Completing Your College Reading Assignment

In your freshman year of college, you will be dealing with an increased workload and your high school study habits will no longer be enough to get you by. Therefore, you must change the way you study while still finding methods to work for you.

One of the habits that you should change as soon as you take your first college class is the way you handle reading assignments. The first look at your class syllabus shows you that professors assign a lot more reading than your high school teachers did. You may find yourself having to read one or two chapters before the next class, and some teachers will even throw in readings from supplemental texts.

If this seems overwhelming, don't panic. It takes new freshmen awhile to adjust to their heavier workload and find habits that work for them. Here's how you can take on the college reading assignment with confidence.

First off, find out exactly what books you need. Just because your professor will list two or three books on the syllabus doesn't mean they are all required. If he or she does not specify whether the books are optional, the college bookstore will usually have this information on their sales signs.

Even if a book is optional, you should probably invest in a copy unless you've heard that the professor very rarely uses a book. In that case, all you need to do is make sure to attend class regularly, take good notes, and keep up with any other assignments your professor assigns.

Realize that you will not always complete 100% of all the assigned readings. No one in college ever does. There is simply too much for everyone to finish all their reading for every class. Just because you can't finish, though, doesn't give you the right to slack off. If you absolutely can't finish, read the chapter the best you can and try to read the summaries at the end of every section.

Buy different colored highlighters. This way, you will be able to use different colors for each class. For example, you could use purple for psychology, green for sociology, pink for history, or whatever combination suits you. Your text will look more organized if you do not have five different color highlights being used. One exception to this rule, though, is if you buy a used book. Everyone highlights differently, so if the last user went for yellow highlighter, you could try blue or orange.

If you have more than one day to do a reading, break it down. Say it's Monday and you have a 50 page reading due on Thursday. Simply divide 50 by three and you could read roughly 16 pages per day. This makes you feel like you can complete an assignment and gives you time to focus on other classes that may be more difficult if you know you can complete this reading without a problem.

Read the most difficult or unpleasant material first. Simply put, everyone has a class that they dread going to or one where they have difficulty understanding the material. Open the book for that dreadful class first. It won't make your experience any more enjoyable, but you'll feel relieved when that is out of the way instead of putting it off because you never want to do it. Then you can focus on what you actually enjoy and know getting to work on your favorite class was well worth the wait.

Take any amount of spare time to read. If you have a half hour before your next class, for example, open your book and read what you can in that time frame. Sometimes even waiting for a friend for five minutes gives you a chance to quickly skim a chapter summary. Although you shouldn't have your nose in the book all the time, any little amount you can accomplish will lessen your work load for late afternoon into the evening. Then you will have more time to work a part time job or hang out with your friends.

The demands for college are heavier than they were in high school, but with hard work and a bit of changing and adapting, you can accomplish your college homework. There are also means of support available if you have trouble, such as talking to professors and older students, or seeking a tutor. With these techniques in hand, you can do just as well, or even better, in college than you did in high school.