Pure anecdote, but my personal experience suggests that reading vs listening do not activate the same part of the brain. With textbooks specifically, reading assignments never seemed to do me much good - I’d read a page, really giving it my attention, but then make it to the end of the page and realize I have no idea what it was talking about like 3 paragraphs ago.

Enter the age of digital textbooks and text-to-speech software - fucking godsend for me, even when it’s the shitty Microsoft Sam style voice. Listening to the material instead of reading increased retention quite a bit.

Taking it up another notch, doing them both simultaneously was the clear winner. If I listen to a reading assignment while following along visually reading the text, it’s like a one-and-done and ready to take the test at the end of the semester with no further studying.

I discovered this superpower near the end of highschool, and it has absolutely carried me through everything since - if you think you might be an auditory learner, give it a shot!