Your approach to your science textbook will depend somewhat on whether you are studying a math-based science, such as physics, or a text-based science, such as biology. In either case, you need to become acquainted with the overall format of the book. Review the table of contents and the glossary. Also check the material in the appendices. There, you will find lists of physical constants, unit conversions, and various charts and tables. Many physics and chemistry books also include a minireview of the math you will need in science courses.

Notice the organization of each chapter. Pay special attention to graphs, charts, and boxes. The amount of technical detail might seem overwhelming, but—believe it or not—the authors have sincerely tried to present the material in an easy-to-follow format. Each chapter might begin with chapter objectives and conclude with a short summary, sections that can be useful to study both before and after reading the chapter. You will usually find answers to selected problems in the back of the book. Use the answer key or the student solutions manual to promote your mastery of each chapter.

As you begin an assigned section in a science text, skim the material quickly to gain a general idea of the topic. Begin to absorb the new vocabulary and technical symbols. Then skim the end-of-chapter problems so that you’ll know what to look for in your detailed reading of the chapter. State a specific goal: “I’m going to learn about recent developments in plate tectonics,” “I’m going to distinguish between mitosis and meiosis,” or “Tonight I’m going to focus on the topics in this chapter that were stressed in class.”

Should you underline and highlight, or should you outline the material in your science textbooks? You might decide to underline and highlight for a subject such as anatomy, which involves a lot of memorization. Use restraint with a highlighter, however; it should pull your eye only to important terms and facts. If highlighting is actually a form of procrastination for you (you are reading through the material but are planning to learn it at a later date) or if you are highlighting nearly everything you read, your highlighting might be doing you more harm than good. You won’t be able to identify important concepts quickly if they’re lost in a sea of color. Ask yourself whether the frequency of your highlighting is helping you be more active in your learning process. If not, you might want to highlight less or try a different technique such as margin notes or annotations.

In most sciences it is best to outline the text chapters. You can usually identify main topics, subtopics, and specific terms under each subtopic in your text by the size of the print. For instance, in each chapter of this textbook, the main topics (or level-1 headings) are in large orange letters with a rule below. Following each major topic heading, you will find subtopics (or level-2 headings) printed in smaller, blue capital letters. The level-3 headings, which tell more about the subtopics, are in bold, black letters, but are much smaller than the level-1 headings.

To save time when you are outlining, don’t write full sentences, but do include clear explanations of new technical terms and symbols. Pay special attention to topics that the instructor covered in class. If you aren’t sure whether your outlines contain too much or too little detail, compare them with the outlines that members of your study group have made. You could also consult with your instructor during office hours. In preparing for a test, it’s a good idea to make condensed versions of your chapter outlines so that you can see how everything fits together.