Super speed reading?

[Jakemaster]

I can read fast if I need to, like on the SAT when reading the little story things, or if Im reading something unimportant.  

But if Im reading a book, I usually take my time, because the whole point of reading is to enjoy reading the story.  So if you read a book like 1984 (Im reading it now)  then you would finish in 15 minutes and completely miss the point of the whole book.

[MattNW]

[quote]Very good point by Matt...how your head is wired is going to make the most difference in how much gain you get from any course of this type.

The interesting thing I found out about myself when I was tested concerns patterns of reading... It was discovered that I read bi-directionaly, left-to-right and right-to-left. I also take regularly spaced pauses.

The guy doing the test said it was quite rare, but he had heard of it. What actually happens is that I have an eidetic memory and don't actually read except during the pauses. Think of a scanner digitizing the page and then analyzing it. The real work is done once the document is in memory.

Apparently it is a combination of my parents not teaching me to read and native ability. Because I wasn't taught, just told what something said, I learned using the full capabilities of the native talent. Instruction would naturally have made me follow convention and slowed me down.

It does have the added bonus in that I can read upside down faster than most people can when seeing the text normally. I dod notice the longer pauses when doing that...I guess there is more data analysis to be performed.

[SilverFox441]

I totally agree that education is nowhere near adaptive enough. In my case, I had read (and understood) the standard 6th grade reader before ever entering kindergarten.

The result...

I was identified as having discipline problems in the first few years of school! No kidding! I was bored to tears! One teacher went so far as to decide that I had problems with reading and comprehension.  ::)

A speed reading teaching tool as described would definitely annoy both me and the tester. Use a small enough block of text and my speed is effectively infinite, if I've seen it I can read it. The technique that was taught me was a case of identifying the last piece of a large block of text that I had read. That technique allowed for unconventional reading techniques to be accurately assessed.

The one thing that cannot be taught is experience. Every one of us, when reading, will anticipate what comes next. We therefore don't actually read those parts that are recognized as matching our anticipated input...they are already there.

This plays a major factor both in people's enjoyment of reading and what they read. Imagine that you had never been exposed to a writer who wrote in a style compatable with your expectations. You would hardly enjoy being wrong in virtually every one of your anticipation decisions! You would be force to slow your reading to the point where you actually read every word to be sure that you really saw it. You'd labour through whatever the text was.

Now imagine that you've found an author who writes just the way you anticipate. You actually read less of the text without missing anything! You have anticipated so much that you are actually re-writing the book at your own speed of thought as opposed to reading it. The process seem natural to you and you enjoy the result. You also read much faster, perhaps even faster than you thought you could.

I've seen one exercise that aids in developing this capability. The idea is to read a small piece of text and then attempt to finish it. After attempting this several times you will figure out the style of writer that best matches how you would write yourself.

Find that matching style and everyone can be a speed reader. Read enough and it gets easier to read just about anything.

[H]

Many misinterpretations are due to anticipated reading (and why misspellings, missing/wrong words, etc. are often overlooked) and most everyone does so. Individual ways of thinking are also going play a major role in how one reads, even respective to how one was taught.
I was originally put in a slower reading class in 5th grade because they thought I "couldn't keep up" (we were randomly selected to take turns reading aloud). This wasn't affording me much help since I still didn't know where everyone was at when I was called on. Eventually, the teacher (one of the oldest still teaching -- she was once my dad's teacher) realized I was flipping the pages back to find where I'd left everyone behind -- I just got too bored following along at their pace. Strangely, that was also the year I scored my first 100% on the word knowledge portion of the statewide achievement exams (equivelating to high school or above, although I'd managed a 9th grade level in 4th grade).
As you indicate, I'm sure many are overlooked and/or misdiagnosed.

[SilverFox441]

I often "read" words in a text that aren't really there. I also substitute words for others. Strangely, I only do it on fiction texts. When reading technical texts or news I read a little slower, but with more detail.

My only possible explanation is that when reading for pleasure I allow myself to creatively "edit" the text to it's most pleasing personal form.

I wish I could figure out a way to capitalize on that particular technique. If I could do that maube I could make more money.  8)

[Moach]

Sometimes standard education is more a hinderance than it is a benefit. Much of my tutoring is because of this. Public education's "one size fits all" approach leaves too many cracks for students to fall through. That and the fact that schools don't admit a student has a problem until that student is 4 years behind leads many kids to despair and give up active learning.

very well said there, Matt....

i consider myself to be a very good example of this happening... i've taught myself to read when i was little and i could read before the other kids, not only that, i went about almost everything at school on a different way than what is considered "normal"... the result, the teachers thought i was unfit (read "slow") for the school, when actually it was the complete opposite... i tested my IQ some time ago at 135 (in english, portuguese is actually my first language)

not that an IQ test is the most efficient way of measuring one's intelligence, but still....

that didn't stop then from putting me through all kinds of therapy and stuff.....

now i'm out of school, but i still feel, to say the least, revolted against the school system...

anyways, i've always thought my memory was good for nothing, but recently, i discovered that i do have a self-thought photographic memory... im not sure where it came from, but i can memorize song lyrics and phone numbers only by hearing/reading them once... it does come in very handy... (meybe it's from learning the guitar... lots of memorizing there)

about reading... i've always thought i can read at a very decent speed (even a little faster than most).....  so i never really saw the need to take a speed reading course... actually im told that if you dont follow it through all the way, it can lead to several reading problems, like missing confusing words... i am interested though, in taking a memory course, to see how far i can take it, although i think if i train myself, i won't really need a course......

well, my 2 cents here......

Moach

PS: who else here tried to read through this thread at top speed?

[H]

... im not sure where it came from, but i can memorize song lyrics and phone numbers only by hearing/reading them once...

Although my mother's side of the family is probably more reknowned scriptwise, this relates to some interest of note on my dad's.
My uncle would repeat a number sequence (phone, etc.) once and remember it indefinitely (actually, definitely until his death) even if it was no longer of any use. My aunt could be having a phone conversation while two or more people would ask her something at the same time; she'd then answer them in the order of her choosing. In respect to my uncle's ability, I can remember number strings without ever inserting a number not belonging in it -- but sometimes I put them in the wrong order (much like I type, thus constant edit). Only occasionally have I surprised myself by being able to decipher what three or so people were saying at once (I can usually manage it with only two). Song lyrics are more along the lines of anticipatory reading -- I often can guess the next line of one I've never heard before. Sometimes, I 'predict' something different for words and actually prefer mine  ;).