Sour towards reading assignments? TART it out!

Not big on reading assignments? Yes, that me too! But we have no choice and have to read it in order to understand and do well in certain classes. Well, I know exactly how you feel and I have found the strategy to help make it better for you! This strategy is called T.A.R.T., it stands for Terms, Attend, Read, and Test. So it requires you to do before, during, and after class work, which in the end is very helpful in getting that information to stick to your brain! This strategy is particularly useful in lecture classes, one class that I really benefitted from was my CRS 287 lecture class that deals with a lot of readings as well as terms in lecture. Try it!

To begin, I suggest reading over the strategy fully first so you know what you need to do and how to prepare going into class. The first letter is T, which again, stands for terms. The idea of this is to briefly look over your reading and pull out some of the key words and ideas. Usually they will be the terms or definitions in bold. Jot down those terms (I like to highlight because I am a visual learner for those of you out there as well) before attending class that way you have an idea and start to get familiar with the information you be learning about.

During class, take down your class notes, pay special attention to the terminology being used, you most likely will be familiar with a lot of it from having gone through it earlier. It will give you the “oh yeah!!” thought. For one of the classes I used this strategy for was my CRS 414 class. I brought my definitions with me to class that I had taken from the book prior to class, and my professor posted all of them on the bored. So it was a little review for me, and the notes I added were all examples that she talked about relating to the terms. I thought that was neat! (and exciting that I didn’t have to write too much!)

After class, then is time to do the full reading. The read will seem so much easier to you from having so much prior knowledge that it won’t be another dreaded hard reading!

Following your reading, you’ve seen it before...create test questions! With your terms/definitions, notes, and reading, you should have been able to pull out the major information your professor will ask you in the future, so with that develop questions and then put your notes to the side. Answer all of the ones you can, leaving the ones you need help with blank, as well as a little star next to that. After that you can then take your notes back out and fill in the answers you were unsure of. I suggest this because I am a visual learner, and when reviewing the questions over and over you will have clear which questions you need to focus on more with the stars. Little things can really be helpful in large ways!