When reading academic gets tough

 Hello, everyone, I feel like sharing my new struggle and what I’m doing to lessen this struggling that I’m dealing with during online classes. 

I’m sure that many of us are taking online classes due to the COVID and we are probably on the same boat or in a similar one. I do have a load of reading to do, so I found some list on Tumblr with some tips and I will be adding mine on what I do when reading gets tough. 

1. Read it again.

Not in front of your computer or tablet but print whatever article you’re reading and highlight what you think is important and read it slowly. If you feel like you are reading the same phrase over and overtake a break, fresh up your mind. Whenever the material is a difficult reading comprehension it important to fresh up your mind and don’t forget to print the article. 

2. Look up the word

As a Spanish speaker, I end up searching for a word I may not understand. The same goes if I’m reading in Spanish and I don’t know a certain Spanish word. Thankfully, we live where we get the information in a microsecond from our phones. So search up that pesky word and write it down if you need too.

3. Review, review, review…

When you’re reading an academic paper. Try to read at least one page or a section (depending on what you’re reading) and do some sort of mini-review from what you understand from your own perspective also talk to your friends and classmate who are taking the same class with you so you may see other perspectives from them and draw your own conclusion. 

4. Read out loud

Seriously, it would help you understand more what the passage on what the author is saying or trying to say, and if it not very convincing pretend that you are the author on whatever academic reading you are currently doing.  Something that I do when it comes reading out loud I pretend that I’m reading to my audience even tho it to my pets they may not understand what I’m saying but I pretend that they are a human audience. 

7. Pretend that you understand

Pretend that you are doing a Q & A to your imaginary audience and whatever question those imaginary audience says you know the answer. It may sound silly but it can help and if you are not very convinced talk to someone that you know and can help you more to understand what you are trying to say to understand the academic reading that your professor gave you. 

8.  Still don’t get it?

Sometimes academic reading can be hard to comprehend and you may feel that you’re not “smart enough”. I know that frustration feeling but what I do is that I send an email to my professor and I tell them that I’m having trouble comprehending the comprehension reading and if they can help me to understand a bit more. Because sometime we may miss a certain passage or a context with small guidance it can help to understand a bit more on the article, books, or whatever you’re professor is making you read and if you are still too anxious to ask your professor again, talk to your friends and your classmate so many of you can help each other out. 

Remember, just because you may not understand a certain academic reading paper does not mean that you are not smart enough because you are smart and don’t let those type of thing makes you feel inferior. Especially, when we have some bad apple professor.