How to Study Effectively?

psychology has identi- fied methods that enable humans to read and remember a textbook. . This approach is a variant of the PQ4r (Preview, Question, read, reflect, recite, review) method
1. Preview the chapter. read the section headings and summary statements to get a general sense of where the chapter is going and how much material will be devoted to each topic. Try to understand each summary statement, and ask yourself whether this is something you knew or believed before read- ing the text.
Then, for each section of the book, go through the following steps:

2. For each section of the book, make up a study question by looking at the section heading and thinking of a related ques- tion that you will try to answer while you read the text. For instance, in the section intel- lectual Curiosity, you might ask yourself, “What is there to be curious about in cognitive psychology?” This will give you an active goal to pursue while you read the section.

3. read the section to under- stand it and answer your question. Try to relate what you are reading to situations in your own life. in the sec- tion intellectual Curiosity, for example, you might try to think of scientific discoveries you have read about that seemed to require creativity.

4. At the end of each section, read the summary and ask yourself whether that is the main point you got out of the section and why it is the main point. Sometimes you may need to go back and reread some parts of the section.
At the end of the chapter, engage in the following review process:

5. Go through the text, men- tally reviewing the main points. Try to answer the questions you devised in step 2, plus any other ques- tions that occur to you. Often, when preparing for an exam, it is a good idea to ask yourself what kind of exam questions you would make up for the chapter. As we will learn in later chapters, such a study strategy improves one’s memory of the text.