<p>How long does it take you to read through sections in Gardner’s Art Through the Ages? Estimate by page, chapter, whatever.</p>
<p>For some reason I find it’s really hard for me to focus and scan through the text quickly. I’m considered a pretty fast reader, and I do well with general comprehension even when I’ve only skimmed a text once, but I can’t seem to absorb information that easily for this textbook. I mean, I’m really bad at memorizing dates, but otherwise I can’t seem to pinpoint a specific problem. It takes me forever to concentrate enough to go through a page without having to go back and parse everything to myself, even with all the space taken up by pictures.</p>
<p>Stokstad’s book is what I am using and it is pretty crazy too. When I actually start studying for the AP test in January it will probably take me 3 hours per chapter and then another two memorizing the pieces names, dates, artists. I’m going to be in for the long haul!</p>
<p>I’m taking it online and at first I took notes on every single chapter but now I’m starting to get lazy and just read it through without really absorbing anything. How far into the book are you?</p>
<p>My class is on Chapter 19 having skipped the non-Western chapters, but we’re behind and need to get to 22 by after next week. Myself, let’s just say I have a LOT to catch up on for reading, though I have a decent amount of info from class notes.</p>
<p>The book is way too didactic and dry for me. It takes me a really long time (about an hour) just to read through about seven pages. It’s really difficult to know what’s important and what isn’t, and it’s also difficult to really grasp and comprehend the info (especially when it starts discussing the historical context).</p>
<p>Gardener’s is so miserable. 30 minutes to skim, another 30-45 to process a chapter. I tend to take insanely detailed notes (because the ones we take in class are…questionable) in the hopes that writing things down will help me memorize (if not understand) any of it.</p>
<p>We used this book in my Art History class, and I honestly didn’t rely on it too heavily. I scored a 5 on the exam. I used an AP prep book and made a ton of flashcards with important pieces. I also studied the Annotated Mona Lisa and the Annotated Arch. They are really accessible and helpful books. Basically for the exam you want to know a few pieces for each theme/period/etc extremely well for the free response, and the most important pieces well enough to get through the multiple choice. You don’t need the level of detail that the huge textbooks give you.</p>