Study Prof

If you’re like me, the claims of speed reading courses rank right up there with magic beans and political promises.  Too bad.  Speed reading won’t enable you to read the RandomHouse unabridged dictionary in ten minutes with perfect comprehension.  However, it can easily help you read three or four times faster while keeping pretty good comprehension.

You’ll notice I’m not selling a speed reading course.  No ulterior motives here.  I’ve just seen what a little training and practice can do.  My reading speed about five years ago was around 150 words per minute.  Now it’s closer to 500.  That means what used to take me three hours to read I can now read in less than an hour!

That increase came from consistently practicing some techniques that are freely available on the web.  I practiced three or four times per week, thirty minutes at a time, for about two months, and that investment has (more…)

I firmly believe that Great Truths are found in Far Side cartoons. In this case, Ginger has shed light on the topic of reading comprehension … really.

Granted, the skill of reading comprehension ain’t sexy, but it is WAAAAY valuable. Consider; you can read that research paper on “Platypi Reproductive Rituals” several times in a row in an attempt to understand it well enough to answer the essay question on tomorrow’s test, or you can read it once with excellent understanding. And don’t get me started on the reading comprehension passages in the SAT and GRE. In short, upping your reading comp. skills will save you time and get you better scores.

Sorta stinks, then, that it’s so difficult to improve one’s reading comprehension. In fact, SAT and GRE books devote almost zero attention to improving the skill, preferring to acquaint students with details about the layout of the passages and the different reading comprehension question types they may encounter. They know that actually improving students’ skill levels in this area are more than they can reasonably accomplish before the SAT or GRE.

However, YOU CAN INCREASE YOUR READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS. (more…)

Before getting started on a reading take time to light a little fire under yourself (right at the base of the cerebellum). Decide exactly why you’re reading that riveting analysis of reptilian gastric reflux disease. Is it for a test? What do you stand to lose if you don’t read it and understand it?

If that’s not motivating enough, start further out … start at your bigger motivations for going to school in the first place. What’s the (more…)

Yes, there is definitely a wrong way to read. You know you’re doing it wrong if…

• You have to go over a passage repeatedly to know it well enough for a test
• You catch yourself having to reread a paragraph because you weren’t paying attention
• You don’t know the main idea of the last paragraph you read
• You’re reading every single paragraph you’re assigned
• You’re using your highlighter to highlight more than three or four words in each paragraph (I really think you shouldn’t use one at all!)
• You close your book as soon as you finish reading

The write way to read involves several key steps like…

• Previewing the text with an eye towards your identifying your reading goal and towards getting an idea of the overall organization and main points
• Reading the text while taking notes–just as you would for a lecture–on anything you need to remember
• Reviewing the text while you quiz yourself. What did that section talk about? How is that main idea linked to the next paragraph?

Take a look at this excellent resource from Indiana University. They do a wonderful job of covering the basics, although I do disagree on a few minor points.  If you’ve read my study skills ebook and/or some of my other posts on better reading you should be able to pick them out. Which ones do you think I’ll take issue with?

Ironing a nice fold into a shirt or some pants requires heat, pressure, and repetition. First you get the iron hot, then, applying steady pressure, you go over that crease again and again until the fold is pressed into the fabric.

Could you get the fold ironed in without the heat and pressure? Sure, but it would take forever.

Getting memories ironed into our brains is a similar process. Going over the memory again and again will eventually work, but we can make the process much faster and more effective by using the mental equivalent of heat and pressure–what psychologists refer to as elaboration.

Some ways you can use elaboration…

• Ask yourself questions about what you are learning. Where have I heard this before? What does it remind me of? Is this true? How will this be tested?
• Turn verbal information into visual information by drawing a picture, chart or diagram.
• Turn visual information into verbal information by describing what you see.
• Relate the information to something you already know. That Mussolini character reminds me a lot of my hockey coach. (All of these are integrated directly into my note taking system as discussed on the free study skills video and in my ebook).
• Act it out. For example, put on a play about cellular mitosis using tube socks in the starring roles. (I suggest you shut and lock your door before doing this since it tends to cause roommates to give you funny looks and hide their socks.)
• Set it to music. My daughter’s kindergarten teacher used this to great effect, teaching her students a song to help them recall the spelling of every color they learned (the downside is that my daughter now hums under her breath when asked to spell “yellow.”) I’ve had friends who used this method to memorize extremely complex processes, though, so don’t discount it.

Here’s how I use this to really learn complex texts I’m reading…Please log in or sign up to read the rest of this content. Find out more.

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