The SQ3R method for extracting information from a resource. Use it. It stands for survey, question, read, recite, review. This is not just a process for attacking a book, but rather a plan for tackling entire disciplines and fields—and whatever you are trying to learn for yourself. Most people will use some elements of the SQ3R method, such as the read and review portion, but without the other elements, deeper comprehension is rarer and more difficult.

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SQ3R

Another framework for getting the most out of a resource is called the SQ3R method, developed by American educator Francis P. Robinson. It is named for its five components:

• survey

• question

• read

• recite

• review

Survey. The first step in the method is getting a general overview of what you’ll be reading. Textbooks and nonfiction works aren’t like fiction or narrative literature in which you just start from the beginning and wind your way through each chapter. The best works of nonfiction are arranged to impart information in a way that’s clear and memorable and builds upon each previous chapter. If you dive in without surveying first, you are going in blind, without understanding where you are going and what you are trying to accomplish. You should get a lay of the land first, before you delve into Chapter 1. The survey component enables you to get the most general introduction to the topic so you can establish and shape the goals you want to achieve from reading the book.

It’s just like taking a look at the entire map before you set off on a road trip. You may not need all the knowledge at the moment, but understanding everything as a whole and how it fits together will help you with the small details and when you’re in the weeds. You’ll know that you generally need to head southwest if you’re confused.

In the SQ3R method, surveying means examining the structure of the work: the book title, the introduction or preface, section titles, chapter titles, headings and subheadings. If the book is illustrated with pictures or graphics, you’d review them. You could also make note of the conventions the book uses to guide your reading: typefaces, bold or italic text, and chapter objectives and study questions if they’re in there. In using the survey step, you’re setting up expectations for what you’re going to be reading about and giving yourself an initial framework to structure your goals for reading the material.

Beyond books, you should survey all the important concepts in a discipline. If you can’t find it within a structure like a book’s table of contents, then you need to be able to create it for yourself. Yes, this is the difficult part, but once you are able to lay all the concepts out and understand how they relate to each other at least on a surface level, you will already be leaps ahead of others. Use the survey component to form an outline of what you’ll learn. In a sense, it’s more like you’re plotting out a metaphorical “book” for yourself.

In this phase, you’ll want to determine exactly what you want to become knowledgeable about, as specifically as you can. For example, if you want to learn all about psychology, that’s going to take a significant amount of time. It won’t happen in one shot. You’d want to specify it a little more: the early history of psychoanalysis, the works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, sports psychology, developmental psychology—the possibilities are plentiful.

You’ll want to keep an eye out for phrases or concepts that appear in several different sources, since they represent elements that come up often in your chosen field and might be things you have to know. Draw connections and cause-and-effect relationships before even diving into any of the concepts in detail.

Question. In the second stage of the SQ3R method, you’re still not diving into the deep end. During the question stage, you’ll work a little more deeply to prepare your mind to focus and interact with the material you’re reading. You’ll take a slightly closer look at the structure of the book and form some questions you want answered or set up the objectives you hope to achieve.

In the question phase of reading a book—or, more precisely at this point, preparing to read—you’d go through the chapter titles, headings, and subheadings and rephrase them in the form of a question. This turns the dry title the author has given into a challenge or problem for you to solve. For example, if you’re reading a book on Freud, there might be a chapter called “Foundations of Freud’s Analyses of Dreams.” You’d rewrite this chapter title as “How did Sigmund Freud’s work on dream interpretation originate, and what were his very first ideas on the subject?” You could pencil that question in the margin of your book. If you’re reading a textbook with study questions at the ends of the chapters, those serve as excellent guides to what you’re about to find out.

Now that you’ve organized your resources for study planning, you can arrange some of the topics you’re going to cover into questions you want answered or objectives you want to meet. Based on the source material you’ve lined up and the patterns you might have observed, what specific answers are you hoping to find in your studies? Write them down. This is also a good time to come up with a structure for answering your questions—a daily journal, a self-administered quiz, some kind of “knowledge tracker”? You don’t have to answer the questions yet—you just need to know how you’re going to record them when you do.

Reading. In this stage you’re finally ready to dive into the material. Because you’ve gotten the lay of the land and formed some questions and goals for your studies, you’re a little more engaged when you finally sit down to read. You’re looking for answers to the questions you’ve raised. Another underrated aspect of formulating and organizing before you actually begin reading is to build anticipation for learning. You’ve been looking over everything for a while now, and you’ll probably be eager to finally dive in and answer the questions you’ve been mentally accumulating.

This step is where most people try to start but fail because they lack a foundation and instead have unreasonable expectations.

Now you’re being deliberate and paced about your reading so you can comprehend better. This means slowing down—a lot. Be patient with the material and with yourself. If a passage is difficult to understand, read it extremely slowly. If you aren’t getting clarity about a certain part, stop, go back to the beginning, and reread it. It’s not like you’re reading a page-turner novel that you can’t put down. You’re reading information that might be densely packed—so tackle it slowly and attentively, one section at a time.

Chances are that reading is part of your study plan, but so might visual aids, online courses, and internet resources be. Use them exactly the way you’d use the book in the reading phase: deliberately and persistently, with the goal of fully understanding each concept you’re being taught. If you get lost, remember the rewind button and scrolling are your best buddies. Plan your study time around getting as complete a level of comprehensiveness as you can.

Reciting. This step is crucial in processing the information you’re learning about and is the biggest difference between reading to learn and reading for entertainment. Now that you’re familiar with the material, the aim of the reciting phase is to reorient your mind and attention to focus and learn more fully as you go along. In other words, this step is about literal recitation.

Ask questions—out loud, verbally—about what you’re reading. This is also the point where you take copious notes in the margins of the text and underline or highlight key points. Recitation occurs verbally and also through writing. However, it’s important to restate these points in your own words rather than just copy phrases from the book onto a piece of paper. By doing this, you’re taking the new knowledge and putting it into phrases you already know the meaning of. This makes the information easier to grasp in a language you understand. It makes it significant and meaningful to you.

If you have a geology book, you might rephrase and rewrite key points in the following way, starting from the original text:

“This comparison suggests that the slow progress of erosion on hills and mountains is similar to the much more rapid and observable changes seen in miniature all about us.”

You could rewrite the above into something like this:

“Mountains and hills experience the same decay as happens in lowlands and rivers, just more slowly. Similar to baseball players.”

What I’m doing here is putting one single bit of information into two distinct phrases, one of which I had to come up with myself. This is a huge tool that’s used in memorization, and it’s also a great way to make the information more meaningful to me personally. I also added a bit about baseball because I like baseball, and it makes the concept instantly understandable when I look back at it. Repeated throughout the course of a whole book, this process multiplies your learning capacity by itself.

The recitation phase in organizing your studies is great because it works across different mediums, and there are plenty of ways you can express your questions and restatements.

Review. The final stage of the SQ3R plan is when you go back over the material that you’ve studied, refamiliarize yourself with the most important points, and build your skills at memorizing the material.

Robinson breaks this stage down into specific days of the week, but we’ll just mention some of the tactics in general. They include writing more questions about important parts you have highlighted, orally answering some of the questions if you can, reviewing your notes, creating flashcards for important concepts and terminology, rewriting the table of contents using your own words, and building out a mind map. Any kind of practice that helps you drill down, take in, and commit information to memory is fair game (though flashcards are especially effective).

This step is meant to strengthen your memory of the material, but it does more than that. It can help you see connections and similarities between different aspects that you might not have picked up at first and put concepts and ideas into greater context. It can also improve your mental organization skills so you can use this practice for other topics.

Think of this step as the natural continuation of the survey. At this point, you’ve gained an outline of the field, you’ve gotten into the nitty-gritty, and now you should take a step back, reevaluate, and make updated, more accurate, and insightful connections. Pair that with memorization, and your path to self-learning and expertise becomes essentially a shortcut. Flashcards. Mind maps. Timelines. Unanswered follow-up questions. Categorizing. Critical analysis, drawing conclusions, and asking, “If X, then what follows or precedes it?”

The SQ3R method is no joke. It’s exhaustive and detailed and will take patience and sharp organization to pull off. But if you give yourself the patience and devotion to take each step seriously and slowly, you’ll find it incredibly helpful to tackle a complex subject. And each time you do it, it’s a little easier than the last.

In explaining the SQ3R method, we briefly skimmed the role of organization and notes and how they impact self-learning. After all, you can’t organize everything in your head only and hope to be effective.