Carrington College California programs are designed to prepare you for work in the real world, with a large slice of your time spent hands-on, developing the practical skills needed to help you succeed in your chosen health care career. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have to hit the books! Far from it! From Medical Assisting, to Massage Therapy, to Veterinary Technology, our programs are taught through an engaging mix of hands-on clinical training, theoretical classroom exercises, and real patient interaction designed to help your fledgling career take flight. But if you’re already enrolled, you may have noticed by now that ‘homework is not just for high school’. In addition to the practical time, you’ll also need to devote yourself to some quality ‘book time’. There’s a good chance that you’ll have to do more reading for one of your Carrington courses than you did for an entire high school semester. To get through all of your homework you have to master the skill of college reading. Here are some tips to help.
- Have a plan for each book you have to read; prioritize your assignment by focusing on certain sections and learn how to ‘skim’.
- Skimming is not a shortcut for everything, but it is a great way to get through parts of a book that aren’t relevant to what you’re learning in class. Try reading the introduction and the first & last couple sentences of each paragraph. If you believe it is relevant, go back and read it all.
- Paying close attention in class will help you to focus on the main concepts of the topic, allowing you to prioritize your reading. If you’re not paying attention, you won’t know what’s relevant!
- Learning to manage your time and prioritizing is a key part of your self-development at college. Because you’ve paid attention, you can identify the important sections and prioritize those parts.
- If you don’t ‘get’ the material you’re reading, then it can be hard to complete your assignment efficiently. Make sure to raise questions with your professor, or ask for some one-to-one tutoring, to help you overcome your lack of clarity before getting into the reading assignment.
- Before you start, thumb through the contents page and the rest of the book; read the chapter titles and page subtitles. You’ll get a better understanding of the subjects covered, how the book is organized, and what sections are particularly relevant to what was being taught in class.
- Make notes. Your brain retains information better when you write something down, rather than just reading it. Jot down key details, but don’t copy whole chapters. If it’s your text book, why not highlight key passages too.
- Take time to recharge. Your mind will start to wander if you try to read too much for too long, so give yourself a break from time to time. Grab some fresh air, or a cup of coffee, or do some exercise to get the blood pumping back to your brain!
Our faculty members are here to support you, so never be afraid to ask for help if you need it. If you are having problems with a particular class, or there’s a subject you just can’t seem to master, let them know. They can’t help you if they don’t know there’s a problem – and they really do want to help you succeed!
