Overview of Sq3r
Overview of Sq3r
As the acronym SQ3R suggests, the process has five steps. They are: Survey Question Read Recite Review The next few pages of this program will explain what is involved in completing each of these five steps and will help you make your reading
SURVEY
This step helps you gather the information necessary to focus on the chapter and formulate questions for yourself as you read the chapter. It's not necessary to have answers to your questions at this step of the process. The answers will come later in the process. This step should take no more than 5 - 10 minutes but is very important. Read the title Read the introduction and/or summary Read each boldface heading and subheading Review any graphics This helps your brain begin to focus on the topic of the chapter. This orients you to how this chapter fits the author's purposes. It also provides you with an overview of the author's statement of the most important points. This helps you create a framework for the chapter in your mind before you begin to read. This framework provides a structure for the thoughts and details to come. Charts, maps, diagrams, pictures, and other visual aids are there to make a point. Publishers will not include these items in the book unless they are deemed to significantly add to the text. This includes italics, chapter objectives, definitions and study questions at the end of the chapter. These aids are there to help you sort, comprehend and remember. Use them to your advantage.
Now that you have surveyed the entire chapter to build a framework for understanding the chapter, it's time to begin the reading process. This step and the next two, read and recite, are repeated over and over as you read the chapter. Turn boldface headings into one or more questions and write down your question on the left third of a piece of paper. Why do I need to take time to do this step? As you read this section, you will be looking for the answer to your questions. For example, if you are reading a book to help you improve your study skills and the heading is "use a regular study area," the questions you might ask are "why should I have a regular study area" and "where should my regular study area be located?" When your mind is actively searching for answers to questions, it becomes engaged in the learning process. This will help you remember and understand the information.
READ
Reading the section fills in the information around the mental structures you have been building by surveying the chapter and developing questions about the section. Read one section as a time As you read the section, look for the answers to your questions and jot them down, in your own words, on the right two-thirds of your piece of paper. A single question is probably adequate for a section that is only a few paragraphs; however, for longer sections, you may find that you need to add a question or two. Well-written textbooks often provide examples to further explain the main ideas. As you read the section, try to separate the details from the main ideas. Use the details to help you understand the main ideas but don't expect yourself to memorize every detail provided in the chapter.
RECITE
Reciting material as you go retrains your mind to concentrate and learn as it reads. When do you recite? How do you recite? At the end of each section of the chapter. Look at the question(s) you wrote down before you read the section. Cover your answers with a piece of paper and see if you
can answer the questions from memory. What if you can't recall the answers to your questons? Reread the section or the part of the section that has to do with that question.
When you can answer your question(s) about this section, go back to step two, "question." Develop and write down your question(s) for this section, read the section and then recite again. Proceed through the chapter repeating these three steps.
REVIEW
The review step helps you refine our mental organization of the material in the chapter and begin to build memory. We learn through repetition. This step provides another opportunity for repetition of the material and therefore will enhance our recall of the information. How do you review? Once you've finished reading the entire chapter using the survey, question, read and recite steps, go back over all your questions. Cover the answers to the questions you've developed and written down and see if you can still recite them. Reread that section of the chapter to refresh your memory, recite the answer after you've written it down and then continue your review process.
SQ3R REVIEW
Now that you've learned about the five steps of the SQ3R process, see if you answer these questions:
What are the five steps of the SQ3R process? What do you need to do to complete each of the five steps of the process? If you have successfully answered these two questions, you are ready to continue with this program. If not, you may wish to go back to the beginning and review one or more steps in the process again. This is exactly what you should do in the review step for reading a chapter in a textbook.
Now that you know when NOT to use SQ3R, when should you use it?
Now that you've learned about SQ3R, survey, question, read, recite and review, the next step is to incorporate this into your study strategies. You may want to begin by selecting one class for which you will use SQ3R to read every chapter prior to your next test. Here are some additional strategies you may want to implement along with reading the chapter using this method: Plan ahead and start early. SQ3R takes time and is not a strategy that can be employed or used effectively the night before a test.
Plan to read each chapter before it's discussed in class. Doing this will make the class lecture a review. It is also likely to help you to understand the material that is presented in class at a deeper level. Identify information in the chapter you don't understand and plan to talk with the professor after class or during his/her office hours if you still don't understand the material after it's covered in class.
Reading textbooks and comprehending the information is difficult. If you want further information about reading comprehension, you may wish to review other Internet pages on the
Cook Counseling Center web site related to reading comprehension. You may also
wish to review the reading comprehension on-line resources from the textbook,
Becoming a Master Student, 9th edition. You may also want to review Chapter 4
of this textbook, which is available in many bookstores. If you have been trying to improve your reading comprehension but the strategies you're trying just don't seem to be helping as much as you would like, please contact the Cook Counseling Center or the counseling center or learning skills center on your campus to arrange an appointment with a counselor.