Have you ever fully read a textbook front-to-back? How did it work out for you...

>yes, several
>worked pretty well
>not if you have a short attention span

>>not if you have a short attention span
What if you do? What's the magic recipe to successfully read a textbook?

>Have you ever fully read a textbook front-to-back?
no, but i was trying half hour ago, before i decided to open Veeky Forums
>How did it work out for you?
i quit after 30 pages and have no motivation to start again
>Do you recommend that as a method of self-study?
probably, it works while i am trying but i don't have enough willpower to finish. Since i have no other option i will try new methods besides just sitting down and tying to complete full chapters in one go, tomorrow i will try pomodoro

Yes. If the book is predomenantly example problems, that means the doing problems is the important part and that the text is just something to help you out with them, but if not, then the actual text is the important part.

Only good for self study if you do it right.

If it's a math text in particular don't think you know SHIT if you can burn through 10-30 pages without applying even the smallest of definitions. Do every practice problem before moving on, else you'll have a weak foundation.

It takes stamina and the entire practice is meaningless if you rush through it because you won't retain shit.
I've done it, but not properly yet.

b

don't get why being able to learn from textbooks is related to autism 2bh

I did.
It really depends on the book, but usually it's not enough to be the ONLY method of studying. You should do it while simultaniously doing an online course or something.
The only situation where it preoperly worked for me was naive set theory, but only because the whole deal with set theory is chewing everything into bits, which doesn't require much more than the basic definitions.

I prefer to jump around from book to book and cover all the material that way. Even if it's an easy topic I still work through different books at the same time

If you have short attention span, these things usually help:

1. Reduce visual and auditory stimuli in the environment. If you can't stand complete silence either, listen to some calm music or "brown noise".
2. Mute or close your phone.
3. Set a realistic number of pages per day to read.
4. It takes around 15 minutes to get the "flow". Try to survive that time, then it becomes easier.
5. You can use multiple sources to keep your interest up. Read the book for a bit, check the same topic from Wikipedia, maybe some interesting research papers. Just don't get derailed from the topic.
6. Check out all the images, tables, charts etc., if you are getting weary.
7. You can also go to the chapter problems first and search for the important concepts to solve those problems.
8. Make your own notes, draw diagrams etc.

>yes
>extremely well
>yes

Yes, twice
Freshman year with Stewart calc (Lol) and then mathematical statistics by wackerly. The stats book sucked fat cock it was awful. Reading other prob/stats books after that made me realize how fuckin useless wackerly is at teaching or explaining anything.

I should also add that those are just the math ones I've done that with. Read a dozen micro/macro Chem and bio textbooks cover to cover several times. All were good at helped me prepare nicely for my work/exams.

>Have you ever fully read a textbook front-to-back?
Yes (Graph theory and Computational Geometry)
>How did it work out for you?
Good
>Do you recommend that as a method of self-study?
Yes

I didn't do problems in either of the books so it was fairly easy. I am working through Complex analysis now by myself, doing problems, which is harder but it works because I've made a reasonably kind schedule of what tasks and what pages to work through per day for the upcoming month.

I think having a schedule makes it easier to self-study. I've failed attempts at self-studying before (topology and and ODE) but then I had no schedule so I progressed to slow and lost interest.

Good luck OP!

What did you do in your schedule, did you allocate a certain amount of time each day, or did you say every day you do a certain chapter or an amount of questions?

Yes. Organic chemistry. Vollhardt, 7th edition.

Well, I skipped nucleic acids, the very last chapter.

I had straight As in honors organic chemistry so I guess it worked pretty well

Do this.

This is a quite a good recipe for following a books oriented for discreet disciplines.

It is all about focusing your attention and taking control of your own vigilance. When you've made up your mind to clear the hurdles around the subject and making your way to limit this modern hectic style of multitasking with quick writing and constant checking of messages on the phone and news, the mindful reading comes easy after the intrinsic discomfort in the beginning.

It's also important to come up with subjective views to the book at hand, or if the book in question is more technical and mathematical to do the exercises and to see where to the topics apply.

I'd like to add that it REALLY helps to write in the book. Make notes, underline, draw in the book itself.

I only do this with dover books because they're pretty cheap. Can't say I've ever done it in a Springer book, but if you don't care then more power to you.

I have the same question.

Autism is on a spectrum.