SQ3R is one of the most popular

strategies that students use to read

and study for a test. But here’s the
problem: it’s outdated! It was
introduced in the 1946 in the book
Effective Study. That’s almost 100
years ago! What was believed to be
the best ways to study back then are
not the same today. So we created
this updated and improved version of
the SQ3R method using the latest
scientifically proven study methods!

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The old SQ3R stands for:

-Survey
-Question
-Read
-Recite
-Review

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Well, forget the old one! Our New SQ3R
makes some important changes:
-Survey
-Question
-Rephrase
-Recall
-Repetition

Our new and improved SQ3R is scientifically

proven to be better than the old version. We’ll
do an in depth comparison at the end of this
guide; but for now, let’s dive into what each of
these steps mean!

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 SURVEY
Quickly flip through the chapter,
looking at main headings, titles,
subtitles, bolded words, key terms,
and anything that jumps out at you
like pictures and diagrams. Get a
general idea of what you’re about
to learn. See how the author
organizes the information. This
may also trigger any prior
knowledge you might have about
the subject.

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 QUESTION
The old SQ3R tells us to form questions
based on what we just surveyed. This is
a great idea, but we have a different
take. We suggest you go straight to the
source. If there are practice questions in
your textbook or review questions at the
end of the chapter, then use these as
your guide. Another tip is to ask your
professor for practice questions or even
old practice tests. Write/type these
questions down because they will be
your notes. There’s no point in re-writing
verbatim from your textbook as notes.

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 REPHRASE
Now that you have your questions, start
reading until you find the answers to your
questions. Once you’ve found an answer,
you’ll want to rephrase the concept in your
own words. A good way to do this is to
pretend to teach back the concept to
someone who doesn’t understand it
(someone outside of your field, or even a
child at the 5th grade level.) This means
you can’t use jargon and complicated
words. If you’re having trouble doing this,
then you probably don’t understand the
concepts well enough. Once you DO
understand, write/type out these answers
to your questions to finish off your notes.

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 RECALL
Recall will help you remember what
you’ve read. You will do this after you’ve
finished reading through and rephrasing
everything. When it’s time to study for
your test, go back to your questions
from step Q. And don’t look at the
answers! Just read the question(s), and
then try to recall the answer without
peaking. Tip: a great way to ensure that
you don’t peak is by writing/typing your
notes as flashcards.

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 REPETITION
Use this in combination with recall. This
will help you solidify the information in
your memory. So by repetition, we
specifically mean spaced repetition:
spacing out how often you are going to
practice recalling the answers to your
questions. Here’s how you can do it: 1
day after your first exposure to the
material, practice recall. Then 3 days
later do it again. Then a week later do it
again. Then a month, so on and so on.
Space it out, right when you’re about to
forget, recall it again.

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So how does the old SQ3R work?
You survey what you are about to read, then
form questions based on what you surveyed.
Then you read the book to find the answers to
the questions and recite the answers so that
you understand them in your own words. And
those become your notes. Then finally, you
review your notes again later to study for your
test… but wait…

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Why is our new SQ3R better?
The old SQ3R teaches you to write notes and then
review them to study for your test. Well science actually
shows that re-reading your notes is a terribly inefficient
way to study. You are just reading what you’ve written
down, and you already know what’s on the page, so
this is passive and not using any cognitive effort.

The better way to study is by using Recall. Not just

reading the answers to your questions, but practice
retrieving the information from your memory without
using hints or clues. This works because recall forces
you to study in the exact way that you will be tested!

Finally, the old SQ3R doesn’t help you retain the

information that you’ve learned long term. Our method
does! By using spaced repetition in combination with
recall, you guarantee that you will be able to remember
the information for your test!

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Want more content? Our online course, The
Method to Mastery, is a program we designed that dives
deep into maximizing the best scientifically proven study
strategies and integrating them with ANY lifestyle (no
matter how busy you are). We have conquered traditional
education through University, Business school, Music
School, Medical School, Real Estate School, and more.
You could say that we are good students. But we are
NOT geniuses. We’ve spent years in tedious trial and
error to master the art of study so that you don’t have to.
And we’ve packaged it into a step by step process that
we would love to share with you!

Visit
methodtomastery.com
to learn more.
Cheers!

Mike and Matty

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