tuba@ur-tut.UUCP (Jon Krueger) (10/05/85)
In article <331@cylixd.UUCP> dave@cylixd.UUCP (Dave Kirby) writes: >Every so often a "free speed-reading lesson" comes to town, in an >attempt to get you to sign up with the Evelyn Wood Speed-Reading >Course. > >I have a few questions. > >(1) Is it worth the money? What do you get for your several hundred >bucks that you couldn't get in a book on speed-reading? I doubt you get much from either, so I doubt it's worth the money. >(2) Has anybody taken the course and been DISsatisfied with it? I've never taken it; would be interested in hearing from someone who has. >(3) Are there alternate courses that are cheaper or better (or both)? Yes, there's an alternate course of action that's both. Most studies on speed reading and the like conclude that you can't increase your speed much before you start losing comprehension. Common sense tells you that much of the material you've read in the past was not worth reading. So work on cutting bogus reading material out of your life and you'll increase your effective reading speed without sacrificing comprehension. You might start with netnews!! (-: (-: (-: . . . (-:? -- -- Jon Krueger UUCP: ...seismo!rochester!ur-tut!tuba BITNET: TUBA@UORDBV USMAIL: University of Rochester Taylor Hall Rocheseter, NY 14627 (716) 275-2811 "A Vote for Barry is a Vote for Fun"
smh@rduxb.UUCP (henning) (10/07/85)
**** **** From the keys of Steve Henning, AT&T Bell Labs, Reading, PA rduxb!smh > >(1) Is it worth the money? What do you get for your several hundred > >bucks that you couldn't get in a book on speed-reading? > > >(2) Has anybody taken the course and been DISsatisfied with it? > I've never taken it; would be interested in hearing from someone who has. I took such a course in college in 1958 and it was a real winner. At that time they used a combination of a camera shutter and a slide projector called a tachistoscope to increase the number of syllables one could fix on at one time and the retention of such information. Most people at least doubled or tripled speed and increased retention. I have a feeling that a very good speed reading course could be written on a computer. It would be a lot more convenient and probably at least as good if you don't need the psychological coaching.
richl@lumiere.UUCP (Rick Lindsley) (10/09/85)
I took speed reading in high school .. yes that's HIGH SCHOOL. My English teacher took the term "college prep course" to heart and gave us a speed reading course. Boy was I glad! He claimed he got this from a course he took, and it sure did work. Consider that when you drive from the middle of town to the outskirts, moving from 25 mph to 35 mph, the increase doesn't seem that great. But when you move from 55mph to 35 mph, it seems like quite a decrease. And 25 mph is like crawling. Well, the course we had operated on that principle. The first day we spent 10 minutes or so reading a book that had all the words counted. We were then able to calculate our "before" reading rate. Most people came out at about 100-200 words/minute, I think, with a few like myself nearing 300. For the first week, we were told to read books as fast as we could. We were told not to worry about comprehension, just READ. The idea was to get used to your eyes just passing over the lines. We were told that if we saw individual words, we were going too slow. We were NOT to back up for any reason. These books had already had all the words counted (probably by some poor souls who had earned detention with this teacher!) Rates soared to 2000 words per minute (but of course nobody understood any of the stories!). We also went through a book a class period! It was frustrating not understanding the stories, but the teacher had explained the theory and it made sense. For the second week, we were told to read the books a little slower. Try for a little comprehension, we were told, but you still should not be looking at individual words. We were told we still should not back up. A good yardstick is that you probably could name major characters and events, but you'd be in no position for a plot analysis or scene description. Rates dropped to 1250-1500 wpm. For the third week, we were told to enjoy the stories. Back up if necessary, but no need to remember every detail, because we weren't going to have to recite it from memory or anything. Our eyes still should not be focusing on single words unless they are rather large. Rates dropped further to 700-1000 wpm. For the fourth week ... the instructor told us there was no fourth week. We were at the end of our course. He said that the last week should indicate to us our pleasure reading speed, and that of course for study intensive books like textbooks we would obviously get much lower rates. But there was no reason we couldn't maintain those other rates for other, lighter reading. And he pointed out that for quickly skimming articles or magazines, we could use the speed we'd attained in the 2nd week. If the last week had made us uncomfortable, he pointed out, even reading half again as quickly, we would drop to 350-500 wpm -- still quite respectable. My final rate was about 800 wpm, and although I suspect it is lower now it was still a boon through college. Even the slowest readers in the class improved their basic rates to about 150 wpm, mostly through "word gathering" or seeing several words in a single glance. Perhaps this technique will be of use to you out there. It's free! Rick Lindsley
daver@hp-pcd.UUCP (daver) (10/11/85)
I took the Evelyn Wood course when I was in High School and found that it
sort-of worked but there were three problems:
1. When I read technical material I have to think about what I've read
as I'm reading it to follow the train of thought. I can't do this
at the speeds that speed reading runs at, so I couldn't use the
techniques for technical reading (i.e. reading anything requiring thought
in real time).
2. When you speed read you take in information more quickly than with normal
reading. I found that when I tried to speed read a novel I would have to
concentrate to get what was coming in, and I found that tiring, so I
don't use speed reading for pleasure reading.
3. Speed reading is a skill which must be maintained by use or practice.
Since I haven't been using it I couldn't just sit down and start speed
reading now, though I could rebuild my speed with some time and effort.
All in all, I wouldn't recommend it, but I wouldn't consider it a fraud either.
Dave Rabinowitz
hplabs!hp-pcd!daver