How to Read Like an Oxford Student | Master Any Subject

Hello! Welcome or welcome back to another video. My name is Phoebe. I received my undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Oxford and now I'm a PhD student at Harvard University. Today, I'm going to be sharing with you some tips on how you can read like an Oxford student, whether you're a high school student or just a studious, passionate individual, and how you can become an expert in anything, even without a university library. All you need for this video is access to Wi-Fi, a Word document or a physical journal like this one, time, and of course, excitement for your chosen subject. Now, as usual, in this video, I'll be covering general tips. For any of you who are high school students interested in studying at Oxford or thinking about applying, I'll be uploading another video onto my Patreon. Of course, as usual, completely free of charge, reviewing all the books I mentioned in my personal statement that got me offers to Oxford, UCL, Durham, King's College, and the University of Edinburgh. It's never too early to be thinking about these applications, so head on over there if you're looking to think ahead. The link is in the description. Now, I'm going to be dividing this video into two sections. Number one, things you should do while reading and number two, things you should do after reading. First, here are the three things you should be doing while you're reading and researching your subject. Number one is don't read questions. Now, when approaching a subject, most of us lack confidence and that's only natural because we're new at this subject, but it's very important still to not read passively. Of course, in any subject, there are basic facts. For instance, in history, dates of things, although sometimes even these things can be in contention, anything beyond basic factual statements though are arguments that this scholar is making to you. They're trying to persuade you that their interpretation of this topic is the So, interrogate it. Do you believe in what they're saying? If yes or no, why? So, how can you actually tell what these scholars are saying? It's important to divide the text that you're reading into arguments and evidence. At school, perhaps you learned in English class the acronym PEE, Point Evidence Explanation, or some iteration of this acronym. It is surprisingly similar how writing is done even at the higher education level. Of course, not all paragraphs strictly follow this acronym model exactly, but in some way or the other, the scholar will be making an argument or point then using evidence to back up that point. So, it's really important when you read that you identify their arguments and then identify the evidence he or she is using to demonstrate that argument. When I make notes, for example, I like to have the argument at the top like this and then have following evidence listed out underneath it. It can get quite complicated because in longer works and even in shorter articles, authors will often make more than one argument, sometimes within one paragraph, but it's still helpful to use these argument sentences as anchors to help you parse the text. Next, how should you keep track of what you're reading? I like using a Word document for non-fiction notes just because it's much more easier to recall things later with Command-F, but of course, you can also do handwritten notes in notebooks like this one, and I used to do that for a while when I was reading in high school. What's important while making notes, whether it's online or offline though, is to keep track of the page numbers because often you'll be shortening a very complicated argument into shorter notes and the precise argument might not be so clear to you when you review your notes later, or you might just want to revisit the argument again, and so it's very important that you know which page you saw something on. Personally, I like to use superscript when I write my notes. It just looks clean and it's easy to reference later. And last but not least, use footnotes for references to other books. Often when an author mentions a fact or someone else's opinion in their work, they'll be using the footnotes to cite where they got that fact or opinion from. When you're researching a new topic, it's completely normal to go down tangents and rabbit holes. I really like when I do this actually when I'm researching for a thesis or an article because it helps me to find the niche in whatever topic I'm reading about that I'm actually interested in, but I also don't want to stop reading this current article that introduced me to this niche, so I put the interesting reference in my own footnotes when writing my notes so I can reference it later and also so that I know where I got the reference from in the first place. This way, I can trace my own line of thought. This is also my go-to way of curating a reading list when researching a new topic. Now here are two things you should do after you finish reading. Number one is to reread your notes sporadically in one sitting. While I'm creating this master document full of my notes on one subject, I like to take time you know during that process to sit down and revise all of my notes in one sitting as if I'm reading my own little curriculum or handbook just to remember what my initial questions were when I started researching this topic, whether I feel as though I've satisfactorily answered those questions in my reading, and also to track how my questions have branched out into smaller more detailed questions. It can also help to mind map this and maybe you can talk about that in a later video. And number two is to find the gap. Now to truly become a scholar in something is not to be passively accepting the information from others, but somehow further in the field yourself. And perhaps this is more difficult to do kind of officially when you're not part of an institution, but at the same time there's nothing stopping you. Once you go down a rabbit hole far enough you'll notice that there are parts of the field that no one has thought about before or are mentioned briefly by scholars but not fully interrogated by them yet. That is the gap. If you start researching to fill this gap you're basically working like a scholar. I also wanted to talk to you about some good places you can find resources for free. When I do my research now of course I do use my university library quite a lot, but I still managed to independently research quite a bit when I was in high school before I had access to these huge library resources. A good place to look is any library that you might have access to, whether that's a high school or public library. Of course they're not likely to have all the books that you need and if your topic becomes quite niche it'll be difficult to find them in these libraries, but I frequently found that in the beginning stages of my research they often have very good overview books and the occasional niche book that is actually very helpful. And so it's always worth checking this resource if you have one near you. They often also now have like a database of quite a lot of scanned books and things online if you get a membership, so it's definitely worth checking out kind of what they have available. There are also several useful websites that provide free access to university level resources. One of my favorite websites is JSTOR that lets you read up to 100 articles for free per month if you register with your email. You can also take university level courses online for free too. I made a video about this recently but Harvard has over 50 courses that you can audit for free online. You do have to pay if you want a certificate, but if our main purpose is to research then these courses can be very insightful. I remember in high school I used to take free courses through Open University too and I actually spoke about them in my application essays and interviews. And finally secondhand bookshops can be a really great resource as well. I know not everyone will have secondhand bookshops near them but if you do they can be a great place to buy non-fiction books at a much cheaper price point. So these are my tips on how you can read like an Oxford student. As I said before on my Patreon I'm going to be reviewing the books I mentioned in my personal statement for Oxford so head on over there, the link is in the description. Otherwise thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in another video!