There are techniques for previewing chapters of textbooks and note-taking techniques that I'm sure I would have really benefited from. I not only learned a few techniques to help me read faster (I'm not yet double my previous reading speed, but I'm working on it, and with practice, can get there), but this is a book I wished I had when I was in university. (I consider myself a slow reader and have always wished I could read faster) - the book promises tripling or quadrupling your reading speed however, in all honesty, I figured it I merely increased my reading speed or perhaps even just doubled it, I'd be well ahead of where I currently stood and be able to read more in less time (Yes, I'm afflicted with the sickness of buying way more books than I can read in a single year - my "to read" pile far exceeds my ability to keep up) After chatting with him for about 15 minutes, and learning more about the book, I was convinced to pick it up and read it, even if all I got from it was the ability to read at twice my current speed. The conversation started when I questioned why he added it as required rather than optional. I hope it helps.This book was recommended to me by a prof at McMaster University who has it as required reading for his first year INQUIRY students. Just like driving on a highway, if you’re doing 90 and slow down to 70 it feels slow, but if you’re doing 50 and speed up to 70 it feels fast even though it’s the same speed. Then after a page or two slow down to the speed that’s comfortable for you. Start reading too fast to be able to comprehend everything comfortably. Reading with your finger helps a lot here, just remember to follow the finger at all times. But first you have to acknowledge that it exists, realize that you are indeed doing it. If you want to improve the speed of your reading you have to fight this habit. The fact that skipping back to re-read a single word (or even a whole sentence) slows you down is obvious. ![]() It happens without us even knowing it (at first). So the idea is, you look at a fragment of text and read a couple of words all at once, then you take another snapshot of the words next to them, and so on. The goal here is to not focus on single words individually, but to read two or three of them in just one snapshot. The easiest way of doing this is to read from a bigger distance (like 2ft). The words in bold indicate the focus points. “Marry had a little lamb but she ate it for supper.” Your eyes will catch those first and last words too, by using something called the peripheral vision.Īs an example consider such a line of text: Don’t worry, you won’t lose any information. Here’s what you do: start reading each line on the third word, and end each line on the third word from the end. However, when you’re speed reading it’s totally impossible to do it and be thinking about something else at the same time, so focus! 4. It was, let’s say, “doable” to read an article or a chapter of a book despite not being present with your mind. When I was reading something in the past, even if it was interesting, I found myself wandering off and thinking about other things, so I had to re-read the same sentence a couple of times. This may sound obvious but it’s worth mentioning here. Once you set specific speed, stick to it. Just remember, the finger determines the speed of your reading, not the other way around. The finger will determine your speed making it easy to speed up or slow down when necessary. Just use your finger to trace under each line as you read along. This will occupy your mind with a simple activity so there’s no other way for you to read than to use only your eyes – which is the true secret of speed reading. Something like: “1 2 3 4 5” or “a e i o u”. The easiest trick around this is to repeat something else instead. The goal is to read with your eyes, not with your mouth. Whenever you find yourself repeating the words in your mind or out loud you are significantly decreasing the speed of your reading. This is the thing that really slows us down. Thanks to these tricks I’m able to read one book every week just by spending a couple of hours on Sunday. I’ve done some research and come up with a list of 7 critical elements of speed reading. That’s where speed reading comes into picture. It is obvious that there are only so many hours in a day, so if I want to be able to read more I have to learn to read faster. In fact, there’s so many of them that I don’t have enough time to enjoy them all. ![]() And soon I discovered that a different breed of books exists too – books that are extremely interesting. Then I finished school and went my own path. ![]() ![]() (Well, it can’t be my fault, can it?) You see, it’s difficult to enjoy reading when every book your teacher throws at you is of no interest to you whatsoever. I was never a big fan of reading… I blame it on the education system, of course.
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