Speed Reading

Intel486 · 04-01-05, 08:39

Anyone here ever done or know anything about these courses?

I remember when I was in High School taking an ACT prep course some kid in there and his brother went away to one of the two week long ones. They both finished the reading section of that test like 10 mins before everyone else and got a perfect score on that section...

I was wondering if anyone else here has any experience with courses that you go to class or ones that you do on your own?

Edit: And do they work or are they BS?

Accumulator · 04-01-05, 10:19

As a kid, I went to one of the courses back in the '70s. One of those couple nights a week for a few weeks deals. Forget the name of it, something like "American Speedreading Institute". At the last class, I read Steinbecks' The Pearl in something like 17 minutes and scored a high-90-something% on the test, but I remember thinking the test wasn't too demanding.

I dunno...it was interesting, and I seemed to get a bit out of it (did great on my SAT shortly thereafter and felt that I had *plenty* of time), but many of the others in the class didn't seem to get anything out of it at all except frustration and headaches.

They basically taught "scanning" where you supposedly imprint the contents of the pages on your mind without "saying" the words to yourself individually. IMO some people are much better predisposed to being able to do this than others. You might be somebody who *can* do it and, if nothing else, it would be an interesting intellectual exercise. I'd sure attend a course though, rather than doing a DIY version.

Do I use it now? Nope.

John Styrnol · 04-01-05, 10:41

Was invited to take some classes, but never went.

Intel486 · 04-01-05, 02:55

Accumulator, thanks for sharing your experience... I've never really understood how those courses work. I use to see stuff about them from books you buy, to classes you take, to programs for your computer.

dcswd · 04-02-05, 09:39

I took a semester long speed reading class in college. It was called "Power Reading" to be specific. It consited of:
1) learning tons of vocab (helpful for better comprehension) 2) getting rid of bad reading habbits (i.e. mouthing the words as you speak, etc)
3) learning all sorts of speed reading techniques

Overall I thought it was a really cool class. It was an easy A, but there was still work to be done. That being said, I havent really kept up with reading at that fast of a speed.

Accumulator · 04-03-05, 11:52

dcswd- Even if you didn't stick with the speedy techniques, I bet that was a worthwhile course. IMO you deserve a

for taking it, even if it was one of those "easy 'A' electives". Just the vocabulary work and learning about the common bad habits would benefit most people.

Intel486 · 04-03-05, 05:13

hmm wonder if my school has any easy A classes like that one. Next two semesters after his summer term I'm somewhat limited on what I take so I'll be taking some GPA boosting courses before I hit up my fluids and thermodynamic classes... ugh... sigh... this degree better be worth it... lol

raymond_ho2002 · 04-04-05, 01:28

I've taken a few home courses a while back. The one that helped the most were the old evelyn wood courses.

They've helped push up my reading speed for things like news articles and fiction novels. Unfortunately, my comprenshion speed always falls my reading speed when I'm reading more technical material (i.e., thermo). I don't see them helping for tests like mcats or gre's, as they stress understanding more than speed.