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Textbook Reading
The goal of reading a textbook is to acquire a certain degree of knowledge so that you can recall information in a class discussion or on a test. How can you remember more of what you read? Take the quiz below to evaluate your reading skills. Remember that you can also treat each question as a suggestion for improving those skills. When you complete the survey, select Evaluate my score and read the advice included in Your Evaluation. To continue, select one or more of the options provided at the bottom of the page.
1 = Almost Never 
2 = Sometimes    
3 = Almost Always
1. Do you read over the Table of Contents of a book before you begin studying the book?  1 2 3
2. Before you begin to study a book, do you take 10 minutes to thumb through the book to check for the presence of study aids such as glossaries, summaries, outlines, italicized or bold-faced words, and charts?  1 2 3
3. Do you read the chapter that is assigned before it will be covered in class?  1 2 3
4. Do you take notes when doing an assigned reading?  1 2 3
5. Do you write down questions that you have about an assigned reading so that you can ask them in class?  1 2 3
6. Do you look up words with which you are unfamiliar when you are doing an assigned reading?  1 2 3
7. Do you read review questions and summaries of a chapter before you read a chapter in full?  1 2 3
8. Do you consciously relate what you are reading to what you already know about the subject?  1 2 3
9. Do you restate in your own words the main idea of a section that you are reading?  1 2 3
10. Do you test your understanding of what you read by taking a few minutes after each section in a chapter to recall a few facts from the reading?  1 2 3
11. Do you use your assigned readings to predict lecture discussion and test questions?  1 2 3
12. Do you make inferences and draw conclusions about what you read and use these insights to predict what further readings will be about?  1 2 3
    Score:  
Your Evaluation: 
For more information on how you can improve your textbook reading skills,
check out these web sites:
Difficult Textbooks                 Reading to Comprehend
 

For an individual appointment, contact:

Evanthia Rosati
Reading and Study Skills Specialist
Des Plaines Campus, (847) 635-1795 
erosati@oakton.edu

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