[nabs-l] study techniques and reading

[Ashley Bramlett]

Hi all,

I may have asked a similar question; but with new people here there may be more ideas.  As a student with lots of dense matterial to learn and multiple classes its overwelming.  I miss the high school days when I had braille texts and audio books from RFB; I used both and this made me retain info better.  Right now to study and read matterial I do this:
1. Take notes while reading.  If with a reader, ask them to highlight some info and I can review the highlights later with a reader.  Repetition helps.
2. I read over notes.
3. I go over the points in the summary if the text has one as well as bold words with a reader; my reader skims for them.
4. Occassionally the text has a website with practice questions.  If accessible, I'll use it.

The challenges i face without seeing and the benefit of skimming are many.  First I cannot look up concepts independently.  What if I forget something and wish to look it up since its unclear in my notes, I can't do this.  For instance today I wanted to look up family systems in my abnormal child psychology book.
Second, I don't know how to spell some words.  I try and ask a reader as we go along or if electronic text, listen to it, and copy.  But since i'm focussed on the matterial, sometimes i forget.  Third, tables and charts are challenging.  Sometimes my readers read it well.  Depends on the complexity; those with boxes and arrows are harder than reading tables with text in columns.  
Fourth, unless I'm reading with someone live its harder to skip over irrelevant info.  Texts can be redundant giving you multiple research studies for the same thing.  So I read all of it taking longer.  A sighted student will skim and skip for highlights.  I consider myself a good student and wish to do well.  But it takes longer doing it auditorily and that can be annoying.

So any ideas you have for study and remembering would be good to know.

Ashley