How Much Reading To Do?

Abigail: I’m a first year Biomedical Sciences student and was wondering if its necessary to read the textbook. I find them so incredibly boring and time-consuming. I can usually grasp the concept from lecture slides alone.

William: Our lecturers tell us to read a lot for every lecture (normally a WHOLE chapter or A LOT of pages) and say they really recommend we do this reading as it’s essential, I don’t really read it as it’s a JOKE of an amount and people I’ve spoken to also don’t seem to do too much. How important is it moving forward and do you also do it?

Mason: I’m just really curious, do you guys actually read those readings? Because mine are like at least 100 pages for each unit and for a guy that does not read a lot or doesn’t really read books, I consider that really long and not to mention most of them are dense and boring. Well I don’t know maybe it’s just me?

Harper: I’m a first year, and I’m learning to balance everything - the readings, the assignments, the quizzes. I genuinely have about 100+ pages that I’ve got to read from 4 different units. I’m floored. I feel like I’ve been sucker punched. I want to do well and do all my readings but I work part-time, so beyond the days I’m at uni, I don’t have a great deal of time to do uni work. Do you do all your weekly readings? If so, how have you balanced everything?

Sophia: 99% of people I meet simply don’t do the readings. They watch the lectures and stuff but no one reads the pages of the textbook. I’ve never had quizzes based off of additional readings.

Leo: The only time I actually found myself needing to read the textbook was for a law subject but besides that I don’t think most people read the prescribed chapters. The lectures, workshops and tutorials cover everything pretty well.

— Students discussing reading requirements

The amount of assigned reading can vary considerably depending on the course. Some courses may not even have a prescribed textbook, instead relying solely on a set of instructor provided notes. Others may have a massive textbook or even a long list of assigned reading.

When a lot of reading is prescribed, students often wonder how much they should do and if it is really necessary? Many students aren’t used to doing large amounts of reading, others wonder if it is an efficient use of their time. The answer really depends on the unit as well as the student’s available time and motivation. The truth is for many undergraduate courses, the vast majority of the students do little, if any, of the prescribed reading, instead relying solely on the lecture and other university provided course materials.

Note	Most students do only a tiny fraction of the assigned reading.

Some courses may issue a proclamation like exam questions will be drawn from the lectures and any of the assigned reading, but in practice the vast majority of exam questions will come from material covered in lectures. Questions not covered in lectures are normally limited to a small portion of the overall exam. Lectures and tutorials typically focus on the topics considered the most important, which naturally also makes up most of the material examined.

Sometimes students might complain, "the whole exam consisted of topics that were never even covered in lectures", but these claims are normally exaggerated. While tough exams definitely exist, it isn’t typically due to a large number of the questions being on topics that were never discussed in class.

Tip	If a concept is mentioned multiple times such as in the lecture, the tutorial, and the course notes, pay careful attention to it because it is important and will likely come up in a test or exam.

Obviously, the situation might be a bit different for some subjects like English literature where students are given a list of novels (and other types of writing) that are supposed to be read for a course. Presumably most students that choose to enrol in this sort of degree do so due to their love of English literature, moreover the experience of reading a novel is different from that of reading a textbook. However, even then, some students choose not to do all the reading, preferring to use summaries they found online.

Should I just watch a YouTube video?

Sometimes students might think it is preferable to just watch a YouTube video than read the textbook. While YouTube videos are often useful for understanding a topic, they often lack the detail found in the textbook. Also, the textbook has been specifically chosen for that course and so the material will normally align closely with the syllabus.

How much time do you have?

Deciding whether or not to study the textbook comes down to the following factors:

How much time do you have available? If you don’t have time to read the textbook, skip it.
Can you understand the explanations from the lectures? If the lectures aren’t understandable, try the textbook. If the textbook isn’t understandable, try a different one.
Are you happy with your level of understanding? If you want a deeper understanding than the lectures offer, then consider reading the textbook. In many cases, the lectures only give a broad overview of the topic.
How closely aligned is the textbook to the course content? Sometimes the assigned text doesn’t align that closely with the course syllabus. In this case, it may not be worthwhile reading the textbook.

A general rule is to start with watching the lectures and studying any instructor provided notes. If you are happy with your level of understanding, then don’t do any additional reading. Spend your limited study time on test / exam preparation and working on assignments. If you struggle to understand the material based solely based on the lecture / slides, then see if studying the textbook helps. If it doesn’t, look for alternative sources such as a different textbook or YouTube videos.

If you do have some additional spare time, and you are majoring in a particular subject, then you might like to do some reading to deepen your understanding even if it is not strictly necessary to complete the assignments and pass the course. Lectures often give just a superficial introduction to a topic and lack the detail needed if you want to pursue a topic further.

Tip	If short of time, only refer to the textbook when you need help understanding the topic.

A final word about textbooks

In many cases, it is possible to pass a course without reading the prescribed textbook. Also, it is common these days for students to prefer other media sources like videos. Yet there are many excellent textbooks that explain topics clearly and in more depth than the typical overview from lectures and course notes. If you have time, it is worthwhile to read at least some chapters in the textbook.