They help students quickly pull out of their textbooks the most important information they’ll need to know for a test.

Here’s what your child should do:

1. Examine the chapter title to see what the whole chapter is about.

2. Read the summary or review at the end of the chapter and write down the main ideas.

3. On a separate sheet of paper, write each of the chapter’s main headings and subheadings as a question. Leave three blank lines under each.

To make questions, your child can just add who, what, where, when or how to the front of the statement. For example, if the heading is “Battle of Bunker Hill”—your child could write, “Who fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill?” “Where was it fought,” etc.

4. Think about how the headings relate to one another and to the chapter title.

5. Examine illustrations and charts.

6. Look up definitions of all unfamiliar words in the headings and the vocabulary section of the chapter, if there is one.

Now your child is ready to read the chapter and find the answers to the questions he made in step three. He should write the answers in the blank spaces he left under each question.

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