First, you skim the chapter: just read the section headers, bold-faced words, and the tables, figures, and boxes. Next, look in the glossary for any bold-faced words that you don’t understand and aren’t defined directly in the text. Next, read through the entire chapter once. Don’t worry about understanding it, just read it. After that, read it a second time, this time trying to understand it. Read each section or sub-section, then pause and summarize it in your own words. Write down your summary and the author’s main points as a quick-reference for tests. Look up words you don’t understand in the glossary or a dictionary and write them down (Answers.com’s dictionary is a great quick-reference). The cases used as examples should be included somewhere in the textbook: if they’re not in a box or table in the chapter, they should be in the glossary. If not, look in the index. If you still can’t figure out what the case was about, look at Answers.com or Wikipedia. Next, go through the questions at the end of the chapter and answer them all. The answers should be in the back of the book. Finally, write down everything you still don’t understand and discuss it with your professor at the appropriate time during class.

Hope this helps!

BTW: Answers.com and Wikipedia are great quick-references for anything. Just don’t expect them to be authoritative on the subject.