Interrogating Texts: 6 Reading Habits to Develop in Your First Year at Harvard - Research Guides. Critical reading—active engagement and interaction with texts—is essential to your academic success at Harvard, and to your intellectual growth. Research has shown that students who read deliberately retain more information and retain it longer. Your college reading assignments will probably be more substantial and more sophisticated than those you are used to from high school. The amount of reading will almost certainly be greater. CollegeRuled. Effective Learning. The Career Closet.