The process of knowing and evaluating what has learned,  is dependent on what the questions or ideas are  required. In a general sense certain books have prompts at the end. But for a general reading, to know what you had read about,or learned you extract the meaning by paraphrasing and then condensing  the paraphrase into a single thought.  For a general assignment i.e. schoolwork, assigned readings or any prescribed reading at all, the  default process is paraphrase, outline and draw bullet points from the text given.  For specialized processes such as SQ3R, there is a  skimming or surveying of the book or chapters of the book and then picking up  vital  points , go through the given question or necessary information to be extrapolated from the reading and then the 3 R , reading, reciting and reviewing.

To know if you have successfully attained the reading both from required and personal reading,  the questions given are answered and then re-evaluated from one;s understanding and not memorization. By using a similar or the same method SQ3R one is able to develop a process for abstracting information from a given text. Also it follows for any design program to draw concept diagrams in aiding the summary and bullet points from any given text.