Dominic O Brien (and several other people) suggested speed reading as a tool to improve your learning. I recently picked up Tony Buzan’s book and I’m about 50 pages in. Although I began enthusiastically, I often find it is written in a very matter of fact way, often stating bold claims as if they were fact when they are still hotly debated.
Has speed reading worked for you? If it worked, then how long did you have to work at it? I’m not afraid to put the hard work in, but I have become slightly suspicious due to quite a few negative reactions on amazon and other reviews sites which seem to suggest that comprehension is indeed reduced during speed reading. They argue that it is in fact more like “skimming” and certainly does not apply to more detailed reading such as reading science books.
Would appreciate any opinions or advice! Thanks a lot.
The fixation idea is golden for speed reading and has shown the best results for me. The trick is to read chunks without moving the eyes too often. Another one is backtracking. Many times people will backtrack while reading because they don’t immediately comprehend the words (almost like when someone tells you something and you ask “what?” only to understand what they said exactly as the “what?” is leaving your mouth). Most of the time, these words just haven’t clicked yet, but they do not need to be reread. Learning to stop yourself from backtracking is a very good trick. I don’t know how well eliminating subvocalization works, since I’ve never been able to accomplish it beyond reducing it to a skim.
As for the advanced methods, I don’t buy a lot of the 10,000+ WPM claims, but I have had experiences with extremely quick comprehension. I had one experience reading fiction (H.P. Lovecraft) that was thick with imagery. I scanned the lines as quickly as I could using one eye movement per line and I was able to see the story as a movie in my mind even while moving far faster than my average reading speed. I’m thinking this was a special case because the words were describing intense visual experiences, so it was easier than reading dialogue or something just based on the brain’s ability to process quick visual data. I’ve never been able to reach those kinds of speeds during dialogue or descriptions of more abstract nature.
My visualization is pretty good, but mental processing needs a gigantic boost. It’s like I see the words in my minds eye but have to sit there and wait until the Mr. Meaning arrives.lol
I did attend one of Tony’s Speed Reading courses a couple of years back (I got it as a freebie) and thought it was utter tripe. Wild claims by the attendees regarding improvements in their speed of reading did nothing to impress.
I do know for a fact, that my college room mate, many, many, many years ago could read around a 1000 words a minute. This was his natural normal speed. That was back in the dark ages.lol :Sp
When we took our entrance exams, he would finish and wonder what the problem was with me because I never finished one test within the allotted time.
I just get stuck jumping FROM ONE WORD TO THE NEXT.
So, obviously, READING AIN’T THAT MUCH FUN FOR ME.
I can glance at 3 or 4 words, close my eyes and mentally see them without any problem. But in order to comprehend what they mean, I have to invariably connect the first to the second and so forth by speaking them out in my head.
It’s the same process for memorizing a deck of cards. That takes a TON of time.
I haven’t found anything that has made a major improvement in my reading skill, YET! I haven’t given up though I’m on the back 40 of my life. (69 years)
I envy you guys! My brain seems to be wired with old rusty cables.
You wouldn’t really need speed reading for that. I was able to read one or more books per day back in middle school with just my normal reading speed (stuff like The Hobbit or The Time Machine). I read the fifth Harry Potter book, which is something like 800 pages in one sitting the day after it was released (as I did with all the HP books). A lot of people have very fast natural reading speeds.
I really doubt that speed reading can get you up to Kim Peek levels like most of the writers claim unless you’re just some kind of savant, but it’s very possible to increase speeds from average levels to above average or even elite levels with a few easy tricks and some focused training. I was already a naturally quick reader at a young age and still saw improvement from practicing.
The tricks were the ones in the article I linked above. These are mostly mean to optimize intake of information, and work best with intense focus. Meditation or something may help with focusing the mind.
My take on the fixation trick is that it works best if you keep a constant beat in your head. You could maybe even use a metronome for pacing. At first your comprehension may not be as good because you’re focusing more on learning the movement, but once it becomes ingrained to move your eyes to that beat and you’re able to focus all of your attention on the words, your comprehension should recover to normal.
The other trick is to not backtrack. This happens all the time either due to the time it takes for your brain to interpret the symbols and assign their meaning or because of lack of focus. I think the beat helps with this, too. The trick here is to constantly be moving forward and to try to catch yourself if you ever try to backtrack. This requires focused attention just like the fixation trick, so don’t be alarmed if your comprehension isn’t as good as usual at first.
It would probably be best to work to eliminate backtracking before working on eye movement, since that works best while moving at an even pace.
The only other trick I’ve used is to just force myself to read faster. Just try to go a little bit faster than you’re comfortable with and try to get used to it. Then push it some more.
There some other things I can think of that may help, but I’ll post them later when I’m less tired.
Thank you Loki for that info and taking the time to reply.
I like the metronome trick. Being a musician (composer), I understand that well. I could think in duple or triple time (2/4, 3/4). Maybe even think in a musical style, depending on what I’m reading.
I’ll start with a slow beat and a fixation point of every 4 words or so (maybe less, since I’m a Word by Word-er).
Plus, always look to the right, not left except at the end of the line.
I have to be careful not to add a (recitative) melody to the words and be right back where I started WORD FOR WORD.
I type pretty fast but there is a ceiling to how fast no matter how many hours or years I continue to type. But, if I back off for awhile, I may get slower.
Maybe its the same with reading or anything else. Once you reach a certain level you have to continually push forward to stay there.
But I keep on searching for more efficient ways to enhance my life regardless of what I focus on.
I just stumbled upon your conversation and thought I can give some insights from my experience since I give Speed Reading Classes myself: http://speedstudents.de/
I used to read very slow, around 200WpM, tried couple of books, to learn it myself, but didnt really get a lot from them.
My breakthrough experience came when i attended a Speed Reading Class. I went from from 200WpM to around 400WpM. After an initial training period of 4 weeks after the course I went from 400WpM to 800WpM and maintained that Speed with good comprehension since.
I totally agree with the fixation issue mentioned above. What one can do to develop good fixation is that you draw two (and later one) vertical lines across the page that you read. You can do that with 20-30 pages. Your page is then divided into 3 same thirds. Using a metronome, you read one line per beat with 3 fixations (looking into each third)
After an initial training period you can draw one vertical line, so that you get two same halfs. (reading with 2 fixations per line)
What that did for me is, it improved my visual span, enabling me to read more than one word per fixation. Meanwhile I read 3-5 words per fixation and therefore trippled-quadrupled my reading speed.
On the above link you also find an eBook for free. Unfortunately its in german, but I hope those tips help in general.