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It used to seem that I had more to read than I had time for. Perhaps its because my interests are far bigger than my available time..and the fact that I read far too slow.
So I did the same thing millions of others did and took the Evelyn Wood speed reading course.
There I was, with other students and professionals wanting to both get ahead and prevent ourselves from falling behind. So we sat there all day practicing zipping our fingers across the page in a wide range of patterns, hour after hour.
After 1 solid week of this, my fingers were calloused, wrists tired and yes, I had tripled my speed and my comprehension had increased ! I had done it, or did I ?
On the last day, the trainer said in real life we would have to practice 30 minutes a day. Yeah right !! Oh I did it for a few days, but life takes over, and so did my old reading speed.
After a few weeks, I was back to my original reading speed, before I'd taken the course. I didn't have time in my busy schedule to do the 30 minutes per day. I looked into other speedreading methods including Howie Berg's Mega Speed Reading, Power Reading and others. With ever so slight differences that seemed to be based more on the trainer's preferences than anything else, these methods were essentially the same as the Evelyn Wood technique.
Run your finger over the page in an "S" pattern, a "Z" pattern, "C" patterns etc. Overview first, then preview, then read. Same old stuff. Other courses ? Well Rocket Reader gives you software that tests you to read faster by flashing words at you faster and faster - Which may get you to focus quicker for a few minutes but the effect is rarely long lasting.
The Kaplan and Sylvan courses primarily focus on how to take the SAT and other entrance examinations. Lots of short comprehension tests, a few techniques about how to read faster and comprehend better are not so different from speed reading courses. They emphasize short passages usually found on reading exams. If you need to read books, cover to cover or even normal 10-20 page chapters, the effectiveness of these methods diminishes sharply.
None of them told me what I really needed, and at the time I didn't know myself, otherwise I wouldn't have invested the $1000 or so the course cost. It wasn't cheap but If I could find a way, I knew it would still be worth it.
If only they had shown me how to get really focused so that my mind was singularly pinpointed on one thing rather than 10-20. If only they had shown me how to get fully absorbed into the material. How to generate a level of curiosity that would have me racing to the next page. If they would have shown me how to turn on that other 95% of my brain power that scientists tell us we have. That plus neutralizing all the negative feelings I had accumulated over the years from being a poor reader would surely have helped.
After a 15 year long hiatus studying other subjects, I finally realized I had to create the ultimate reading system myself. So I did and ended up traveling the world and teaching thousands personally and hundreds of thousands indirectly with a home study course that is actually easier and more cost effective for people. It helps people realize the magical untapped brain power inside themselves, or what I call their inner genius. So I named it Reading Genius. Take a look.
