Speed reading? Any one learned it?

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Any one learned to do it?
Im thinking of buying a program to improve. any recomendations?
 

Jariel

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Paul Scheele's Photoreading

It took me a while to pick up and it's very difficult to overcome old habits, but if you persist with it and have faith, it will start to work out. I read a 350 page book in 2 hours yesterday.

The hardest part is comprehension. You feel like you miss a lot of information when you speed read, but you retain more tha more you practice.

Second recommendation would be Tony Buzan's Speed Reading.

I highly recommend it, but I must stress that you need to persist, have faith and keep practising.
 

Austrian88

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oO i NEVER heard anything about speed reading, but I read pretty fast. could anyone post me a link on this please? I guess I'm doing it for 12 years now :D.
btw, i never experienced missing of information.
 

MacAvoy

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yea I read a book on it, tried it, worked good, but I don't have the drive to make it a habit to do it properly. The most important aspects of speed reading are posture and environment, another area where i'm lazy. However it does work, I know that much. I think I read Buzan as well, got the book from the library, it was a tremendous help.

You might want to look into Mind Mapping as well.
 

Francisco d'Anconia

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Google a program called Eye-Q.
 

havybastard

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ive learnt it and i reckoned it was **** so i didnt keep doing it.

I mean, the only time you would want to speed read would be to scan a book to find particular information you find. IT ****s up reading for pleasure because you dont get alot of the eloquence and alot of the detail.

all u do is

1) instead of reading a page line by line, put you finger below the line you are reading like you do to little kids
2) move your finger very fast across the bottom of the line, forcing your eyes to follow
3) keep practicing and you will find that as you jump lines you start to focus on the centre of each line without actually trying
4)As you get better you should be able to drop your finger down the middle of the page, with your peripheral vision absorbing the other important bits
5)With time you learn to not even see the non important words like ajectives and just get the facts

btw i did this some time ago so it might be a little off but i was pretty good
 

Docs

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Learn to skim. Over 70% of written text is filler, description, or joining words such as 'and', 'but', 'or', etc.

Do it on a novel, just fly though a chapter. Then reread the chapter. You'll go, whoa, I remember this stuff. It's that simple. By the time you read the whole novel, you'll be impressed with yourself.
 

kickureface

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the thing about novels is that you miss alot if you're looking for tone and style.
also, its harder to connect information if you read fast, if you know what i mean
 

djtdot

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This speed reading is not good for reading university books is it? I have some bulky engineering books and would love to know if there is a fast way to read it.
 

Docs

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(Fvck this keyboard ><)

Umm, you could try speed reading your engineering, as I'd imagine when they try to explain a concept, they use examples....so, you should be keeping strong notes. When I was in school, I wrote title, brief use of formula, formula in general format, and examples as required. Because I could take a board full of information and condense it into maybe a paragraph, I had the time to write these notes out with effort, making them neat, so don't be afraid to use coloured pens and develop a system of formatting formulas and paragraphs, subtitles, etc.

If you're always rushing to take down notes, or they look like crap, or you just don't get it, try my method of note taking.

Blabber = Hell.
 

Jariel

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Docs said:
Learn to skim. Over 70% of written text is filler, description, or joining words such as 'and', 'but', 'or', etc.

Exactly!

Think of it as looking at a picture. You wouldn't start at the top corner and work your way across and down. You take in the whole picture first, then examine the details more closely after. When you speed read, your first step is to get a concept, then read it again to build a more complete picture.

A tip for notetaking too. Like Docs said, over 70% of text is filler, so you do not need to include it when you take notes. If you just note the keywords from a text after reading it, your mind will fill in the details.



Example summary of above text:

Speed reading

Like picture
Take whole first
Examine details
Build complete


Notetaking

70% filler
Note keywords
Mind fill in details



Using these keywords you can easily create logical sentences and re-create the whole text. Your version may not be the same word for word as the original, but the concept will be the same. Furthermore, if you can memorise these keywords (easy enough right), you have in essence memorised the complete text.
 

Ricky

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I have been interested in this as well for years. I have a few books but never routinely reinforce the practice.

My theory on speed reading is, you should read quickly enough the first time and comprehend a good portion of that. Then make use of the fact that you can read quickly to go over the book again and put notes in it.

I think the main advantage of speed reading is that it will allow you to get more repetitions in on a topic (more review of it that is), therefore it can improve your memory of a subject.

Also remember some books aren't worth reading twice or even the first time.

With textbooks, sometimes I will read rapidly the first time, then the second time go over it slow enough that I can highlight the important points.
 
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