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Rather than reinvent the wheel as a solution, I will redirect your attention shortly to Professor Jeffrey Kaplan’s excellent YouTube video on this subject. To me, this was invaluable information that not only works but is, in a way, even passive. I’d even dare to say that this is a life hack.

The basic method of true reading comprehension is through the means of thorough understanding.

For example, let’s think of a standard philosophy book as an example. In college, from the get-go, your philosophy professor has already assumed you don’t know anything about Mencius or Krishna (two major figures in Asian philosophy). Somehow, though, you will need to figure that out (and quickly), with only the addition of a supplementary lecture to give you more clarity.

“Well, that’s tough. I guess I should read the book, right?”

Unless you have the rare natural aptitude for reading philosophy (if this is you, keep up the good work!!), I don’t suggest just reading the book. Especially if you’re not assigned everything in it.

This will 100% fatigue you because these books are filled with lore and foreign terms that will throw you off. But your goal is not to learn and memorize 100% of the terminology.

“Okay, then I’ll just look up a summary or use Google whenever I’m stuck.”

Well, I can’t say that is a terrible idea. But, I’d still like to vouch for reading the book. Although you could grasp the core of whatever doctrine or text you just read by using Google, the skill of critical thinking will never be used. It will never be used if you do not first sit down, read, and dissect. I’ll explain what critical thinking has taught me some other time but let’s get to the method.

This is where true reading comprehension kicks in. The following steps dictate exactly how you can obtain this deep understanding.

At the end, you will have been able to summarize the whole text into a sentence!

This method, for me was adapted to my own needs. I couldn’t annotate in the book I was reading because it was a rental. Thus, this resulted in me using sticky notes, and putting them in between each pages. I also didn’t summarize every paragraph over re-summarize all of what I read after each paragraph.

I highly recommend watching this video, or at least the first ten minutes of the it. This has been a lifesaver for me and is definitely a staple in how I go about learning in my everyday life.