How to study a set textbook across a term, chapter by chapter

A set textbook is the one book a course expects you to know. Most students get through it with a highlighter and a second read before the exam, then find that a page they recognise is not a page they can reproduce.

This guide, published by EdProcto, is about the reading itself: how to study a set textbook one chapter at a time, and how to keep chapter 2 in place when chapter 9 is new. EdProcto's page for students shows the chapter quizzes the routine uses.

We read each study cited here at its published abstract. The routine and the term plan are ours, built on those studies; none tested the whole.

What does research say about reading a textbook to learn?

It says a second read and a highlighter add little, and self-testing on the text adds a lot.

In four experiments by Callender and McDaniel (2009), people read textbook chapters or a magazine article once, or twice in a row, then took multiple-choice, short-answer or summary tests. With few exceptions the second reading did not significantly raise scores, whatever the reader's comprehension ability.

Highlighting helps a little, and not everyone. Ponce et al. (2022) pooled 36 articles from 1938 to 2019. A reader's own highlighting improved memory (an average effect of 0.36) but not comprehension (0.20), and helped college students (0.39) but not school students (0.24).

Dunlosky et al. (2013) reviewed ten study techniques and rated rereading, highlighting and summarising low (summarising helps some students on some kinds of test), and practice testing and practice spread over time high.

In Nungester and Duchastel (1982), high-school students studied a short history text, then took a test on it, reviewed it for the same time, or did something unrelated. Two weeks later the tested group had kept more than either of the others.

Why does reading feel like knowing?

Because the feeling follows how easily the page reads. In four experiments by Rawson and Dunlosky (2002), people read texts, predicted their scores and were tested. The more coherent the text, the higher the predictions, and intact paragraphs drew higher predictions than paragraphs with letters deleted from some words. A second read is always smoother than the first, which on our reading is why it reassures.

Does paper beat a screen?

Slightly, for textbook prose. Clinton (2019) pooled 33 experiments from 2008 to 2018, with 2,799 readers. Scores were lower on screens than on paper (g = −0.25), a gap found for expository texts (−0.32) and not for narrative (−0.04). Readers also judged their own performance more accurately on paper (0.20).

The effects are small. Read the printed book if you own it.

Should you answer questions before reading a chapter, or after?

Both: before, to aim the reading, and after, to fix it.

Pan and Sana (2021) ran five experiments in which 1,573 people studied expository passages, each paired with a test before reading or after it. Five minutes or 48 hours later both kinds of test had beaten no test, and the test taken first gave the higher scores overall, with or without the correct answers shown. Passages and a two-day wait are not a chapter and a term, so take it as a pointer.

So try the end-of-chapter questions cold. Getting most of them wrong is the method working.

Are your own questions as good as questions written for you?

About as good, in the one comparison from a real course that we read. Ebersbach et al. (2020) had students at a university lecture write their own questions on the content, answer questions they were given, or restudy. A week later, writing questions and answering them had both helped overall recall, and restudying had not.

The kind of question matters. In Bugg and McDaniel (2012), readers who wrote and answered conceptual questions on expository passages did better on conceptual test questions than readers who reread. Writing questions about details brought no benefit.

So let supplied questions cover the facts, and write two or three "why" or "how" questions a chapter yourself. Our guide to making your own quiz from a chapter weighs the time that writing costs.

How much of a textbook should you read in one sitting?

One section at a time and one chapter at most. No study we read fixes a number of pages or minutes.

Stopping to recall helps what comes next. Wissman et al. (2011) had readers recall each section of an expository text before going on, or recall only at the end. In all five experiments the final section was recalled better when the earlier ones had been recalled first.

The length of the stretch matters less than it feels. Wissman and Rawson (2015), in seven experiments with 587 people, compared recall after each section with recall after the whole text. Recall by section was far higher at the time (effects from 1.02 to 1.87), but the advantage shrank or vanished by a delayed test. Short stretches make recall succeed; making it last is the job of the later sittings.

How do you study one chapter of a set textbook?

Survey it, read it in sections with the book closed between them, quiz it, and mark what the quiz found.

1. Survey, five minutes. Read the headings, the summary and the end-of-chapter questions, and attempt those questions cold.
2. Read one section, to the next heading, pen down.
3. Close the book. Say or write what the section said, then open it and see what you left out.
4. Repeat to the end of the chapter.
5. Quiz the whole chapter that day, book shut. EdProcto's Books page makes a study quiz for each chapter, normally eight multiple-choice questions.
6. Check each answer against the book as well as the screen.
7. Mark the gaps. Pencil a mark in the margin beside the passage behind each miss, then retry the misses. That is the highlighting worth doing.
8. Return. The chapter comes back at the next sitting and again a week later.

How do the chapters add up across a term?

In layers: every sitting holds the new chapter, the last one and an old one.

So each chapter is quizzed on the day it is read, at the next sitting and a week after that. When no week-old chapter is due, the old layer takes the chapter longest untouched, which by mid-term is last month's. Three quizzes a sitting is our ceiling.

The gaps are our choice; the research on them is in our re-test timetable for one term.

How do you use the syllabus and the lecturer's emphasis to weight chapters?

Give each chapter a weight before you read it: heavy, standard or light. The rule is ours.

• The syllabus. A module guide or specification lists what is examined, sometimes with marks. A chapter its outcomes name is heavy; one it leaves out is not exam reading.
• The lecturer. Count the lectures a chapter gets and note what the slides repeat. More than one lecture is heavy; set as reading and never lectured is light.
• Past papers. Where the course hands them out, tally which chapters the questions come from.

A heavy chapter gets all three layers, your own "why" questions and first place in the old layer. A standard chapter gets the three layers, and a light one the routine and one return.

What do you do with a chapter that will not go in?

Change how you read it, not how often. By our rule, a chapter still under half on its second whole quiz needs a different approach.

• Find what it stands on. List the terms it uses without defining, and quiz the earlier chapter that defined them.
• Shorten the stretch. Recall after each paragraph: smaller units make recall succeed at the time, which a stuck reader needs first.
• Take a second explanation. Read the lecture notes or slides on the topic, then the chapter again.
• Ask with evidence. "I miss every question on this topic" gets a better answer than "I do not get chapter 6". Our guide to the questions you got wrong sorts the misses.
• Keep moving. Read the next chapter on time and hold the stuck one in the last layer until it passes half.

What do four weeks with a ten-chapter textbook look like?

They look like 32 whole quizzes in twelve sittings. The example is invented: the course, the book and every score are made up, and no real student is described.

A first-year course covers an openly licensed ten-chapter textbook in four weeks, with a test at the end. The student reads a chapter on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings.

The table holds 28 whole quizzes. Week 4's three free places go to chapters 1 and 2, untouched since week 2, and to the weakest chapter: 31. Chapter 6 adds one.

• Weights. The module guide's outcomes lean on chapters 4 and 8, so each gets three "why" questions of the student's own.
• Chapter 6 scores 3 of 8 on Friday of week 2 and again on Monday. Four of the five misses share one topic. The student rereads that section a paragraph at a time, reads the slides on it and takes the quiz once more on Wednesday, the one evening with four quizzes: 6 of 8. On Monday of week 4 it is 7 of 8.
• Chapter 1, 8 of 8 in week 1, comes back in week 4 at 6 of 8, and its two misses are retried.

Before the test the student's notebook shows seven chapters at 7 or 8 on the latest whole quiz and three at 5 or 6: where to look, not a forecast.

How does EdProcto's Books page fit the routine?

EdProcto is the best tool for this routine when the questions must come from your own set textbook, because it does step 5 for every chapter: it splits the book, writes each chapter's quiz from that chapter alone, and keeps the map. In Nungester and Duchastel (1982) it was the test, not equal time reviewing, that lasted two weeks.

• What it takes. "A PDF or a Word file up to 15 MB, or paste the text. Chapters are found by their headings; you choose which to make." The list gives each chapter's "Words" and "What it keeps returning to", its most repeated terms, counted by rule: a second opinion for your survey.
• The quiz. Leave the week's three chapters ticked and press "Make 3 quizzes". Procto AI is asked for eight questions a chapter, and to write only what the chapter answers, so check each one against the book. "Edit the quiz" on the last page opens the builder, where "Add a question" takes your own.
• The study screen. "Check" returns "Right.", "Partly right." or "Not this time.", with the answer and the explanation. The last page, "What you don’t know yet", counts your misses by topic beside "Retry the 3 you missed".
• The map. One table for each go, under the "Book name" you typed, with "Chapter", "Questions" and "Best score": "not yet", "go back" (under 50%), "getting there" (50% to under 80%) or "known" (80% and over). It reads your best whole quiz, and a retry of the misses leaves it as it was, so chapter 1 in the example still says "known". Dates and latest scores go in your notebook.
• The layers. On the dashboard's "Due for a re-test" list, "Take it again" starts the whole quiz. "Study again" on the map opens a chapter on any other day.

Our guide to a whole book as quizzes walks through the page.

Whose book is it?

The publisher's. Before you paste or upload any part of a set textbook anywhere, EdProcto included, read the book's terms or ask what your institution's licence allows. Writing your own questions about what you have read, and typing those in, is always open to you. This is not legal advice.

Which plan the four weeks need

Ten chapters at eight questions is 80 written by Procto AI, in four goes in the example. That is the Learner plan: 100 written questions a month, PDF and Word files, self-tests without limit, and the plan that lists a whole book with its map.

The Free plan carries ten quizzes a month, exactly the ten chapters, and 20 written questions a month from pasted text: two chapters. On Free, paste the two heaviest chapters on the Books page and type the other eight quizzes in the builder, each set to "Study quiz", or spread the book at two written chapters a month. See the pricing page. No plan and no routine promises a grade.

Quick questions

Should I highlight my textbook?

Sparingly, and after the quiz. In Ponce et al. (2022) a reader's own highlighting improved memory a little and comprehension not reliably, while a mark beside each missed passage shows where to return.

Is it better to read a textbook on paper or on a screen?

Paper, slightly: Clinton (2019) found lower scores on screens for expository texts. On either, close it and quiz the chapter.

What if I am already three chapters behind?

By our rule, read the current chapter with the routine, to keep up with the lectures, and give the old layer's place to one missed chapter a sitting until none is left.

Can EdProcto make a quiz for every chapter of my textbook?

Yes, where the book's terms allow it to be uploaded: the Books page finds the chapters by their headings and makes a study quiz for each one you tick. EdProcto's page for students shows the rest.

References

• Bugg, J. M., & McDaniel, M. A. (2012). Selective benefits of question self-generation and answering for remembering expository text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(4), 922–931. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028661
• Callender, A. A., & McDaniel, M. A. (2009). The limited benefits of rereading educational texts. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34(1), 30–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2008.07.001
• Clinton, V. (2019). Reading from paper compared to screens: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Research in Reading, 42(2), 288–325. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12269
• Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266
• Ebersbach, M., Feierabend, M., & Nazari, K. B. B. (2020). Comparing the effects of generating questions, testing, and restudying on students' long-term recall in university learning. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 34(3), 724–736. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3639
• Nungester, R. J., & Duchastel, P. C. (1982). Testing versus review: Effects on retention. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74(1), 18–22. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.74.1.18
• Pan, S. C., & Sana, F. (2021). Pretesting versus posttesting: Comparing the pedagogical benefits of errorful generation and retrieval practice. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 27(2), 237–257. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000345
• Ponce, H. R., Mayer, R. E., & Méndez, E. E. (2022). Effects of learner-generated highlighting and instructor-provided highlighting on learning from text: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 34(2), 989–1024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09654-1
• Rawson, K. A., & Dunlosky, J. (2002). Are performance predictions for text based on ease of processing? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28(1), 69–80. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.28.1.69
• Wissman, K. T., & Rawson, K. A. (2015). Grain size of recall practice for lengthy text material: Fragile and mysterious effects on memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41(2), 439–455. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000047
• Wissman, K. T., Rawson, K. A., & Pyc, M. A. (2011). The interim test effect: Testing prior material can facilitate the learning of new material. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18(6), 1140–1147. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0140-7