The SQ3R Method: How to Study a Textbook Chapter

SQ3R is a five step method for studying a textbook chapter: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review. It exists to fix a common problem, which is reading a whole chapter, feeling like you understood it, and then not being able to answer a single question afterward. Instead of reading straight through, you preview the chapter, set questions, and keep testing yourself as you go.

Step 1 and 2: Survey and Question

Before you read a word of the body text, survey the chapter. Look at the title, the headings, the bolded terms, any summary at the end, and the review questions. This takes a few minutes and gives you a map, so each section has a place to land when you get to it.

Then turn each heading into a question. A heading like “Causes of the French Revolution” becomes “What caused the French Revolution?” Now you are reading to find an answer instead of just moving your eyes down the page.

• ›Write the questions in the margin or in a notebook so you can come back to them.
• ›If a heading is vague, use the chapter summary or review questions to guess what matters.
• ›Do this one section at a time, not for the whole chapter at once.

Step 3 and 4: Read and Recite

Now read the first section with your question in mind. When you reach the end of it, stop. Close the book or cover the page and recite the answer out loud or in writing, in your own words. This is active recall, and it is the step that does most of the work in SQ3R.

If you cannot answer, that is useful information. Reread that section, then try again. Only move on once you can say the answer without looking.

• ›Keep sections small. A few paragraphs is plenty before you stop to recite.
• ›Use your own words. Repeating the textbook's sentences word for word can hide the fact that you do not understand them.
• ›Jot short notes from memory, not copied from the page.

Step 5: Review

When you have finished the chapter, go back through your questions and try to answer all of them from memory. Then come back to them again later in the week and again before the exam. Spreading those reviews out is the idea behind spaced repetition, and it is what keeps a chapter from fading by the time the test arrives.

Where SQ3R falls short

SQ3R is good at making you engage with the text, but it has limits. It is slower than plain reading, so it is not the right tool for every page of every book. It also depends on you being honest when you recite: if you peek at the page, the step stops working. And the questions you write tend to stay in a notebook, where they are easy to forget about.

• ›Use it on dense, high value chapters, not on light background reading.
• ›Be strict about reciting from memory before you check the answer.
• ›Turn your questions into something you will actually review, not just a list you wrote once.

Turn your SQ3R questions into a game

The questions you write in the Question step are exactly what you need for review. Instead of leaving them in a margin, turn your notes into a game on ZykoStudy and run through them in short rounds with XP and streaks. You can read more about how that works on our gamified learning page.