Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer Photoreading Nietzsche

I recently rededicated myself to mastering Photoreading. I Photoread and mindmapped books by Calhoun on political theory and Nietzsche on ???. I thought I did a pretty good job, but then in class, I felt like I completely missed the boat. Am I in over my head reading books like this? I should probably start off with simpler books, but alas that is not what colleges tend to assign.
One of the problems I encounter is vocabulary and terms that I am not familiar with. For example, Calhoun's concept of "concurrent majority" is essential to understanding his theory. I completely missed this during my activation. Any strategies for dealing with difficult terms/vocab?
Lastly, how do you go about reading dense texts like Nietzsche? Is this better left to slow, analytical reading?
Thanks everyone, for helping with my last thread of questions.

Anything philosophical or dense gets hazy...for me, when it's that dense, I usually go with rapid reading instead, then once-over it with superreading + dip, just for other stuff.

If it's especially dense, I'll be a little apple-polisher and write down stuff (I usually don't mindmap or preview or anything anymore). I've started circling and underlining, and (I know I complained about it earlier) the system I'm using does sacrifice too much time.

I haven't read Nietzshe (I've actually PRed it with the intent of activating, but never did) but I'm guessing if you have a rough translation (I have a bad one of Freud...I think German translations get a little tough) it could get pretty dense. Similarly, I had my first bad PR episode when I PR'd and half-activated some Freud for a mid-term. Let's just say I didn't activate well.

In any case, I activated after the not so great midterm, and I activated it properly (read: not a one time session of superread and dip).

To Summarize:

• Rapid read and dip for dense material.
  
• Follow it up with a couple sessions of SR+Dip if you can.
  
• Either circle and underline or write down terms (or you can use memorization techniques...I'd still write it down, you can always commit them to memory better later.)
  

If your activations are gelled enough that you would've remembered those terms had you read it normally but didn't after PRSysing them, you need more passes for now, or need to back them up with other techniques (backing rapid reading with a pass or two of SRing).

Hope that helps, Hasselhoff.

-Ramon http://razor.ramon.com

With dense stuff like Nietzsche, rapid reading tends to look a lot like regular reading. At least if you have the intention of understanding it. When doing this, should you temporarily forego complete understanding and just continue the PR process?
Also, when doing Super Reading, is it okay to say the words in your head. I tend to go from line to line and say a few words that jump out at me in my head. Is this focusing too much? Should I be scanning the page and not verbalizing in my head?

I'd tend to agree with you on the slow rapid-reading part, although you should probably be reading much faster than your average reading speed...keep practicing.

"Also, when doing Super Reading, is it okay to say the words in your head. I tend to go from line to line and say a few words that jump out at me in my head. Is this focusing too much? Should I be scanning the page and not verbalizing in my head?"

I would avoid subvocalizing altogether, unless it's INCREDIBLY difficult to memorize without it...subvocalizing will slow you down in the long run, plus if you can train yourself to memorize without it, you'll be the better. So yeah, you should probably try not verbalizing in your head, or at least experiment to see if you can train yourself not to.

Good luck on Neitzche.

-Ramon http://razor.ramon.com ("Neitzsche said, 'God is dead.' God retorted, 'Neitsche is dead.'")

Look, if you do not know anything about physics, then Photoreading an advanced physics text will not help you. I think it is fair to say that Photoreading won't give you greater comprehension than you would have gotten if you slow read. You could spend 3 years slow reading that advanced physics text book and it still won't mean anything to you.

The question to ask with Nietzsche is, would you have understood what you had read better if you had slow read it? Many undergrads find Nietzsche nearly incomprehensible the first time they read him. Remember, your professor has not only read many different Nietzsche texts many times, she has also read many secondary sources about Nietzsche.

The question I would ask myself, if I were you, is: Now that I've sat through the class on Nietzsche (a kind of secondary source) what do I get out of Photoreading Nietzsche?

I would venture to guess that you could get a lot more out of it. Probably your professor made reference to 3 or 4 main points about Nietzsche. Now you can disregard 70% of the text and focus more closely on the 30% that the professor said was important.

Of course, you might think that your professor is full of bologna. Then you'll have to work a lot harder and think for yourself. Barring this possibility, many professors will tell you in the class lecture and discussion what it is you should get out of the reading. So spend 90% of your time reading the 30% that the professor singles out.

The objection to this that is raised, for example, in some Amazon.com reviews, is that for real books, it is not the case that 70% is unimportant. I agree. 70% of Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil is not important. But the reality is that first-time Nietzsche readers just don't understand the book at all. The role of the teacher is to guide the students to the 30% important parts. Once the students have understood that then can, if they need to, work on the other 70%.

[This message has been edited by Moises (edited April 12, 2002).]

I had the same problem when I tried to PR some Aristotle texts. Way too dense...

I believe the best thing to do in situations like that is to read secondary sources that explain Nietszche's basic concepts in a more understandable way. Everything Nietszche wrote is a working out of these basic ideas in full detail and if you don't understand the basic ideas, then the long passagework of his won't help you any. So as part of your previewing I'd recommend reading some background material on Nietszche.

Thanks for all the advice. Nietzsche is definitely dense, and even he recommends reading it slowly. I'll try reading some background works, just for photoreading practice.
For the most part though, I can understand his works if I read through them slowly and carefully, often combing it over several times. Next time, I think I will Activate it multiple times per chapter and then superread. I think in the end I will be faster than other people. Some kids in my class often spend 5-6 hours on an 80 page assignment.
Thanks for the tips.