SQ3R is a form of reading and note taking that is especially suited to working with textbooks and research articles in the sciences and social sciences. It is designed to streamline your reading process by drawing your attention to the material you don’t know, while building on the pre-existing knowledge you already have.
Here are the basic components:
Survey
When using SQ3R, start by “surveying” the text as a whole. Don’t start by reading! What does surveying mean? Surveying involves looking at all the components of the text (e.g., headings, subheadings, figures, review questions) to get a general sense of what the text is covering before you dive in.
Question
The next step of SQ3R still doesn’t involve reading! Instead, create questions about ideas that arose during the survey step. If you see a header you don’t understand, develop a question about it that expresses your confusion. This list of questions will help guide your reading, allowing you to focus on what you need to learn about the topic. The goal is to be able to answer these questions by the end of your reading. You can also these questions for active study as well!
Read
Now that you’ve surveyed and questioned your text, it’s finally time to read! Read with an eye toward answering your questions and highlight or make marginal notes to draw your attention to important parts of the text.
Recite
If you’ve read your text with an eye to your questions, you will now practice answering them out loud. You can also take notes on your answers. Noting the questions you have the hardest time answering will help you know what to focus on as you review.
Review
As you study, look back at your questions. You might find it helpful to move those questions off the physical text. For example, when you put questions on flashcards, you make it hard to rely on memory cues embedded on the page and, thus, push yourself to depend on your own memory for the answer. (Of course, drawing from your memory is what you’ll need to do for the test!)