SQ3R Template

What the SQ3R method is

Francis P. Robinson described SQ3R in Effective Study so a textbook chapter would not turn into a wall of highlighter. The name is the order of the work: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review. This SQ3R template is that order on one sheet. You look before you read, you read to answer a question, and you check yourself before you leave the page.

Survey is a skim, not a reading. You take the title, the headings, the introduction, the summary, and the pictures, and you write what the chapter seems to be about. Question comes next. A heading is a label. A question is something you can miss. Read is then a search for those answers, one section at a time, in your own notes. Recite is the step people skip: cover the notes and say the answer. Review is the return pass, the questions you still cannot answer and the lines you want to see again tomorrow.

The recite step is what makes the sheet different from a summary you copy out of the book. Familiar sentences feel like memory. A question you answer with the book closed is a better test, and it is the one this page is built around.

How to use this SQ3R template

1. Name the reading. Fill in the title, the reading, and the date at the top of the sheet.
2. Survey. Skim the title, the headings, the introduction, the summary, and the pictures. Write what you expect the chapter to cover.
3. Make questions. Paste the headings, one per line, and turn them into questions. Edit any question that does not sound like something you can answer.
4. Read, recite, and review. Read to answer one question at a time. Look away and recite the answer in your own words. In Review, mark what you still cannot answer.
5. Keep a copy. Print the page, or download a blank or filled SQ3R template PDF, or Markdown. If you switched on SQ4R, the file includes Record or Reflect.

The draft is saved in this browser as you type, using localStorage. Come back to the same address on the same device and the sheet is still there, including the SQ4R switch. Clear draft removes it. Another browser, or a private window, starts empty.

SQ4R template: Record or Reflect

An SQ4R template keeps the five SQ3R steps and adds one more R. Textbooks do not agree on which R that is, so this page lets you pick. Record sits after Read: you write the main ideas in a few sentences of your own, short enough to review later. Reflect sits after Recite: you connect the passage to something you already know, or you note what it still does not explain. Switching to SQ4R shows that step on the sheet, on the blank PDF, on the filled PDF, and in the Markdown file. Switch back to SQ3R and the extra step stays in the draft, but it leaves the page and the file.

Blank and filled SQ3R template PDF

Blank PDF (A4) and Blank PDF (Letter) are empty ruled sheets: a line for the title, the reading, and the date, then a band for each step you have switched on. Print one when you want to write by hand. Filled PDF (A4) and Filled PDF (Letter) use the text on the page now. If the notes run past one page, the PDF continues and repeats the step name. Markdown is the same sheet as a note, with a heading for each step, so you can keep it in a folder of chapter notes.

A useful question comes from a heading

“The water cycle” is a title. “What is the water cycle?” is a question you can fail. Paste the headings as they are printed, one per line, and use Make questions from headings. A line that already ends with a question mark is left alone. You should still edit the result. The generator gives you a first draft, and the wording you will actually recite is yours.