reading

I came across this tip on reading for comps: "The best method is: read the book, mark important sections in the margins; close the book; write one or two paragraphs on what the argument was; then fill in important detail as you think needed, referring back to what you marked in the margins"
Hmmm... this sounds sensible...

Another one says: "I took detailed notes as I read, then for each book wrote a one to two page book review summarizing the argument and my response to it. I then annotated my bibliography with a paragraph description for each book. My final review during the last week consisted of rereading my reviews and my annotations, as well as writing out practice essays."

This sounds like my previous experience. I was writing as detailed notes as I could in Notebook files, which I then wrote a short abstract for in my Bookends database. The idea is that I would have an annotated bibliography towards the end, like I did for my directed reading with M. I may combine the two methods...