Learning to Read (and Remember What You Have Read): Seven Foolproof Strategies

Learning to Read (and Remember What You Have Read): Seven Foolproof Strategies

Of course, you already know how to read, no matter what your preferred reading material is. Whether you will remember what you read this semester when you take your final exams, in two or three years’ time, is, however, an entirely different matter. 

Most of the courses you attend at university will conclude with an exam in which we will NOT ask you to reproduce knowledge learned by heart, but to SOLVE PROBLEMS – a skill you will need to practice.

Start by reflecting on your reading practice and its effectiveness. How do you currently approach reading for class? Write down your answers. Include aspects such as:

  • Where and how do you usually read for this class? Do you annotate? Mark passages? Take notes? Just read?
  • What are your biggest struggles with reading novels like this? If you do not finish a text, what keeps you from reading to the very end?
  • What helps you remember what you have read?

An important prerequisite is to read the primary texts before the course meeting in which they are discussed and remember to bring them to class. This sounds simple, but is not always easy to keep up under the pressure generated by a tight schedule, a student job, exams, bureaucracy, and other obligations you may have.

I recommend to start reading the longer primary texts in the lecture-free time preceding the class. A frequent objection raised by my students is: “But if I read this 300-page-book during the summer, I will have forgotten all about it when we start discussing it in December!”

A good memory for details is not genetic or a matter of talent. The following strategies will help you remember more easily what you have just read.


Seven Foolproof Strategies

  • Buy a good print edition. It is tempting to download a file of a classical novel, say, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, on your e-reader, phone, or tablet for free when a critical edition by a good publisher is almost twenty euros. When you want to work with the text intensely, however, it may be well worth the investment because you have notes and critical materials that will explain aspects of the work while reading. Studies have shown that the haptics of reading play an important role in knowing at what point in a story something happens. In 2014, a study at Stavanger University found that e-readers were less effective for recalling story chronology compared to print books.. In 2019, a study published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that readers who read in print format performed better on measures of chronology and temporality compared to those who read on a Kindle. In 2024, Psychology Today published an article that suggested comprehension is six to eight times better with physical books than e-readers. (See Mangen A, Olivier G, Velay JL. “Comparing Comprehension of a Long Text Read in Print Book and on Kindle: Where in the Text and When in the Story?” Front Psychol. 15 Feb 2019;10:38. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00038; Vilhauer, Monica. “The Case for Paper: Why a Good Old-Fashioned Book Is Better for Your Mental Health”. Psychology Today, 2 Feb 2024.  https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/well-read/202402/the-case-for-paper-books-vs-e-readers).
  • Start early and create a calm atmosphere for reading. Experimental work on test anxiety and mood shows that stressful, high-anxiety reading situations impair both comprehension and later recall of text, while more positive, low-stress conditions support better integration of information into long-term memory (Cassady, 2004; Kiwan, 2000; Pinheiro et al., 2012). If you read the books that will be discussed in your seminar under pressure, on the train to the next course meeting or while grabbing a quick bite at the cafeteria, you will remember less of the text. (see Cassady, J. C. “The Impact of Cognitive Test Anxiety on Text Comprehension and Recall in the Absence of External Evaluative Pressure”. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18.3 (2004): 311–325. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.968 Kiwan, D. “The Effects of Time-Induced Stress on Making Inferences in Text Comprehension”. Cambridge Assessment Research Report, 2000. https://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/Images/109672-the-effects-of-time-induced-stress-on-making-inferences-in-text-comprehension.pdf. Pinheiro, A. P., Del Re, E., Nestor, P. G., & McCarley, R. W. (2012). “Interactions Between Mood and the Structure of Semantic Memory in the Comprehension of Sentences”. Neuropsychologia 50.5 (2012): 821–832 https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss035).
  • Take notes. Reading alone is just a superficial way of processing information. Take notes on the plot while you are reading, write down anything that strikes you as interesting or unusual. This will help you remember your reading experience and your first impressions when talking about the text in class. If you are a visual type, you may want to use markers or post-its in different colours, however, do not replace notes with simple highlighting – studies show that copying a quotation to your notes is more efficient as a learning strategy than highlighting the same quote with a marker.

Keep track of your reading process by keeping a reading log, logging particularly significant passages. Focus not just on what stands out, but how and why it works. Create at least two entries from every day’s reading.

Example: Reading Log on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility:

Passage (quote, paraphrase, page number)What stands out and why?Interpretive Strategy / Effect (what interpretive lens or method are you using, and what does it reveal?
Choose short segments (a sentence, a brief description, a dialogue exchange) that seem important, puzzling, or rich.Note anything unusual or particularly crafted — vocabulary, tone, ambiguity, contradiction, repetition, etc.Use terms like: narrative perspective, irony, symbolism, structure, theme, etc. Ask: What kind of reading lens am I applying here? What insight does this give me about the text or the author’s technique?
…”it must seem a miracle to you that my life has been extended to the advanced age of 40” (28)Marianne’s mother saying the opposite of what she means (40 is hardly an ‘advanced age’)Use of irony, putting Marianne’s former statement into perspective, satirical distance from her naïve views and romantic notions
  • Watch plays. If you have a chance to go and see a play you have read in class, do so by all means. This way, the content of the play can enter your brain by different channels, which will help you remember. Be careful, though, not to substitute your reading of the play with streaming the film. Every staging is an interpretation in itself, leaving out some elements, adding others.
  • Read poems aloud – or find a recording by a professional actor or actress. Rhythm and sound are extremely important for understanding poetry.
  • Participate in course discussion. Share your thoughts. Ask questions. Reflecting, rephrasing and looking at the text from different angles will help your brain form the connections you need for the knowledge to sink in. Remember: There are no “right” or “wrong” interpretations. Do not be too shy to speak. In a literature class, no one will criticize you for your accent or a colloquial expression you might use in course discussion. Start with a resolution to speak at least once per course meeting.
  • Keep reading! Even if the book your course convenors enthuses about is not your cup of tea, chalk it off as a new experience. Maybe you will find yourself reading the same text with different eyes in ten years’ time. Reading experiences change with time. The more you read, the more a text that seemed cryptic once will make sense.