Hitting the text wall: ‘nothing goes in’

‘I’m hitting a text wall – I read a page over and over and the words just swim in front of me – nothing goes in.’ Sounds like you’re having to mark too many exam scripts :-).

If you’re a student:

Don’t try to ‘speed read’ – you’re likely to get confused and miss important stuff. Train yourself to focus on relevant bits as you read by underlining; the more you do this the better you will become at spotting relevant material, which will lead to you being able to read more quickly and effectively by sifting material as you go.

At university you need to learn to read in a different way. It will take time but like anything else the more you practice the better you’ll become and the more you’ll build up your reading stamina. Training the brain is not unlike training the body: it needs exercise. If you can’t face reading an entire chapter read one page, even one paragraph but read it well ie really focus on it. Then read another portion! Just going through the motions of reading won’t help much: you need to read and think at the same time.

I’ll be posting more on reading in the next few days. In the meantime: keep reading, keep thinking, keep learning. I hope you are even able to enjoy some of it!