Surviving Seminary: How to Read

Seminary Spoiler Alert: You will read a lot when you come to seminary. Like any graduate program reading plays a critical part of seminary. Students underestimate this necessity--everyone can read, right? But the ability to read well, and efficiently, can save you time in your coursework and many sleepless nights. Solomon says that the making of books there is no end; most seminary professors really try to put that statement to the test.

Historically, Christianity has always been a bookish religion centered around the Old and New Testament and the writings of the church fathers. Proclamation has always been a critical piece. Even Genesis indicates that God spoke the world into existence. Whether it is the Bible, an ancient sermon, a technical commentary being able to consume and comprehend large amounts of material will always be important for Christian workers. Our main job is understanding the Bible and communicating it to the world around us.

If you peruse the Dallas Theological Seminary schedule you'll see that most classes require students to read about three books roughly 200+ pages. An average course will have about 1,000 pages, which will be about 70 pages a week. This will vary upward or downward depending on the class or the week. This doesn't include reading you'll need to do for papers or projects. 

Here are some tips:

First, Tim Ferriss gives some good advice on how to increase the speed of your reading through the PX Project. Essentially speed readers have three goals: 1. decrease the number of fixations (or times that your eyes fix on a word) that you have on a line; 2. minimize back skipping or re-reading; and 3. increasing your peripheral vision so that you can read multiple words at a time. Essentially the best way to increase the speed of reading is to minimize the times that you have to reread a passage. When you begin this, you will want to monitor your speed to insure that it is increasing. I still monitor how fast I’m reading by checking how many pages per hour that I read. Standard speed reading classes will help students with reading strategies to increase the speed. 

Second, refuse to approach books in a standard manner, by beginning with page 1. The goal is to understand what the author is trying to say. A good author will summarize his argument at strategic parts of the book. Reading these points first can help you understand the entire book. Look for the thesis that the author is trying to make and note how he or she argues the case. Generally this will be in the introduction or conclusion of a chapter. This top-down approach is much more efficient than a chronological approach that most readers take. Even though professors may expect you to read the book in its entirety, to better comprehend a book you focusing on the thesis will help you read the rest of the author’s argument with more efficiency.

Third, find the best time of the day to read. Take time when you are the most alert to read. Keep a list of what you need (or would like to read) and keep at it. Don’t wait until a due date. This will keep your reading list manageable. If you find something that will be helpful for a paper then make a note and come back to it during that reserved reading time. Be consistent and make it a habit.

Fourth, take good notes that you can retrieve later. A good summary of a book will keep me from having to re-read a book. It also helps me retrieve old information when I need it for a different paper or class. Good notes will help you not only in later classes, but later in ministry when you need to put together a lesson or sermon.

Reading is a cognitive activity. Like anything else, to increase your effectiveness, you have to practice. The best way to do this is to take a reading class or to find some exercises that will help increase your speed. Periodically check the speed at which you are reading. I will generally monitor how much time I spend reading a book by reading or monitor how many pages that I'm reading per hour.