If you’re new to uni there’s one thing you’ll learn quickly: uni readings are tough. From understanding what the hell the author is trying to say, to focusing on miniscule text that continues for 42-pages or more, your weekly readings will probably frequent your nightmares.

Complex and unnecessarily difficult readings are an academic’s wet dream. But instead of letting them take over your life and make you dread the next few years of your degree, here’s how you can conquer them.

Grab yourself a bevvy

You’re down and out. Something alcoholic usually works to ease the brain-strain.

Likewise, if coffee was a person, we’d kiss them for getting us pumped to do our readings.

Treat yo self because uni’s hard and you haven’t dropped out yet.

You don’t have to read the whole text

Relax, this isn’t a novel. You can get away with skipping through parts of the text that seem irrelevant.

Most tutors don’t expect you to read the whole text and that’s why they give readings that look like they were inspired by the length of a bottomless pit.

Just highlight the important parts and bring them to the tute, so that way you’ll look super prepared even if you can’t remember what the reading was about.

Where all the info at?

Most readings look a bit like this:

Intro

Text

Text repeating itself x100

Conclusion

When a text isn’t busy making a point, it’s busy repeating that point over and over again.

If you’re stretched for time, the trick is to read the introduction and intro paragraphs of each body. That’s usually where the main ideas are hidden. Sneaky, right?

Turn off the music

As much as you think turning up the jams will help you get your reading done, it’s more likely to distract you from the already cryptic message in the text.

Now is not the time for ‘One Dance’, but if you can’t break up with Spotify for an hour, at least avoid music with lyrics and go for something elevator-inspired instead.

Travel time= reading time

Living off campus is a disguised blessing, because with all that travel time, you can get your readings done easily.

But for those of us who feel like we’re going to puke every time we try to do something productive on public transport, don’t let the motion sickness get the best of you. Just turn up to campus an hour or two early so you can smash out those readings. It’s called speed reading.

You’ve managed to read through this entire article, go you! So there’s no reason why you can’t sit down and get through a few uni readings.

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Eden Gillespie is an International Studies/Media student at UNSW with a love for breakfast bagels and Louis Theroux.

(Lead image: Harry Potter)