Speed reading - recommend a good book/guide please?
Discussion
My daughter is off to university in a few weeks and has mentioned the need to be able to speed read effectively otherwise she's going to spend her life in the library.
Does any one have any experience of good books on the subject? Her research has thrown up Tony Buzan and things like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Speed-Reading-Book-learn-...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Memory-Book-remember-anyt...
Does any one have any experience of good books on the subject? Her research has thrown up Tony Buzan and things like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Speed-Reading-Book-learn-...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Memory-Book-remember-anyt...
I remember him (Tony Buzan) on TV (Use Your Head, I think it was called) when I was still at school back in the 80s, and took on board some of the stuff about mind mapping. I recall putting pretty much the whole syllabus of inorganic chemistry A level on one side of a sheet of A2 sized paper, and the organic chemistry on the other, in a mind map format, and basing a fair bit of my revision on this. I guess it was a bit risky but it worked out ok - got an A.
I'll often use a couple of his other techniques around remembering lists of items by association.
For short lists, have a standard set of items linked to numbers 1-10 (e.g. 1=bun, 2=shoe, 3=tree), then you imagine the items you're trying to remember associated with the standard items - the more unusual the image the better, so if your list is stuff to pick up from the shop - say coffee, chocolate and a bottle of water, you might imagine a bun floating in a huge cup of coffee, a shoe made out of chocolate melting on your foot, and a tree with bottles of water hanging from the branches. So long as you stick to the same standard reference list, the association reminds you what you need to pick up.
For longer lists, there are other approaches - for example have a mental standard walk around your own house (or familiar building). Given a list of items to remember, you can imagine 3 in each room, or location - perhaps in unusual positions. This generally works well for up to around 30 or so items.
I think different people get on better or worse with different approaches, and other people will undoubtedly have their opinions, but I'd say that it's probably worth getting the books and seeing how your daughter gets on with them. Whatever new technique though will need some effort putting in for it to be useful.
Oh, got to love the review on the speed reading book:
"Still haven't finished it. "
I'll often use a couple of his other techniques around remembering lists of items by association.
For short lists, have a standard set of items linked to numbers 1-10 (e.g. 1=bun, 2=shoe, 3=tree), then you imagine the items you're trying to remember associated with the standard items - the more unusual the image the better, so if your list is stuff to pick up from the shop - say coffee, chocolate and a bottle of water, you might imagine a bun floating in a huge cup of coffee, a shoe made out of chocolate melting on your foot, and a tree with bottles of water hanging from the branches. So long as you stick to the same standard reference list, the association reminds you what you need to pick up.
For longer lists, there are other approaches - for example have a mental standard walk around your own house (or familiar building). Given a list of items to remember, you can imagine 3 in each room, or location - perhaps in unusual positions. This generally works well for up to around 30 or so items.
I think different people get on better or worse with different approaches, and other people will undoubtedly have their opinions, but I'd say that it's probably worth getting the books and seeing how your daughter gets on with them. Whatever new technique though will need some effort putting in for it to be useful.
Oh, got to love the review on the speed reading book:
"Still haven't finished it. "
I dabbled with this many years ago using some trial beta software that used a kind of RSVP technique.
I'm quite a fast standard reader but never really got around to practicing this method enough. Just found a link to something similar and had a quick go:
https://accelareader.com/
I'm pretty comfortable at 600wpm with unfamiliar text, will see how much faster I can go...!
I'm quite a fast standard reader but never really got around to practicing this method enough. Just found a link to something similar and had a quick go:
https://accelareader.com/
I'm pretty comfortable at 600wpm with unfamiliar text, will see how much faster I can go...!
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