How to Read and Understand a Book in a Flash

Anyone who has gone through a few assignments in college, high school, or even middle school has probably had to stressfully read a large selection of literature or information on any given night before a test, speech, or any other project of that manner. I'm sure there have been several people out there that have either stressed in much too high of a manner over this, or that has completely failed assignments like this because of the stress they can cause.

While of course you are normally given plenty of time to do projects like this, sometimes cramming becomes necessary, especially for the people with extremely busy lifes, or just procrastinators! When it's time to do this cramming, you're going to want to go through with the cramming in the most efficient method possible. You not only want to get through the reading as fast as you can, but you need to remember the information or literature in the best way possible.

There are a few different ways to do this, however different individuals are going to need to focus on different methods due to unique learning styles and other issues.

I prefer to use one of two methods. Skimming is a method that almost everyone has learned through even elementary school. However, most people don't know how to effectively skim. A lot of the time, there are several paragraphs per page of text that isn't necessary to learn in order to give a speech, make a project, or take a test. If you're reading for information, this method works best. If you're reading for literature, I have another method which seems to work much more efficiently.

While you're skimming this informational text, read bold words, and understand the terms. You should probably have a notepad out to take notes on the content. You're never going to remember what you read while skimming if you don't make your own personal notes. Right before you need to deliver your knowledge of the content in any form necessary, pull out your notes and review them for a few moments. This method proves quite succesful for most people, and it has been working for me for years! While reading for informational text, this is definitely the most effective way to really zoom through the reading, as well as get a good understanding of the content. I actually use this method to do assignments on a daily basis, and I take less than half the time to read the assigned sections as other classmates, and I usually have an equal or better understanding!

If you're assigned to a certain section of literature, or some sort of novel, the method is going to be similar, but a little less direct. Since in reading literature, you obviously can't look for bold faced words, it's going to be very difficult to skim while still understanding the literature. Rather, the fastest method is to read someone else's notes who has already read the book. In this method, you're essentially reading a compressed version of the story, getting a lot more information in a lot shorter of a time period. The best way to do this is to get cliff notes on the book. Sparknotes.com is a great place to stock up on these. Read the cliff notes, understand the book, review, and make sure you're ready to do what you need to do!

Good luck, and I hope my cramming methods have really helped you!