, you begin to understand what he or she is saying. Compare it to working crossword puzzles.  The more puzzles you do, the easier it is to do them because you learn all those little useless words that fit into the grid.

I always appreciate a plain spoken author who can express ideas in the language of mere mortals over those who speak in their coded professional tongues.  It is one thing to be an expert in a field but it is quite another to be able to communicate your expertise to others who don't have your rich storehouse of background information.  

I also discovered that most of the textbooks professors had on their syllabi were never used either in class or as assigned readings.  They were reference materials that were generally expensive and useless.