How to Read & Take Notes Like a PhD Student | Tips for Reading Fast & Efficiently for Slow Readers
Summary
TLDRThis video by Kalyn, a second-year Ph.D. student at Yale, offers a comprehensive guide on how to read effectively as a Ph.D. student. She discusses three types of reading: for class, retention, and research, providing strategies for note-taking and understanding. Kalyn emphasizes the importance of active recall and using tools like Notion for organization. She also shares her personal system for reading academic articles and books, aiming to help students at all levels enhance their reading and retention skills.
Takeaways
- 📚 Reading is a fundamental skill for graduate students and scholars, requiring a strategic approach for comprehension and retention.
- 🔍 The speaker, Kalyn, emphasizes the importance of reading with a purpose, whether for class, retention, or research, and tailoring note-taking accordingly.
- 📈 Start the term by reviewing syllabi to identify key readings that align with long-term academic goals and research interests.
- 📝 For class notes, Kalyn recommends using Notion to organize notes into categories like major themes, scholarship, and questions for efficient class participation and exam preparation.
- 🎓 Attending office hours for exam-based courses can provide key takeaways and support academic success.
- 🔑 Active recall is essential for retention; discussing and teaching what you've read to others helps establish long-term memory.
- 📘 When reading for retention, focus on the main argument, supporting arguments, and the scholarly conversation the text is part of.
- 📑 For academic articles, identify the main argument, supporting arguments, and scholarly discourse, noting sources and methods used by the author.
- 📕 Academic monographs should be read with attention to the introduction and conclusion, which contain the main argument and scholarly discourse.
- 🔍 When reading for research, use key terms and indexes to find the most relevant information quickly and efficiently.
- 📘 For chapters in a book, read the first and last few pages thoroughly, and skim the middle for examples that support the author's thesis.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video?
-The main focus of the video is to provide tips and strategies on how to read effectively like a PhD student, covering different types of reading, note-taking, and retention.
Who is the speaker in the video?
-The speaker in the video is Kalyn, a second-year PhD student in history and African American studies at Yale University.
What are the three primary types of reading discussed in the video?
-The three primary types of reading discussed are reading for class, reading for retention, and reading for research.
Why is it important to read the syllabi at the beginning of a new term?
-It is important to read the syllabi to determine which readings are most pertinent to your long-term goals in research and to read with a strategy in mind, rather than wasting time on subjects you may never need again.
What is the recommended approach for taking class notes according to the video?
-The recommended approach for taking class notes is to use an organization app like Notion, breaking notes into sections such as major themes, scholarship, and questions, focusing on talking points and examples for class participation and exam preparation.
What is the significance of attending office hours for exam-based courses as mentioned in the video?
-Attending office hours is significant as it helps students align their reading and note-taking with the key takeaways recommended by the professors, thereby being better prepared for exams.
How does the video suggest using Notion for academic purposes?
-The video suggests using Notion for organizing notes, managing research, tracking progress, and integrating with citation management software. It is also used for creating databases of readings and managing dissertation projects.
What is the main argument in academic articles or books according to the video?
-The main argument or thesis is the center of the text, representing the author's contribution to the field, and should be clearly indicated in notes for easy reference and understanding.
How should one approach reading an academic article for retention as per the video?
-For retention, one should focus on active recall, engaging in discussions, teaching the subject to others, and integrating readings into research papers. Notes should include main argument, supporting arguments, subjects and sites, sources, methods, scholarly debate, terms and themes, questions, and personal notes.
What are the key sections of an academic monograph that should be paid attention to?
-The key sections of an academic monograph that should be paid attention to are the introduction, chapters, conclusion, and bibliography. These sections contain the main argument, scholarly discourse, and evidence.
How does the video suggest reading for research?
-For research, the video suggests focusing on key takeaways relevant to the project, using search terms to find applicable texts, and utilizing the index or find feature to locate sections directly referencing the subject matter.
Outlines
📚 Mastering Academic Reading
This paragraph introduces the importance of reading as a skill for graduate students and scholars. It emphasizes that reading is not just about scanning words but understanding their meaning, the structure of arguments, and developing strategies for retention and understanding. The speaker, Kalyn, a second-year Ph.D. student at Yale University, shares her formula for reading like a Ph.D. student, focusing on different applications of reading and note-taking. She covers three primary types of reading: for class, for retention, and for research. The goal is to help students at all levels perform better academically.
📘 Reading for Class and Note-Taking
This paragraph discusses strategies for reading and note-taking for class. It advises students to read through syllabi at the beginning of a term to identify pertinent readings and to read with a strategy, rather than attempting to do all assigned readings. The speaker recommends using an index to determine the structure of books and readings and to focus on chapters or sections relevant to one's subject matter. She shares her personal note-taking system using Notion, categorizing notes into major themes, scholarship, and questions. The emphasis is on creating efficient notes that serve as talking points and examples for class participation and exam preparation.
🔍 Reading for Retention and Active Recall
This paragraph focuses on reading for long-term retention, particularly for students preparing for comprehensive exams or Ph.D. admissions. The speaker highlights the importance of active recall through teaching, discussing, and integrating readings into research papers. She outlines a note-taking system for retention, including headers such as main argument, supporting arguments, subjects and sites, sources, methods, scholarly debate, terms and themes, questions, and personal notes. The speaker also provides a detailed example of how to read an academic article, emphasizing the main argument, supporting arguments, and the discourse within the text.
📖 Reading Academic Books and Research
This paragraph delves into the structure of academic monographs and strategies for reading books effectively. The speaker advises paying close attention to the introduction and conclusion of a book, as they contain the main argument and scholarly discourse. She recommends reading the first and last few pages of each chapter, focusing on the main argument and supporting evidence. For reading for research, the speaker suggests focusing on key takeaways relevant to one's project and using the index or find feature to locate specific information. The emphasis is on purposeful and strategic reading to find pertinent information efficiently.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Reading
💡PhD Student
💡Note-taking
💡Retention
💡Research
💡Syllabi
💡Notion
💡Active Recall
💡Academic Monograph
💡Scholarly Debate
💡Index
Highlights
The act of reading is central to the experience and research of graduate students and scholars, but it is a skill that's mastered over time.
To read is not simply to glance over the words but to process their meaning, the structure of one's argument, and to develop a strategy for retention and understanding.
Kalyn is a second-year PhD student in history and African American studies at Yale University.
The video covers how to read like a PhD student, sharing tips and tricks for different applications of reading and note-taking.
Three different types of reading are discussed: reading for class, reading for retention, and reading for research.
For class readings, it’s important to read through syllabi and determine which readings are most pertinent to long-term goals in research.
Class notes should be set up with major themes, scholarship, and questions to help jog memory during class.
Attending office hours for exam-based courses can help in reading based on the key takeaways recommended by professors.
For retention, active recall is crucial. Discussing what you've read with friends or professors helps in long-term memory retention.
Setting up notes for retention with headers like main argument, supporting arguments, subjects and sites, sources, methods, scholarly debate, terms and themes, questions, and notes is beneficial.
When reading an academic article, the main argument or thesis is often near the beginning, and discussions the article engages in are crucial.
For academic books, the introduction and conclusion should be read thoroughly as they contain rich details about the thesis and scholarly discourse.
For research, focus on key takeaways of your project, use the index or find feature on PDFs to locate pertinent information quickly.
Establishing a long list of applicable terms helps in finding relevant sections in texts.
Reading is all about purpose and strategy, and different methods are required depending on the reading's aim, whether for class, retention, or research.
Transcripts
the act of reading is central to the
experience and research of graduate
students and scholars but it is a skill
that's mastered over time
to read is not simply to glance over the
words but to process their meaning the
structure of one's argument and to
develop a strategy for retention and
understanding that is what we'll be
covering in today's video hello everyone
and welcome or welcome back to my
channel if you're new here my name is
kalyn i am a second year phd student in
history and african american studies at
yale university and today i have a much
awaited
many times requested video for you
this is how to read like a phd student
i've been asked to make this video since
i started my channel and i have put it
off time and time again because i wanted
it to be
perfect but now i think i've come up
with my formula i have a distinct system
for how it is that i read as a phd
student i'm gonna be sharing all of my
best tips and tricks and really focusing
on the different applications of reading
and note-taking so that way you can
perform the best that you can as a
student whether you're in high school
undergrad or a current graduate student
i think this video is going to be useful
for everyone so grab a cup of coffee and
let's go ahead and get started when
considering all of my tactics for
reading and how to effectively take
notes there were three primary things
that came to mind in today's video we're
gonna be covering these three different
types of reading
one how to read for class two how to
read for retention and three how to read
for research first we'll begin with the
most applicable lesson for students
across fields which is how to read and
take notes for class at the beginning of
a new term it's important to read
through your syllabi and determine which
readings are the most pertinent to your
long-term goals in research while it may
be initially overwhelming most
professors don't actually expect their
students to do all of the reading as a
student who studied at universities
across the world i can tell you it's
important to read with a strategy in
mind rather than to waste your time on
subjects you may never come across again
at the beginning of each week go to the
index of your books and readings to
determine the structure and which
chapters you may want to pay attention
to the most for example as a student
interested in the history of slavery and
the law i'm likely to be called upon in
seminar to answer questions related to
my subject matter therefore i always go
through the readings and consider which
chapters in books or sections and
articles will have the information i
most need to retain from there i set up
my class notes for my class notes i use
none other than the versatile and best
organization app on the market notion
for this i break my notes into three
primary sections major themes
scholarship and questions after years of
taking inefficient notes on all the
quotes and nitty-gritty information in
my readings i soon found that having
talking points and notes which helped
jog my memory during class were so much
more efficient while there may be
readings that you wish to read more
thoroughly for retention i want you to
think of your class notes as a set of
talking points and examples which you
can use to feel confident participating
in class and preparing for exams one
quick side note attend office hours for
exam-based courses so you're also
reading based on the key takeaways they
recommend to be a successful student and
now for a quick message about the
sponsor of today's video notion if
anybody's been watching my channel for
any period of time you know how much i
absolutely love notion i not only use it
as a student i've been using it for
three years now but i also use it as a
business owner i have the business
subscription for my team at accepted
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for my research i use it for content
planning for my youtube channel i just
think it's the most useful application
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just think that notion is truly a
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readings notion is the ideal tool for
students over the past few months i've
actually been using notion to keep track
of the 200 plus books i have to read for
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books are in progress those i've
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examiners and so much more thank you so
much again to notion for sponsoring
today's video to download notion go
ahead and check out the description down
below and let's go ahead and head on to
part number two which is all about
reading for retention unlike how you
might read for class where key arguments
and main points will get you by
reading for attention is all about
long-term recall the advice in this
section is for students taking
comprehensive exams preparing for phd
admissions or who want to master the
literature for their research and as
future educators one of the most
important takeaways in this section is
about active recall reading and taking
notes alone will not help you remember
all of the details of a text grab a
friend meet with your professors or like
me grab a camera and start discussing
what you've read through teaching the
subject to others and integrating your
readings into research papers you'll
begin to establish long-term memory
however like learning a language reading
and the knowledge it produces must be
practiced so where your brain may be
faulty it's best to have a repository of
notes
lesson 2.1 note taking for diligent
students
when taking notes for retention there
are several categories worth
highlighting quick disclaimer some of
the points made here are more history
specific but can be adjusted to suit
your needs and research questions begin
by setting up your notes on notion with
the following headers main argument
supporting arguments
subjects and sites
sources
methods
scholarly debate terms and themes
questions
and notes while your notes may be more
extensive the three most important
features of retention when thinking
about academic articles or books are the
main argument how the argument was
supported with evidence and who that
argument is in conversation with
the main argument or thesis is the
center of the text this is what the
author believes is their contribution to
the field and should be indicated
clearly in your notes this will come
especially handy if you have to write
any book reviews in the future
supporting arguments are claims made by
the author but which are not the central
takeaway from the text
subjects and sites have to do with
people and location who is involved in
the study and where was the study
conducted sources and evidence include
data historical documents pieces of art
surveys conducted or anything used to
corroborate the author's thesis
methods or theory is all about analysis
ask yourself how has the author analyze
their evidence to draw this conclusion
now on to questions questions are posed
within the text by the author and are
often used to support the thesis by
indicating for the reader what the
author believes are the most important
takeaways
scholarly debate is central to academic
scholarship while reading check out who
the author cites and mentions multiple
times to see who they are influenced by
or who they may be arguing against
lastly are your notes this is where
you're going to track quotes that you
may want to use in the future especially
for your research papers theses or
dissertation
section 2.2 how to read an academic
article
for today's example i'm going to be
looking at jennifer morgan's article
part of sequitur ventrum as you can see
here there is the general introduction
and when i'm taking notes i'm also
taking notes in the margin if you want
more details on how i take notes on my
ipad i have a video for that that i'll
link down below but what's really
important is the
main argument and supporting arguments
and all the different pieces that i
discussed in the note-taking section
you're going to indicate the primary
argument of the paper this is often
indicated by lines such as this essay
will argue or i claim that usually
leading language that will help you
indicate where the primary argument is
then if we zoom in here we can say that
she actually has a further argument so
you can either include this in the main
argument section or if we believe that
this is a supporting argument then we
would put it in that section of our
notes as we move down we can see that
her general subjects are enslaved women
for the sources we can indicate that
from either the reading of the text and
you can also find it in the footnotes
this is a largely secondary
literature-focused article where she's
in a discussion with a lot of these
scholars so this would go in the
discourse section in terms of methods i
think this is a more theoretical text
whereas other texts may be more focused
on oral testimony or maybe focused on
quantitative methods so for jennifer
morgan's method i would put that she is
using the theory of the race
reproductive bind coined by alice
weinbaum and then for notes i would go
and look at all the different side notes
that i had in the margin here and also
write down all of the quotes as i
discussed in the notes section with
articles what you're looking for is the
main argument which is going to be
coming from the introduction of the
paper and then you're going to be
looking for different sources or
evidence which is often going to come
from the center of the paper for methods
that is often discussed in the
introduction however you'll also find it
throughout the entirety of the paper and
the discourse as i said in the earlier
section is usually in the introduction
as you see here my notes begin to become
more sparse throughout the article i
find that majority of the information of
articles is centered at the beginning
and at the end however this is largely
history specific
and some articles will have an abstract
however for history papers they
typically do not
key takeaways 1. articles should be read
thoroughly but pay attention to the
introduction two the main argument or
thesis is usually near the beginning and
three pay attention to which discussions
they are engaging in articles tend to be
more direct and calling on other
scholars and their work
lesson 2.3 how to effectively read a
book the academic monograph has four
distinct sections the introduction
chapters conclusion and bibliography
let's begin with the introduction this
is the section along with the conclusion
which you should pay the most attention
to in contemporary academic monographs
this is where the main argument and
scholarly discourse lies therefore this
is not the section to skip read
thoroughly and take your time take notes
based on the categories we discussed and
consider which chapters or sections
pique your interest
for this example i'll be returning to
jennifer morgan's work this time with
her recent publication reckoning with
slavery first things first let's go
straight to the table of contents in
this section of the book you'll find a
general overview of the book which will
help you indicate which sections may be
the most intriguing the table of
contents will also help you see the
overall flow of the book allowing you to
ask questions about chronology that may
be useful to you later on now we move to
the introduction this is perhaps the
most important section of the text as it
often contains rich details about the
thesis the discourse the author is
engaging in what evidence will be
presented and so much more as you'll see
in the margins of my book i've left
myself clear notes which help me
indicate which categories they should
fall under on my notion page for
long-term retention and for research i
recommend taking your time with the
introduction
take notes in the margin and don't
forget to check the footnotes and
citations
by the end of the introduction you
should have a clear sense of the
direction of the book and whether or not
it should be useful to your research or
lesson plans now let's move on to the
chapter sections as a slow reader i've
often struggled with maintaining focus
while reading lengthy chapters but after
a few years and countless academic books
i think i've mastered a formula step
number one read the first four to five
pages of the chapter this is often where
the topic and argument of the chapter
will be presented and should be read
thoroughly step number two read the
first three sentences of each paragraph
and skim the rest the middle sections of
chapters focus primarily on evidence
analysis and theory so unlike the
introduction which had clear takeaways
chapter sections will require that you
indicate a few examples or anecdotes
which are supportive of the author's
thesis quick side note indicate between
one and four examples of how the author
uses evidence to support their thesis
for scientific or quantitative based
texts focus on their statistical methods
of analysis
step number three the conclusion read
the last four to five pages of each
chapter to see how the author claims
their examples have supported their
argument this will allow you to see
clearly what they believe are the most
important takeaways final section the
book's conclusion like the introduction
the conclusion is often rich with the
author's argument read thoroughly and
take notes we're useful
now on to our final section reading for
research unlike reading for class or for
retention reading for research is all
about finding the information most
pertinent to your project in a timely
manner whether you're writing a research
paper for a class or a 200 page doctoral
dissertation reading for research
requires a whole different type of
strategy when reading for research i
want you to focus on the key takeaways
of your project you're going to be
looking at different search terms to
find the text that are going to be the
most applicable to your study but in
addition to that you're going to want to
use a specific set of tactics when going
into the text to find what it is that
you're looking for when reading for your
research take the tips that i gave you
in section 2.3 but focus only on the
chapters which are directly applicable
to your project and now comes one of my
most important tips do not skip on the
index the index of a book or the find
feature on a pdf is your best friend
establish a set of key terms find it in
the index and see which pages and
sections directly reference your subject
matter side note establish a long list
of applicable terms as the text may not
directly use the same language as you do
in your writing at the end of the day
reading is all about purpose and
strategy whether you are a slow reader
or at the stage where you are seeking to
focus on a specific subject and begin
writing or publishing your research i
hope that these tips will be useful
comment below anything that you learned
and any tips you might like to share on
how to read and take notes effectively
with application in mind thank you all
so much for watching today's video i
hope that it was helpful for you and
that you got some useful tips out of it
and thank you so much again to notion
for sponsoring today's video you guys
know how much i love notion i talked
about it earlier in the video i am just
so thrilled that i got to work with them
on this particular collaboration if this
video was helpful for you all then go
ahead and hit that subscribe button as
well as the bell notification so you're
notified next time i post i have a lot
of graduate admissions content coming
for you in the coming months as well as
fun vlogs we're heading to london this
summer for research so go ahead and
stick around and i will see you all in
the next video bye everyone
[Music]
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