How to Study a Textbook

by: Tom Meyer, MSN, BS, RN, CCRN, ACNP-BC

Textbooks are not novels. They’re not meant to be read start to finish, word for word, so
you can follow the plot. Textbooks are meant to present comprehensive information
about a select body of knowledge in an organized context that facilitates locating specific
content. Students, given a “reading assignment,” often make the mistake of interpreting
“reading” in a generic sense as in “read it like a book, start to finish.” This is a mistake in
that it ignores the goal of the assignment which is to extract the information from the text
and store it in your brain in some sort of organized manner that facilitates retrieval
(recall).

With textbooks, there’s not much in the way of an obvious story line to lure you along,
word by word, keeping you hooked on finding out how it will turn out in the end. So, first
of all, you’ll get really bored. Anything that boring (Lets have a show of hands of those
who think reading textbooks is not boring? Thought so) is really hard to repeat,
especially when there’s so little return on the investment. Repetition is a powerful tool for
storing (not understanding) information in your brain. Next, once you’re through, because
you can’t reference the details to some specific place in the story (because there was no
coherent story), it’s hard to find wherever you stashed that detail in your brain. It’s the
ability to reference the details (assuming they’ve been stashed) to some organized
blueprint that facilitates retrieval (recall) as well as understanding (comprehension).

So, how can we take advantage of recognition of the blueprint and repetition to make
reading textbooks easier and more productive?

Remember, textbooks are written by professional technical writers, not novelists. They
don’t start out with a blank page and pull a chapter out of their head. They start out with
an outline. More than that, they start out with the big bullets, or the Roman numerals, or
the capital letters, in other words, the first level of the outline. Then they go back and fill
in the second level for each of the first level items; and so on, and so on. They start with a
framework, or skeleton, and add layers of tissue until the whole thing is fleshed out. The
way to read a text is to remember that process and emulate it when you’re reading.
What?, you say! “How can I see the skeleton when it’s covered with flesh?” Remember,
the pages are 2 dimensional; it’s all there on the surface if you know how to find it.

1. First, find either the chapter preview (in the beginning) or the chapter summary
(at the end) and read it. The author is telling you right there how they’ve
organized the big bullets and even thrown in some clues to “must know” lower
level bullets.

2. Next, go back and read nothing but the ALL CAPS, the bold faced, or the
italicized terms. Be disciplined; don’t get sucked in, read nothing else.

3. Next, go back and read anything in a box or table. Be disciplined; don’t get
sucked in, read nothing else.
 4. Next, go back and read only the first and last sentences in each paragraph. Be
disciplined; don’t get sucked in, read nothing else.

5. Next, go back and fully read any paragraphs that didn’t register.

6. Next, repeat #’s 1-5.

7. Only as a last resort, if you still feel like you need it, read every word.

I suspect you can accomplish several cycles of steps 1-6 in less time than you could have
read the chapter word for word, start to finish. What this does is repetitively repeat your
exposure to the information in a stepwise manner according to the way the information is
organized. Not only is this more efficient as far as storing the information, but it tends to
store it in an organized pattern that facilitates recall as well as understanding. Going
through a chapter this way is far easier to endure, is far more productive, and leaves you
far more receptive (OK, not excited, but at least more receptive) to doing it over again.

Give it a try with a chapter or two. You may be pleasantly surprised.