Toni Buzan's fast reading methods.

U

Urizen

Trooper
Although I was able to read much faster (up to 200 pages per hour), and to change speeds as I wished, the degree of understanding of what I read was lower than at normal reading speed of mine which is 30 pages per hour.

But nevertheless I found the fast reading techniques useful in spite of its disadvantages in terms of understanding, and the ability to change the speed of reading according to the level of understanding you're after, and the time you're willing/have to spend on a certain read too.

Anyone else familiar with this and willing to share their experiences and thoughts?
 
Well first there's a book called 'The speed reading book' by Toni Buzan who's a psychologist who researched the human mind, and the two hemispheres, and the eyes... and to make a long story short devised how we could read and learn much quicker.

It's been 2 years since I've done the course but  I have the book in front of me so here it goes:

The most important goals of the book are:

- to significantly increase your reading speed
- to increase and supports the understanding of what you read
- to increase your understanding of the functions of the eyes and the brain, so it would be easier to use them while reading and studying
- to save your time

the book (I learned from a book, instead a seminar which was too expensive for me at the time) itself is a course through which you gradually learn how to read faster.

You establish your current reading speed, and then through exercises and learning and applying techniques increase your reading speed which is measured along with your level of understanding after every chapter by tests - which consists of reading a given text and then answering questions about it to establish your level of understanding, under the new reading speed.

There are perception exercises, peripheral vision and how to use it, leading of the eyes, the conditions for reading, ways to increase the concentration and more that I should look for... all of this is explained.

The development of your own thesaurus through listing suffixes and prefixes  to expand the vocabulary, the chapter about world's notable fast readers like John Stuart Mill, J.F.K., Franklin Roosewelt.

Also mind maps are covered which is a subject of another Buzan's book and seminar.

I'll look to post more when I look through the book more thoroughly again.

I went from 197 words per minute and 93% understanding, to 1617 words per minute and 60% understanding, and then to 2000 words per minute and 33% understanding.

The book itself was extremely interesting and eye opening for me, and I did the whole course in five days because I was home at the time and there are exercises you need to do like reading a text from another book at 2 or 5 sec. per page and such, before going to the next chapter.

The thing is this fast reading must be exercised to remain effective, and I got lazy, so I'll be looking into this book again.
 
I can read about 150 pages an hour naturally, but I know my understanding is only around 70% when I do it.  I have to force myself to slow down.
 
You're a natural than lol. You should look into this fast reading, god knows how fast you'd be then.

Yeah, I also had to slow down when I did it, my fastest reading speed was around 2150 words per minute - 300 pages per hour and the understanding was not good.
 
Hmm interesting subject. Though in these 'hasty' times I prefer to read carefully and to take time to understand or enjoy things well on paper or on screen.
 
That's one thing school has taught me---read fast, understand nothing, remember one or two catchy phrases, then make up bullshit if asked a question on it. :D
 
Natalie said:
That's one thing school has taught me---read fast, understand nothing, remember one or two catchy phrases, then make up bullshit if asked a question on it. :D
Click to expand...

Finally school taught someone something about real life :P
 
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