the Swiss cheese method

˜the Swiss cheese method

A Swiss cheese has more holes than it has cheese. The cheese might look big but as it contains so many holes the actual substance is not very big at all. If we transfer the image to studies and time planning, it means we have to make clear to ourselves what is ˜hole and what is ˜substance .

• Always start with the wholeness.

  Read quickly through the text once. Use a highlighter and mark important keywords while you are reading. This first quick reading gives you a fairly good idea about the substance. You can now either leave the text to the next day or even later or take the next step. This first reading only serves the purpose of giving you the important overview, and with the keywords you have marked it will be easy to find the wholeness when you start again.

• If you decide to leave the text for a while start the next session with a quick revision of the material. Just flick through and read the keywords you have marked.

• Prepare a learning map by drawing the central point and a few of the thick branches.

• Why do you read this text? What kind of information do you want? Set a goal for your reading. Do you do it to learn everything in it or just certain aspects? Do you read it to be able to answer questions in a test? Or do you read it to give a summary to someone else?

  You have to be well aware of the goal because that decides not only why you should read the text but also how well you should read it. You can save a lot of time by not reading texts you are not interested in! You discover in your first read if the text is worth reading again or not.

• At this stage you have decided to read the text for some particular purpose and you have prepared a learning map. Read the text again, and while doing so, add new words and pictures to the branches in your learning map.

• Revise the material regularly. The value of repetition is enormous . Every time you do it you can either just look through the first learning map or rewrite it, deleting words that are unnecessary. You keep only the words that are really important.

This way of working not only saves a lot of time , it also gives you a quick overview and understanding of what you are reading. The result is you learn better and faster. It also makes it easier to revise the material.

Now you can easily read and find the important information in any text. Once you get an idea of the wholeness and have decided on your purpose you can concentrate on the substance and leave out the ˜holes .

Remember: You save time through planning!