The Three-Pass Approach

A classic method from Keshav’s “How to Read a Paper”:

Pass 1: 5–10 minutes — Get the big picture

• Read: title, abstract, introduction
• Scan all figure captions and conclusions
• Decide: is this worth reading in depth?

Pass 2: ~1 hour — Grasp the content

• Read the body, skip proofs
• Focus on experimental setup and key figures
• Note limitations the authors acknowledge

Pass 3: Deep read — Replication-level understanding

• Derive every equation
• Challenge every assumption

My Note Template

## Problem
## Key Insight
## Method
## Experiments
## My Take
## Action Items

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