Your primary objectives while preparing to reading should be to identify the material topics, your learning objectives and to plan an approach for completing the task successfully. Before beginning to read, identify what you want to be able to do with the information you're going to read about - e.g. compare and contrast material, trace a sequence of events, defend a position, etc. Before you start determine the amount of time you want to spend. Plan approximately one hour for 30 pages of moderately dense material Be an active reader - make a plan before reading, monitor yourself while reading and continually check your progress. Surveying your material before reading makes your reading episode more effective. Learn to anticipate! Survey your environment - Different environments need different strategies. Identify and deal with immediate and potential distracters Opinion Poll | Goal Setting | Quiz | Experts Say | Links