Reading Strategies for the College Student: SQ3R

            In our last post on reading strategies, we talked about the annotation technique.  The next technique that we're going to look at is known as SQ3R and was outlined by Lei et al. in “Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension Among College Students.”  For this post, we’ll summarize the technique that they described. 

SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review)

            The SQ3R method was first developed in the mid-1940's as a way for college students and professionals to become more proficient readers.  Under this method, students are taught to follow a series of five steps in order to better process and understand the information that they are taking in. 

• Survey

            In this step, students skim the overall structure of the chapter that they are reading so that they can start to get a general idea of the chapter's structure.  Particularly, students should look at the headings for different sections so that they can begin to gain an understanding of what will be covered in the chapter as well as how the author is going to present this information.

            For example, in a textbook chapter titled "How Does the Nervous System Develop and Adapt?", a student skimming the text might notice sections titled "Three Perspectives on Brain Development", "Neurobiology of Development", "Correlating Behavior with Nervous-System Development", and "Brain Development and Research".   

            These main headings give the student an idea of how this chapter is set up to increase their understanding.  It starts by talking about broad perspectives, moves on to a neurobiological perspective, takes information from that section and correlates it with behavior, and finally relates all of this information on brain development to research.

            The survey step is also a good opportunity to start noting new or unfamiliar vocabulary that will be included in the chapter.  Often this terminology is already in bold, making it simple for students to pick out terms that they may need to learn or reacquaint themselves with.

• Question

            Here, students take what they gained from the survey step and form questions around it.  They will later use these questions to check that they comprehend what they are reading.  

Using the previous example, a student might take the section titles and form questions around them such as:

            What are the three perspectives on brain development? How do these three perspectives relate to one another?  What happens at the neural level in brain development? How do the different structures of the brain work together?  What behaviors are related to what areas in the brain? How do motor behaviors develop? How does language develop? What research has been done on how hormones, injury, drugs, and developmental disabilities affect the brain? 

            At this step students are not yet answering their questions, only forming them.  This not only allows the student to have a tool for checking their comprehension later, but also gives them insight into what they should be looking for when they actually begin reading the text.

 In addition, students should also use this step as an opportunity to start making judgments or predictions about what the author is trying to say as well as begin to understand how this section relates to what they are learning in the course overall.

• Read

            In this step, students finally do their actual reading.  However, it is important that students not continue from one section to the next until they are sure that they have grasped an understanding of what they have read.¹ Students should also use the questions that they created in the previous step to check their comprehension.  In addition, students should take the time to record notes or make annotations to their text, which will allow them to review better later.

• Recite

            With the recite phase, "...students should reflect on what they have read, including reciting the answers to questions they asked during the survey portion." (Lei et al. citing Artis, 37)  While recite implies that this is a verbal step, it doesn’t necessarily have to be.  Students can use the recitation phase to silently quiz themselves on the questions that they formed earlier, or they might find it helpful to ask themselves these questions aloud.  This phase basically pulls together all of the different approaches that the student has been using thus far and uses them to check comprehension.  While it may be tempting for a student to finish the actual reading and call it quits, it is crucial that they complete this step as it helps to ensure that comprehension has truly been achieved.  Being able to answer the questions created earlier will improve retrieval of that information later. 

• Review

            As a student moves into the review stage of SQ3R, they should not only reflect on what they have read but also on their comprehension and retention.  If the student notices that there were certain sections that he had more trouble understanding, the review step is a good time to go back and repeat the read and recite steps.  This step also allows students to return to the reading assignment at a later time and pick up where they left off more easily. Students should also use the review step to reflect on their answers to the questions that they created early and ask themselves why they had those answers, how they could make them stronger, and whether they truly reflect the ideas that the author was trying to convey.  If not, it may again be time for the student to repeat the read and recite steps. 

            Overall, the SQ3R method is a great technique for breaking down the reading of long chapters.  In addition to being a great technique to use when doing readings, it also lends itself well to studying for exams because of the review step.  While it may seem like there are many steps to the technique, students should remember that they don’t have to be done all at once.  Often, it can make readings simpler if they are broken up into something like surveying and questioning one day and then performing the three R’s on another day.  Another thing that students should remember is that they don’t necessarily have to rigidly follow each step.  Practice over time might teach a student that they benefit more from the questioning step than they do from the surveying step.  In that case, it would make sense for the student to adjust their study habits to maximize what is most beneficial.  In fact, students should look at all of these methods and choose what works for them.  What works for one student might not be as helpful to another.  However, it never hurts to try something new.

Notes

¹ While it’s important to make sure that you’re understanding what you’re reading, there may be times when moving on is a necessary decision.  Oftentimes the context of the remainder of the reading may help to clarify things that weren’t fully understood earlier in the reading. 

Lei, Simon A., Patricia J. Rhinehart, Holly A. Howard, Jonathan K. Cho. "Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension Among College Students." Reading Improvement 47.1 (2010): 30-42. Academic Search Complete. Web.