The SQ3R method is a learning method created by Francis P. Robinson which uses the following strategies: study, question, read, recite, and review.
Let's take a look at them in detail.
Survey
In this step, you peruse through the reading material and pay attention to headings, subheadings, introduction paragraphs, images and their titles, objectives, chapter summaries, questions at the end of the chapter, and any words written in italics, bold or underlined.
Question
Throughout the reading process, ask your
self questions about the material being discussed.
For example, if you're reading a chapter in a physics book titled "Schrodinger's cat experiment", ask yourself, "what is Schrodinger's cat experiment?" and aim to answer the question by reading the chapter.
You can also ask other relevant questions as you continue reading, such as, "what is the main takeaway of Schrodinger's cat experiment?"
The goal is to improve your memory and understanding of the material.
You can make notes of the questions and their answers or use a highlighter to mark the part of the chapter that answers the questions you've come up with.
If you're making notes you can try to boost your understanding of the material by including helpful illustrations and by paraphrasing the content.
Read
Pay attention as you read and approach the material section by section, ensuring you understand each section before proceeding.
Reading to learn is not the same process as reading for enjoyment (although you can certainly enjoy learning!).
When reading solely for enjoyment, you're free to move from one section to the next without thinking too deeply about the material.
When reading to learn, you're aiming for comprehension. Use the question strategy discussed above to ensure you understand every section.
Recite
At the end of each section, you should have gathered a number of questions about the topics.
Take a moment to recite those questions and try to remember their answers.
If you forgot or find that you didn't understand the material well enough, you can reread the material.
Repeat this until you can answer the questions from memory and are confident that you understand the answers.
Review
At the end of each chapter, review the chapter and go through the questions you asked.
Essentially, you're repeating what you did in the recite strategy detailed above, but this time you're going through an entire chapter, not just a section.
Make sure you can answer all the questions and understand those answers before going to the next chapter.
Conclusion
The SQ3R method is a means to improve your memory and understanding of textbooks.
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