SQ3R Reading Method-: Before You Read, Survey The Chapter
SQ3R Reading Method-: Before You Read, Survey The Chapter
SQ3R Reading Method-: Before You Read, Survey The Chapter
SQRRR or "SQ3R" is a reading comprehension method named for its five steps: survey, question,
read, recite, and review. The method was introduced by Francis Pleasant Robinson, an American
education philosopher in his 1946 book Effective Study.
SQ3R is a reading strategy formed from its letters:
Survey! Question! Read! Recite! Review!
SQ3R will help you build a framework to understand your reading assignment.
Before you read, Survey the chapter:
the title, headings, and subheadings
captions under pictures, charts, graphs or maps
review questions or teacher-made study guides
introductory and concluding paragraphs
summary
Question while you are surveying:
Turn the title, headings, and/or subheadings into questions
Read questions at the end of the chapters or after each subheading
Ask yourself,
"What did my instructor say about this chapter or subject
when it was assigned?"
Ask yourself,
"What do I already know about this subject?"
Note: If it is helpful to you, write out these questions for consideration.
This variation is called SQW3R
When you begin to Read:
Look for answers to the questions you first raised
Answer questions at the beginning or end of chapters or study guides
Reread captions under pictures, graphs, etc.
Note all the underlined, italicized, bold printed words or phrases
Study graphic aids
Reduce your speed for difficult passages
Stop and reread parts which are not clear
Read only a section at a time and recite after each section
Recite after you've read a section:
Orally ask yourself questions about what you have just read, or summarize, in your own
words, what you read
Take notes from the text but write the information in your own words
Underline or highlight important points you've just read
Reciting:
The more senses you use the more likely you are to remember what you read Triple strength
learning: Seeing, saying, hearing
Quadruple strength learning: Seeing , saying , hearing, writing!!!
Review: an ongoing process
Day One
After you have read and recited the entire chapter,
write questions in the margins for those points
you have highlighted or underlined.
If you took notes while reciting,
write questions for the notes you have taken
in the left hand margins of your notebook.
Complete the form for a critical reading review
Day Two
Page through the text and/or your notebook to re-acquaint yourself
with the important points.
Cover the right hand column of your text/note-book
and orally ask yourself the questions in the left hand margins.
Orally recite or write the answers from memory.
Develop mnemonic devices for material which need to be memorized.
Make flash cards for those questions which give you difficulty.
Days Three, Four and Five
Alternate between your flash cards and notes and test yourself
(orally or in writing) on the questions you formulated.
Make additional flash cards if necessary.
Weekend
Using the text and notebook, make a Table of Contents - list all the topics and sub-topics
you need to know from the chapter.
From the Table of Contents, make a Study Sheet/ Spatial Map.
Recite the information orally and in your own words as you put the Study Sheet/Map
together.
As you have consolidated all the information you need for this chapter, periodically
review the Sheet/Map so that at test time you will not have to cram.
(E.g. while studying Kafka’s The Trial – an absurdist fiction, you can relate it to other absurd
literary works and then compare and contrast it with them, e.g. Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus,
Jean Genet, etc. have also written absurd literary texts)