Motivation and Learning Strategies for College Success : A Self-management Approach

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LEARNING FROM TEXTBOOKS 193

Student Reflections

When I started college, I mostly underlined and highlighted everything

I thought was important (which unfortunately happened to be just

about every other sentence). This strategy proved to be detrimental in

studying for exams. I even thought that highlighting sentences or key

phrases in different colors would make a difference, instead, this

strategy was worse. I ended up with endless pages that looked like

the information any better than I could before I highlighted it.

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High school textbook reading was certainly an easier task than it

is now in college. College-level reading requires more time and energy

in absorbing ideas and information. In high school, I always read

assigned reading once and highlighted and memorized vocabulary

words and facts. Now that I am in college, I allocate more time to

study and read all the necessary information. I begin looking over all

questions I developed from the reading.

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A majority of high school reading is related to worksheets and other

assignments where you are required to find specific details to finish

an assignment. This demand got me into the habit of reading just for

you are often asked higher level questions on exams that require much

more thought about a topic. It is helpful to own your own books,

because you can mark in them.

rainbows of pink, blue, yellow, and green marks. I could never decipher

the headings throughout the chapter, both headings and subheadings.

I then review vocabulary and boldface terms in each chapter.

Following readings, I review the key points at the end of the chapter.

I answer the questions given at the end of the chapter, as well as the

the specific facts, which didn’t focus on the big picture. In college,

WHAT LEARNING STRATEGIES CAN I USE TO IMPROVE MY READING

COMPREHENSION AND RETENTION?

Now that you have some understanding as to what it takes to

become a good reader and have evaluated your own reading behav-

ior, you are ready to learn some new reading strategies. The strategies

discussed in this section are separated into activities to be completed

during three stages of reading—before, during, and after (adapted

from Cortina, Elder, & Gonnet, 1992).