Introduction to Reading Faster and Sample Chapters below...

Pre-Requisites of Speed Reading

Alvin Tofler, author of Third Wave, contends that we are now in the information age.  It is said that power belongs to those who have the knowledge and information. This we would like to dispute. 

Being in the information age, so many data and inputs are available. Tons and tons of materials are readily available with just one click of the mouse. Numerous data are readily available to all people. Yet, how come not all of these people who have access to mountains of materials are considered powerful?

It is our contention that those who are able to wade through tons of information, comprehend, and make use of that knowledge for meaningful purposes IN A SHORTER PERIOD OF TIME are the ones who hold the key to power. Speed is the key.

This reality reinforced the need to update our skills in speed reading. The need to accelerate our reading and learning abilities to the extreme resulted to this book. This book offers techniques that you can make use to hasten the skill in reading and comprehension.  It presents scientific explanation on the causes of slow reading.  It explains how the practice of hearing your inner voice actually saying
the words you are reading can drastically slow you down.

FREE  Speed Reading Test [Click Here]

Speed reading basically covers two areas: reading and comprehension. These go hand in hand. It is useless to study speed reading if you have trouble in absorbing information. You should already be an able reader before you try to speed read. Speed reading will not help you if you have problems in understanding the meaning of the words. To be able to enjoy the full benefits of speed reading, you
must have the necessary facilities in understanding college-level materials.

Speed readers are considered impatient readers. They read with a purpose and want to find answers immediately. They cant wait to find out what the whole text is all about that they usually make predictions and guess the answers.
Some readers say, "If I think ahead while I am reading, my predictions may be wrong."

The truth is, predicting is useful because all your concentration is focused on the reading and you are actually making senses of it. Speed readers predict what the text is likely to tell them next, but they are not upset if a prediction is wrong; they quickly adjust their expectations.

Different Speeds for Different Materials

You do not need to read every word to understand a text; however some texts will require careful reading, so you need to know when to adjust your reading speed. Skim a text, and then decide if a slower reading approach is necessary.

Practice Activity

In order to avoid reading every word, you must increase the rate your eyes move across the page. As a practice activity, choose an easy material for to read. Sweep your eyes faster across the page than youve ever done before. Do not mouth the words; do not even mentally say them. Start with short practice periods, e.g. 3 minutes, record your rate (how many words have you read in 3 minutes?), and then continue with longer periods or with texts that are more complicated.

The First Steps in Speed Reading

In reading, your starting position and reading gesture is relevant: sit up straight, with the book being held by your left hand, and with your right hand doing the pacing.

Being already a good reader is a plus factor in attempting to speed read. Otherwise, it may be quite difficult and may take some time. Speed reading program will not work if you have problems comprehending and your vocabulary is too little. In fact, rushing through things you can't understand is actually useless. Yes, you may be able to read fast, but you just won�t understand what you will be reading.

Speed Reading Tips

Read until the end! Do not get tired, discouraged, or bored; dont just stop reading when you want to. Dont you know that ideas do become clearer the further you go with the reading materials? After you finish reading, recall the things that you have learned, return to the ideas that seem unclear, and reread them in order to grasp their ideas. When you begin to read, you should:
*    Be able to find the answers to the questions youve come up with
*    Answer guide questions at each chapter (you may see these questions at the beginning or at the end of the chapter)
*    Take note of the important words and phrases  underlined, italicized, and bold printed
*    Read only one section at a time, and recite the summary of each section afterwards
*    Do not ignore captions under pictures, tables, graphs, etc.
*    Carefully read and absorb difficult passages. On parts which are not clear, dont be afraid to stop and reread

Knowing How Deeply to Study the Material

Where you only need the shallowest knowledge of the subject, you can skim the material. This is done by reading only chapter headings, introductions and summaries.
If you need a moderate level of information on a subject, then you can scan the text. Here you read the chapter introductions and summaries in detail, but may speed-read the contents of the chapters picking out and understanding key words and important
concepts. At this level of looking at the document, it is worth paying attention to diagrams and graphs.
Only when you need detailed knowledge of a subject is it worth studying the text. Studying is skimming the material first to get an overview, and afterwards reading it in detail while seeing how the information presented connects to the overall structure of the subject. An effective method of getting the deepest level of understanding on a text is to use a formal method such as SQ3R (discussed in a later chapter).

Do you read every article of every magazine, or every chapter of every book? If so, you're probably spending a lot of time reading stuff you don't need. Remember: You don't need to read all of what you DO read. Be choosy. Select the chapters and articles that are important. Ignore the rest.

The eyeQ program is a proven system that will help you read faster with better comprehension. It is the best advantage a parent can give a child. And as a working adult, you will gain the skills and the resulting competitive edge to effortlessly manage todays information overload. We are confident you will agree with the people we have surveyed who have completed the program: 98 percent said it met or exceeded their expectations.

Chapter 2

Ways People Read and Tips to Read Faster

Our conscious brain takes in 16 bits of information per second, compared to our non-conscious brain that absorbs 11 million bits per second. Can you imagine the difference? That is the reason why we hate to do stuffs consciously  because it does take effort and discipline. Our non-conscious brain structures process tons of information coming from our sense organs such as breathing, heartbeat, and blood circulation, not to mention instincts and emotions all without our awareness.

The eyes, our primary tool in reading, only take in information when they are stopped. If you want, you can verify this by holding a book up in front of people and let them read a certain part in it. Watch their eyes as they read though don't tell them what you are observing. What feels like continuous motion is actually move stop read, move stop read, and so on. Speed readers minimize the number of stops by maximizing the number of words taken in at each stop.

Short Exercise

Here's an exercise that will help you develop effective eye movements. Try looking at the following sentences in three ways:

First, focus your attention: look only at the first "S" in success.

Second, adjust your focus / attention: look to be able to see at the entire word, "success".

Third, adjust your focus so you are seeing three or more words at the same time.

Because you can't say three words at the same time, you can't subvocalize if you are reading three words at a time. Thus, elimination of vocalization from thought is necessary. Although many think that verbalization is essential to linking words with concepts, common experience shows that this is not so. For example, if someone asks a mechanic how a car works, he surely knows what to answer but will have a problem in how to respond. The subject of his thought is too complex and multi-dimensional to be expressed in linear forms.

 He may be able to visualize and manipulate concepts -- and find answers -- to mechanical problems in his mind without ever putting those thoughts into words.

The same is possible with abstract ideas (which are also often highly complex and multi-dimensional), though it takes practice because there are no definite "images" to fall back on. In some cases, especially when the thought involved is quite complex, removing the verbal component not only speeds up the thinking process, but can even lead to intuitive leaps that verbal thinking might have prevented.

Consider the way in which you are reading this text. Most people think that they read the way young children do  either letter-by-letter, or at best word-by-word.

The truth is, we do not read letter-by-letter or word-by-word. Instead, we are fixing our eyes on block of words. Notice the way your eye muscles actually move when reading a printed text. Try to move your eyes to the next block of words, and go on. Effectively you are not reading words, but blocks of words at a time. The period of time during which the eye rests on one word is called a fixation.

You may also notice that you don't always proceed from one block of words to the next. Sometimes, you may move back to a preceding block of words if you are unsure about something or if you dont understand what it meant. These disruptions to the forward flow of reading are called skip-backs.

Only speed readers have been trained to create mini eye movements, while the rest of us read with micro eye-movements. The former produces speed reading because they engage the peripheral-vision to chunk words simultaneously, not just one-word at a time; while the latter is automatic, and keep adjusting our eyes to place the words we read on our foveal centralis, the sharpest focusing area of our retina.

Pay Attention

Most people read in the same way that they watch television in an inattentive, passive way. What they should know is that reading takes a lot of effort and you must exert the effort. A wise teacher once told me that you can learn anything if you do three things. That is,


PAY ATTENTION, PAY ATTENTION, and PAY ATTENTION. 

The remaining chapters below details steps to improve your reading speed while maintaining or improving reading comprehension. These are included in the speed reading master course as part of the colossal mind brain library.


Chapter 3: Radically Increasing Your Reading Speed                

Chapter 4: Suggestions for Increasing Speed and Effectiveness              

Chapter 5: Human Mind and Vocalization                       

Chapter 6: Getting the Main Idea                              

Additional  Sample Articles