ABSTRACT
A lot of time is spent reading and note-taking during a course. Both activities assist with memory and organising of thoughts but are often undervalued in the study process. Good note-taking and reading skills can assist in formulating and articulating ideas. A lot of time can be wasted here, but with practise you will develop time-saving strategies to deal with these elements. This chapter looks at such things as choosing reading material, becoming a critical reader and developing varied reading and note-taking techniques to deal with different situations. Modern computerised catalogue and library service systems enable a lot of the legwork to be done from student's computer at home. To avoid the frustration and inefficiency of reading a lot of useless material, or reading without understanding, it is important to become a critical reader. This means treating the reading process as an active rather than passive activity, and adopting a critical, questioning attitude to the material read by the students.
