Possible advantages and disadvantages of: Read entire section then attempt section exercises or attempt section exercises as you read small parts?

Question

I am just curious as to the possible advantages and disadvantages to:

Reading the entire section of a textbook then attempting section exercises

as opposed to

Read part of the section and attempt exercises pertaining to the part just read and continuing until the entire section is read.

Answer 1

Unless apecific exercises are mentioned in the text (e.g. "the other direction of th eproof is left as an exercise, see Ex. 1.2.3"), I'd suggest the first approach. For one, it may not be totally clear how much of the section you have to have understood in order to solve the individual axercises (or if additional reading might facilitate the exercise even if it is possible to solve earlier; for example "list all groups of order $\le 5$" could be solved immediately after the definition of group - but haveing a few basic theorems at your disposal makes it much easier and more instructive). And moreover it may be a good check whether you have forgotton the basics of the section when you rech the end of the section.