World Literature seems like a really cool class with interesting stuff to be read. But I struggle with staying focused to read things.

Psychology was especially difficult for me.

What tricks do you guys do to make the the stuff you read no matter what stays in your memory?

Do you write summaries? Sticky notes on pages as a reminder to let you know what happened when moving to another section of reading?

I know this semester I'm going to be required to read the entirety of The Odyssey, and Dante's Inferno.

Any tips to help me out would be greatly appreciated, or if anyone else has similar issues as myself.

[manicmonday!]

EEK! i don't think I've ever been able to stick in my head in its entirety! I have to studyyyyyy lots and re-read! I do take notes as I'm reading the first time. IF it's a short-ish read I do re-read it without writing (if not I just read over my notes I took while reading). I do bulleted points and color-code the notes I took while reading. So, every section has its own color (just the way my mind works). For instance, if I were reading a chapter about Borderline Personality Disorder (hey, don't hate, my undergrad was in Psychology, haha), I would put, say, the symptoms in the color blue and then medications used for BPD in purple, etc. Sometimes I go back to the Cornell Notes thing (google it and see if the page makes sense and would work for you). GOOD LUCK!

[Silent Void]

Originally Posted by distortedcreativity

World Literature seems like a really cool class with interesting stuff to be read. But I struggle with staying focused to read things.

Psychology was especially difficult for me.

What tricks do you guys do to make the the stuff you read no matter what stays in your memory?

Do you write summaries? Sticky notes on pages as a reminder to let you know what happened when moving to another section of reading?

I know this semester I'm going to be required to read the entirety of The Odyssey, and Dante's Inferno.

Any tips to help me out would be greatly appreciated, or if anyone else has similar issues as myself.

Write down the most important points. This fixes it in memory.

Study in silence. Your brain will thank you for not playing music while you learn.

[Perna]

I take online classes because they require lots of writing and class responses to written questions in the "classroom", etc.

How do you learn best? I would get movies and watch them as you are reading the book, think about differences between the two, why the movie left out a scene or how you would have acted a scene, etc. I would read shorter stuff online and I would take notes in class when others are commenting/answering questions and what the teacher says, etc.

I would kind of outline the plot and learn the details backwards and forwards (which does not necessarily require reading the book straight through, etc.) and just dip into the book at points and see how long before I recognize the scene, think about why the scene is there, etc., in other words, I would "live" whatever book/story while you are studying/reading it.

Look at a comment in a study guide and see if you understand why they said "that" and reword it in your own words and find reasons you don't think it is true as well as other explanations, etc. The biggest reason students get caught not reading a book/only studying published notes is because they do not make what they read "their own", they don't apply it in any way, just take it wholesale and transplant it to their tests/papers as if it is their idea. If you like an idea, you have to reword it so it sounds like you, has your own examples to support it, etc.

[RomanSunburn]

For text book chapters, I take notes while I read, using their subtitles, etc, as an outline. If the chapter has a summary at the end, I'll also copy that over right before the exam.

For plays and poetry like Dante and Homer, I would read a section, then read the spark notes for that section online just to clarify what I just read. Spark notes are great when used in addition to, and not replacing, the original work.

Also, if you're going to be reading a lot, break it down into chunks. If you're reading 100 pages a week, read 20 pages each day for 5 days. That gives you a catch-up day if you get behind and a day to not worry about reading at all. I also suggest reading some where comfy, but not TOO comfy...