Bio reading

[I wannabe a doc]

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Im kinda dreading my botany class. The teacher doesn't lecture and expects us to read the book and do her questions she assigns us every day. This is really hard for me due to I haven't read alot of scientific textbooks. My mind always wanders and I lose focus. Whats the best way to get better at reading a scientific textbook and remember everything I learned or some of it. Any help is appreciated.

 

[loveoforganic]

It's this way for my biochem II class. I read the chapters, highlighting in 4 colors as I go. One color is for major header, the other colors being subsequent subsets of the main header. I then go back and put the chapters in outline format on the computer, adding figures from the text as needed. For the tests, I'll read through my outline. It's stupidly time consuming, but I don't see a way around it.

 

[I wannabe a doc]

Its just hard seeing as I never had to read a book for class before. I hope I can get this under my belt so i dont fail.

 

[loveoforganic]

It's not that hard for stuff that isn't highly conceptual, and I don't think botany falls under that category (but I could be wrong, haven't taken it).

 

[MeRLin443]

Textbooks are a fantastic resource. Usually in undergrad though, they are pretty inefficient b/c they don't teach a course, but they teach an entire topic. As I've continued through my education, I found flipping back through my texts as the most effective review of material.

My advice for reading them is pretty simple. Underline key thoughts and phrases under each specific heading in the book. Then at the end of that heading, read just the underlined phrases. You should be able to remember everything about the topic. Continue doing this throughout the chapter. At the end of the chapter read each of your underlined sentences again. If you can you recall each topic, you're all set. Not only have you internalized the important points of each heading, you've linked them mentally to the more minute details, and you've cut your work down in re-reading the chapter by probably 90%.

Edit- This method works w/ scientific journal articles for the most part as well.