Speed Reading

[drudman]

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Just an FYI. Bruiser, when you have kids, force them to read. They have to read, and read a lot before the age of 12. The brain is rewiring itself during that stage in life and it will make a difference. For instance, people who learn a language before the age of 12 don't have an accent. Those who learn after 12 do.

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This is completely untrue. I had to learn a new language when I was 10/11 in 30 days. It had nothing to do with being young etc. It's because I had to sit in a room studying with my dad 10 #(*#&(*&$ hours a day, then go outside for 3-4 and attempt to talk with the other kids there. I still have an accent in English even though it was my first/primary language because I lived overseas. This kids XXXXX learn faster than adults stuff is complete hogwash. It's like the people who claim adults can't get good at chess quickly. It's all bologna.

Sorry for blowing up. I just see this stuff said all the time and it's complete crap. It's in the same category as people saying we use 10% of our brains. It should be on an episode of Penn & Teller.

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I think we only use 10% of our hearts.

[SmileyEH]

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This kids XXXXX learn faster than adults stuff is complete hogwash

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You are wrong.

-SmileyEH

[Cased Heel]

I see your point but I still would prefer my method.

My method allows your eyes to simply move DOWN the page instead of left-right, then down (repeat) causing too much strain on your eyes.

Plus, when you're reading DOWN, you can still skim a line of 4 words that may not make sense, but the next 4 you see on the line below clarify. You see?

AND, when reading left-to-right, if you want to group 4 words together, you have to "guess" where to bounce your eyes on the line (where is the center of the next 4-5 words?) It's less efficient.

But if the lines
look like this
then you can simply
center your eyes in
the middle of each
line and move downward.
A much better method,
in my opinion.

Is this last paragraph not easier to read than all the previoius text?

[Cased Heel]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Just an FYI. Bruiser, when you have kids, force them to read. They have to read, and read a lot before the age of 12. The brain is rewiring itself during that stage in life and it will make a difference. For instance, people who learn a language before the age of 12 don't have an accent. Those who learn after 12 do.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is completely untrue. I had to learn a new language when I was 10/11 in 30 days. It had nothing to do with being young etc. It's because I had to sit in a room studying with my dad 10 #(*#&(*&$ hours a day, then go outside for 3-4 and attempt to talk with the other kids there. I still have an accent in English even though it was my first/primary language because I lived overseas. This kids XXXXX learn faster than adults stuff is complete hogwash. It's like the people who claim adults can't get good at chess quickly. It's all bologna.

Sorry for blowing up. I just see this stuff said all the time and it's complete crap. It's in the same category as people saying we use 10% of our brains. It should be on an episode of Penn & Teller.

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I think we only use 10% of our hearts.

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MOOOMMMMM!! The MEATLOAF!

[eMarkM]

As others have alluded to, the key to reading faster is not to sub-vocalize what you read. You have to train yourself to read whole sentences at a glance. I don't think you really need Evelyn Wood to do that. I don't know anything of their classes, but I glanced at their website and it looks like that's what their training is teaching. They claim they can treble your WPM. Well, if you're at 200 WPM, the low end of the average they quote, and get you to 600, I think that's an attainable goal if you're consistently sub-vocalizing while reading and break yourself of that habit.

You just have to really concentrate on not doing that when you read. I still fall into the habit of "reading aloud in my mind" and it can be difficult to change that if that's what you've done since childhood. Now, you're not going to get up to 2K WPM, but you can significantly increase your speed if you're not sub-vocalizing.

Also, there are different gears you shift in and out of depending on the reading material. Some books deserve a slow, deliberate read. The latest Harry Potter book, I can put into high gear and finish very quickly, about fours hours total for me this past weekend. Probably around 600 WPM. So I could read "two books a day" easily if that's all I did all day and the books were simple fiction like Rowling. A lot of dialog and nothing too taxing on the brain. The latest Harrington book, or something else that presents more intellectual material, I'd downshift because I want to understand the material presented. I doubt you could read Kant's Critique of Pure Reason in half a day and get total comprehension.

One aid I use to read faster is to place a bookmark on the line I'm currently reading. This helps me focus on the line because when you start reading words in groups and start speeding along, sometimes you can get lost and start focusing on the wrong line and lose track.

I also recommend a book called How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler. Not speed reading per se, though he does mention it. He describes how to approach different kinds of reading material and the different levels of reading required of them. How to make a superficial reading, detailed reading for complete comprehension, how to be critical of what you read and a lot of other subjects that go into comprehension beyond just reading fast.

[colgin]

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What is the deal with speed reading? I see that average readers read around 250 WPM, I can read at about 350 WPM but I do a lot of reading and feel like I should be able to read and more and want to learn to read more a minute. Trying to learn about speed reading, there are a few things going on. It looks like with a few basic techniques like conentrating and not rereaidng stff and using your finger a person can get up to 500-800 words and a minute, also reading words in groups.

The world champion in speed reading was at 2000 words a minute, then 2nd place and 3rd place wwere at 1100 or 1200 wpm. But then there is this Evelyn Wood speed reaing thing, she says she can read at a few thousand WPM. IN some book on this it syas that robert kenedy had evelyn wood or her people or whatever come in and teach his staff how to do read that way. PReseident carter supposedly using her method could read 1200 wpm.

some sites say teedy roosevelt used to read a couple books a day. some sites say the famous philosopher mills could "read as fast as he could turn the page". why are the world champion speed readers so slow then? and then there is another photo imaging methord where a person can read 25,000 words per minute. thoughts? your experience with speed reaidng?

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Speed reading was all the craze (especially Evelyn Wood) in the '70's when I was a kid. I learned these "techniques" back then and they are IMO complete bullshit. It amounts to glorified skimming and the speed you gain is directly correlated to a lack of comprehension. When I was in elementary school I got really "fast" at one point and realized that while I was losing so much information that the whole point ofreading faster was defeated. This was especially true for literature. I mean if you are going to start skimming great novels to just get to the end quicker, what's the point.

A few years after I stopped there was an episode of "That's Incredible" (for those of you who remmeber that) on ABC where a pizza delivery kid who was supposed to be like world speed reading champ or something. Theyhad him "read" all of "War and Peace" in 15 or 30 minutes in between pizza deliveries. It was impressive watching his right hand blaze down page after page and then rapidly turn to the next one. After he "finished" and they interviewed him it was quite clear that he had no idea what he had "read", if in fact he was reading anything at all. Of course, John Davidson loudly exclaimed, "That's Incredible!"

[Cased Heel]

"Well that proper girl in the hat just eye-f*cked the s*it outta me"

[steelcmg]

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I see your point but I still would prefer my method.

My method allows your eyes to simply move DOWN the page instead of left-right, then down (repeat) causing too much strain on your eyes.

Plus, when you're reading DOWN, you can still skim a line of 4 words that may not make sense, but the next 4 you see on the line below clarify. You see?

AND, when reading left-to-right, if you want to group 4 words together, you have to "guess" where to bounce your eyes on the line (where is the center of the next 4-5 words?) It's less efficient.

But if the lines
look like this
then you can simply
center your eyes in
the middle of each
line and move downward.
A much better method,
in my opinion.

Is this last paragraph not easier to read than all the previoius text?

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I dont know i can read this about 1million times faster i wouldnt mind trying to read a book this way to see how it work

[RJT]

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I think the key to speed reading is being able to recognize and then just skip all the fluff and bs. I get through the Sklansky religious threads pretty fast that way.

PairTheBoard

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LMAO

That was classic, Pair. It is quality not quantity. Nice to see you back posting your quality material.