This study describes immediate and delayed text recall characteristics of good and poor readers at grades five, eight, eleven, and college. Two science and social study passages were selected from texts used at each grade. Immediately after reading and recalling each of the passages, one of four study conditions was administered: no study, think, outline, or combined think and outline. Eight to ten days later delayed recall was taken with the passage titles as cues. The measures used were reading time, study time, order of recall, and total and hierarchical proportions of propositions recalled. Good readers recalled more text propositions and better maintained text input order than did poor readers. Amount recalled did not increase by grade, but there was an increase by grade for able readers in retention and in order of recall. Both ability groups recalled more of the high level propositions than low level. Studying improved retention over no study. Good readers spent slightly more time in reading and studying than did poor readers, and the good readers' use of thinking time was effective in increasing amount retained per time spent over that of the no study condition. (Author)