Work Smarter Not Harder

Watching Videos for School Are More Beneficial Than Reading

Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash

After a long day of school, going home to read 58 pages for a class is exhausting. Reading itself takes a lot of focus and self-discipline in order to stay away from distraction and trying to read long texts for school can be hard depending on how interested a student is in the material. Trying to process loads of information present in complex readings also makes it harder to remember the key points of the material because it can easily get lost in the rest of the text. While being able to dissect key points from texts is an important skill, when it comes to nightly reading with 10 or more pages, it is more beneficial for students to watch videos on the chapter. Since videos have the key points laid out for viewers to save their time and provide more visuals, making them typically more enjoyable and less time consuming.

Watching videos saves many students time. As the school year goes on the work piles up and along with extracurriculars, many students do not have time to sit down and thoroughly read pages from a textbook. Having good time management is a skill the majority of high school students lack due to overwhelming workloads, laziness or stress.  For example, history classes at Maclay specifically require a lot of reading in a short period of time. Heimler’s History has been a huge lifesaver for students at Maclay because the videos are able to cover loads of material in such a brief amount of time. With over 75% of students participating in after-school activities, a great deal turns to Heimler’s History for important information covered in their readings. Finding videos on a subject is a great way to save time and benefit your learning experience for the better. 

When you watch videos, their pictures, colors and ideas are painted across the screen for you, making it easier to remember some of the key concepts of the text. Watching rather than reading provides the pictures of a theme or situation to be right in front of us. Sometimes, reading long texts start to get blurry, which causes us to gloss over what could possibly be a key takeaway from the reading. Moreover, it is hard to picture 20 pages of reading on a subject, such as reading about cells, as the text isn’t written in a way to make you picture anything, as the purpose is to absorb the text– hence the many pictures added to textbooks. According to Kezia Karen Liandro on LinkedIn, watching a video, on the other hand, is more engaging, which helps our brains to remember specific points.

As humans, it is easier to find joy in watching something with a fun narrative or colors. Sitting down and forcing yourself to read is draining and tiring for most, especially at the end of the day. While it is a student’s responsibility to learn the material, understanding the material is more important and watching videos is a more efficient way to do it. As said in Complete Literature, watching videos is entertaining, which keeps the viewer engaged with the material covered. Some may argue that reading gives more details. Even though this could be true, not all details are necessary. An important part of reading is having a basic understanding, which a video provides you with. Therefore, videos are the perfect solution when on a time crunch or to just understand a video better.

Overall, if a student cannot find any time to read throughout the day and makes them feel overwhelmed, watching videos is the perfect solution. Videos guarantee the knowledge of key details or points throughout the text, a more engaged takeaway and an efficient but enjoyable way to study.