Appendices containing supplementary data or examples relating to
subject matter covered in the text may also appear in the back of the
book.
The last thing in a book is usually the index, an alphabetical listing
that references, by page number, every mention of a particular name,
subject, and topic in the text.
Making it a habit to utilize all of these tools in your textbooks can only
make your studying easier.
Find Other Textbooks if Necessary
Few textbooks are written by what most of us would even remotely
call professional writers. While the authors might well be experts,
even legends, in their particular fields, writing in jargon-free, easy-to-
grasp prose is probably not their strong suit. You will occasionally be
assigned a textbook that is so obtuse you aren’t sure whether to read
it front to back, upside down, or inside out.
If you find a particular chapter, section, or entire textbook as tough
to read as getting your baby brother to do you a favor, get to the
library or a bookstore and find another book covering thesame sub-
ject area that youcan understand. You might even consider asking
your teacher or professor for recommendations. She will probably
make your job of finding a readabletext a lot easier. You may even
score some brownie points for your seeming initiative (as long as you
don’t wonder aloud what caused her to select that torturous text in
the first place!).
“Ron,” I hear you grumbling, “what happened to the ‘study smarter,
not harder’ bit? This can’t possiblybe a timesaver. Heck, I’ll bet the
books don’t even cover the subject in the same way, let alone follow
the same sequence! I’ll be stuck slogging through twobooks.”
48 How to Study