Now the speed reading part
Hinted at in the last post…
I was faced with a problem last night. I hadn’t started reading the book, it was 270 pages long and the exam is tomorrow. I could have gone with summaries and notes, but I kinda wanted to read it but just hadn’t gotten around to it.
Enter speed reading: I’ve been reading a bit about it (link 1, link 2) and thought I’d give it a shot. It’s the bomb!! I got through the book in two sittings… last night and this morning taking about 4 hours total, and (I think) I got some good retention. We’ll find out tomorrow 
I recommend you give it a try if you find yourself having to get through large blocks of reading.
The things that worked bast for me was
- Comfortable chair
- Good light
- Stopping sub-vocalisation (click the links above)
- using a piece of paper to track my reading down the page
- Taking a break every now and then to think back over what I’d read
Anyone got other reading tips?
November 19th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Ok well, I think the hardest thing to do is stop sub-vocalising. Even when I read in blocks of words I still tend to read one important word. When I read complex text, it’s pretty tough not to kind of speak it out to make it make sense. It’s a good technique and something they should have taught in school. We’d all be brainier.
Reply to marty
November 19th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Yeah the sub-vocalising thing is hard to stop!
I have to keep catching myself doing it and then make an effort not to. Its pretty amazing how much faster reading is when you dont do it though, and surprising that you really dont need to.
I reckon a lot of this depends on what kind of material you are reading and how comfortable you are with the style.
I agree - should be taught in schools.
Reply to reuben
November 24th, 2008 at 10:26 am
i think i’m gonna be saying aeiou a lot from now on.
as you both say, it’s fascinating, isn’t it.
i think i fall into the trap (i put it down to ocd) of rereading stuff i think they’ve said wrong, or incoherently. i’ll reread a sentence for a couple of minutes just to try make it make sense!
also, that second link seems to have gone wrong.
Reply to psychodougie