Do the Reading

There's a big difference between reading effectively and merely skimming the text without thinking about your relationship to the material. 

To read more effectively:

o Read assigned materials before class so that you'll be able to ask questions about and have a context for understanding them.

o Take notes on the reading instead of highlighting the text. It's a more active form of learning, because it requires you to think through and rephrase the key points. Later, you can highlight the important ideas from your notes on the reading and your class notes. Having written notes apart from the text will also be a great help when it comes time to review the material for tests.