Speed reading is pushing the eye
to move faster over the page. The problem is that
people read slow because they have difficulty
understanding what they read. To learn speed reading
you need sacrifice understanding and push the eyes
faster across the page. For many learning speed reading
this compounds the problem that brings them to speed
reading.
They want to understand what they are reading faster.
People who come to speed reading want better understanding so they can read faster. This makes it even more difficult for the learner. They were not satisfied with their comprehension skills and are asked speed up their reading at the expense of understanding what they read. With the promise that understanding will come with practice. It only takes an hour a day for three to six weeks. Who has that time?
Does understanding really come eventually? When learning speed reading one of the requirements is that you learn to create visual images of the words meaning. So instead of seeing the word "house" you have a mental picture of a house. How does that work on academic text where words themselves are often abstract? If you never successfully learned to understand what you are reading at a slower rate how does moving your eye and primary consciousness faster increase understanding?
To me this means if you've never learned the techniques for understanding what you read your reading will remain painfully slow, no matter how fast you try to push your eyeballs across the words.
Another problem associated with speed reading is that all the information is stored in the short term memory. This means you will forget everything you read in a short period of time. If you're reading for an exam in 3 weeks you will remember little of what you had read if you used speed reading. So a lot of time must be invested in other Memorising techniques.
People also look to speed reading courses because they want to remember what they read in the shortest possible time. The problem with that idea is to try to memorise the information while one is reading interferes with understanding. In other words if you try to memorise as you read, not only does it slow your reading down, it makes it difficult to understand and naturally makes it difficult to memorise.
Speed reading can only promise to get the reader to speeds of about 800 words a minute. Any faster than that and you are skimming. Which is not a good if you're apt to miss the cues that change the meaning of a sentence, since they are often small words they are easily skipped.
The reason people look for speed reading is in one word, speed. It's not necessarily to "read" faster. The true reason is the need to "understand". They want to understand what they are reading faster. To get their homework done on time. To get out of the office and back to the family. We want and need to understand what we are reading faster.
In that way learning speed reading creates a paradox. You have to surrender your need to understand what you are reading It's something that most people have difficulty doing. And an hour a day for three to six weeks just practicing speed reading adds to the work overload people have to deal with.
I too attempted to learn speed reading. At the end of the course my reading was slower than at the beginning. Why? I found it difficult to accept the loss of comprehension while I was reading.
Thankfully I discovered "photo reading".
They want to understand what they are reading faster.
People who come to speed reading want better understanding so they can read faster. This makes it even more difficult for the learner. They were not satisfied with their comprehension skills and are asked speed up their reading at the expense of understanding what they read. With the promise that understanding will come with practice. It only takes an hour a day for three to six weeks. Who has that time?
Does understanding really come eventually? When learning speed reading one of the requirements is that you learn to create visual images of the words meaning. So instead of seeing the word "house" you have a mental picture of a house. How does that work on academic text where words themselves are often abstract? If you never successfully learned to understand what you are reading at a slower rate how does moving your eye and primary consciousness faster increase understanding?
To me this means if you've never learned the techniques for understanding what you read your reading will remain painfully slow, no matter how fast you try to push your eyeballs across the words.
Another problem associated with speed reading is that all the information is stored in the short term memory. This means you will forget everything you read in a short period of time. If you're reading for an exam in 3 weeks you will remember little of what you had read if you used speed reading. So a lot of time must be invested in other Memorising techniques.
People also look to speed reading courses because they want to remember what they read in the shortest possible time. The problem with that idea is to try to memorise the information while one is reading interferes with understanding. In other words if you try to memorise as you read, not only does it slow your reading down, it makes it difficult to understand and naturally makes it difficult to memorise.
Speed reading can only promise to get the reader to speeds of about 800 words a minute. Any faster than that and you are skimming. Which is not a good if you're apt to miss the cues that change the meaning of a sentence, since they are often small words they are easily skipped.
The reason people look for speed reading is in one word, speed. It's not necessarily to "read" faster. The true reason is the need to "understand". They want to understand what they are reading faster. To get their homework done on time. To get out of the office and back to the family. We want and need to understand what we are reading faster.
In that way learning speed reading creates a paradox. You have to surrender your need to understand what you are reading It's something that most people have difficulty doing. And an hour a day for three to six weeks just practicing speed reading adds to the work overload people have to deal with.
I too attempted to learn speed reading. At the end of the course my reading was slower than at the beginning. Why? I found it difficult to accept the loss of comprehension while I was reading.
Thankfully I discovered "photo reading".