Preliminary Exercises
These exercises are designed to help you develop
the
habit of
focusing on what you are reading, and to gain
confidence
in your
ability to retain information that flashes before
your eyes.
The goal of these exercises is to increase the
amount
of material
that you are reading while decreasing the time.
When you find that you are scoring 75% or better
on
an exercise,
either increase the level of difficulty or the speed.
The exercises may seem difficult at first, but
you will be surprised
at how your performance improves with practice.
A number or letter combination of four or more
digits is flashed
on the
screen,
and you are asked to type the number in the answer
box.
You may increase the number of digits and/or the speed of the flash.
This increases the span of your reading "bite" and will give you more
confidence that you can actually retain "words" that you hardly see.
The use of letters here is
experimental to see if some people
are more comfortable with letters
than numbers.
I am not. I had to put
spaces between the letters to improve my score.
Name Recognition
The
previous exercise should convince you that you don't have to read each
number or letter individually, but you can absorb and retain a sequence
of unrelated numbers or letters in a very short period of time -
too quickly to read each one individually.
This exercise should convince you that you can "grab"
a sequence of familiar words, taking an even larger "bite".
Reading and Retention: Level I
A sentence is flashed on the screen
and you are asked
a question about its content. The content of the sentence may
be increased and/or the speed of the flash. This builds a
good habit of concentrating on what you are reading.
Reading and Retention:
Level
II
Similar to Level I,
but more complex.
Estimates speed while reading for detail.
The most important
factor in reading for speed is concentration on the
material before you, ignoring any distractions. The greatest
advances will
come from overcoming the bad habits that you have developed
over years of reading for both recreation and education.
Overcoming these
can easily double your reading speed.
The easiest habit
to deal with is "backing up" - reading
something two or three times. This habit develops from lack
of concentration, but it becomes so ingrained that it cannot be
overcome with concentration alone. The exercise below
prevents backing up to help you overcome this habit.
The more difficult
habit to break is "sub-vocalizing", saying the
word in your head - which many of us learned to do so that
we wouldn't "move our lips" when reading. The exercises above
are helpful, but most people still have to concentrate to avoid it.
Reading for Speed
Read an e-book, staying ahead of a panel moving
at the
chosen speed. Learn to concentrate better as you are reading
and gradually increase both speed and retention.