You don finish di book. You read am for bus and for lunch and for twenty minutes before you sleep, you argue with some parts, and two chapters really change how you dey think about your work. Six months later somebody ask you wetin di book talk and you hear yourself dey say, "E good well well."
Dat gap no be memory failure and e no mean say you read am wrong. Na design problem. Reading na input, and input no dey stay unless something make am stay. Di fix small, e fit inside di hours wey you dey already spend, and e go change wetin reading be: no be thing wey you dey consume, na thing wey you dey practice. If you do am di way dis piece talk am, one hour with book count as one hour of practice di same way one hour with instrument count, and e demanding almost di same way.
Why I dey forget most of book few months after I read am?
Because reading dey feel like learning while e dey happen, and dat feeling no be di learning. Fluency na di trap: di second pass over one page smooth pass di first, your brain read dat smoothness as knowing, and you close di book dey confident about material wey you fit recognise but you no fit produce.
One review of ten common study techniques, wey John Dunlosky and im colleagues run for Psychological Science in the Public Interest, rate each one against di evidence. Rereading and highlighting, di two things wey almost every adult dey do with book, land for di low utility group. Practice testing and spaced practice land for di top. Dat one no be comment on your discipline. Na comment on which activity dey leave mark.
So di standard for book no be how much of am you enjoy and no be whether you reach di last page. Di standard na whether you fit produce di argument with di cover closed. Everything wey dey below dey built to test dat while di book still dey your hand and di answer na only twelve pages back.
Wetin I suppose do for di end of every chapter?
Close di book and write three sentences from memory: wetin di chapter claim, wetin convince you, and where you go push back. No peeping, five minutes max, and write dem anyhow.
Dis na retrieval practice, and na one of only two techniques wey Dunlosky review rate high utility, alongside spacing your sessions apart. Jeffrey Karpicke and Janell Blunt, wey write for Science, compare students wey study text with elaborative technique, concept mapping, against students wey read am then practice recalling am from memory. Di retrieval group do better for di test one week later, and di advantage show for di harder questions wey need inference, no be only for di ones wey ask for plain fact. Henry Roediger and Karpicke bin don already map di shape of am: restudying dey win for di first five minutes, retrieval dey win for two days and for one week, wey na di timescale wey really concern you.
Di value dey inside di pulling, no be inside di fine grammar, so no tidy di sentences. Di clause wey you no fit finish na di part wey you no understand, and finding am for di chapter break instead of one year later na di whole point. For di first attempt you go probably produce almost nothing from chapter wey you bin dey enjoy ten seconds ago. Dat na di honest baseline. E dey move fast, and e dey move because you don start to dey do di hard half of reading, no be only di sweet half.
How I go decide wetin really worth keeping from book?
Mark only di five pages wey you go defend. No be di passages wey you agree with, na di five wey you go argue for out loud if somebody wey you respect tell you say di book thin.
Highlighting dey fail because e no get cost. Pen wey mark forty passages don make forty things equally important, wey na di same as making none of dem important, and one year later di marks no go tell you anything except say you bin dey awake. Hard limit of five dey force judgement, and na inside di judgement di learning dey. When you reach page 200 and you want a sixth one, you go go back knock one comot, and dat comparison go teach you pass wetin either page fit teach you alone.
Di five pages wey you go defend na di book. Di rest na di scaffolding wey carry you reach dem.
For di end, copy dose five into one place, for your own words, with di page numbers beside dem. Dat page na wetin you keep. One year from now you no go open three hundred pages again, but you go open one, and page wey you write yourself dey searchable for way wey another person index no fit be.
How I go make one idea from book stick within one week?
Use am out loud, inside seven days, with somebody wey go push back. No be summary and no be recommendation: take one idea, apply am to live problem in front of person wey sabi di area, and let dem argue with you.
Dis na di fastest audit wey dey exist of wetin you really carry from di reading. Half-held ideas dey survive quiet reading well well and dem no dey survive question. You go usually find di seam within two minutes, for di moment wey somebody ask wetin go happen for di case wey di author never cover, and di place wey you stall na di gap. Go back to di book for dat part only, wey go take like ten minutes and worth pass rereading di whole thing.
Another effect dey wey you suppose sabi, because e let you collect part of di benefit before di conversation even happen. John Nestojko and im colleagues make people study one passage, some dey expect test on am and some dey expect say dem go teach am to another student, and di group wey dey expect to teach produce more complete and better organised recall, even though no teaching ever happen. Read di chapter like say you go walk one colleague through am on Thursday and your attention go change shape while you still dey read.
How many books I need to read before I go good for something?
Fewer pass wetin you think, but worked far harder. Wetin decide am no be how many you finish, na how many you argue with then use for real work, so small stack wey you handle dis way go carry you further pass long one wey you read for speed.
Volume na di easiest thing about reading to measure and di one wey least connect to skill, wey be why books per year turn public score. Nobody fit see whether you fit use any of dem. If you want number to chase, chase practiced hours instead. One hour wey you spend dey argue with one chapter then apply am on Monday beat four hours of new pages, and na di version wey go show for your work where other people fit notice am.
One useful distinction. Read wide for di start of any subject and narrow after. For di beginning you dey build map, breadth cheap, and even bad book still dey show you where di edges of di field dey. Once you don pick di thing wey you really wan sabi well, switch: three or four core texts wey you return to at intervals go beat constant stream of new ones, because for di second pass you go catch di parts wey you no ready for di first time and you go feel exactly how far you don move.
Reading di hard way still na di fast way
None of dis dey make reading gentle. Three sentences from memory for every chapter break hard pass reading. Defending five pages hard pass highlighting forty. Carrying one idea to somebody wey sabi pass you and letting dem find di hole inside am hard pass di two, and na dat step dey separate people wey don read plenty from people wey good for something.
Na also di version wey no dey ask for extra time. You dey already spend di hours. Dis one dey put standard on dem, and na standard dey turn time spent into skill acquired.
So keep di ambition and keep di stack. Read di hard book, read di one wey small pass your level, read plenty of dem pass wetin reasonable. Just close di book for di chapter break, write di three sentences anyhow, defend five pages, and talk one thing out loud dis week to somebody wey go disagree with you. One year from now, when somebody ask wetin di book talk, you no go dey answer with di cover.
Sources
- Science, Retrieval Practice Produces More Learning than Elaborative Studying with Concept Mapping
- Psychological Science, Test-enhanced learning: taking memory tests improves long-term retention
- Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques
- Memory & Cognition, Expecting to teach enhances learning and organization of knowledge in free recall of text passages