This research investigates the reading comprehension and the study condition in freshmen University students. The sample is composed by 138 students attending radiology, psychology and accountant courses at private universities in the south of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The instruments are a questionnaire focusing the student's study conditions and texts prepares according to Cloze's technique. The results show that a most of the students work during the day, stud at night, sleep late and wake up early so during classes they are tired and sleepy. According to them, despite all this they affirm that their attention has not become diffused easily during class activities but at home they have not good study habits. The study strategies are not enough and the reading comprehension was low having statistically significant differences among the groups.