Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer Headed to Advanced Classes for 04-05 School Year

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to let you guys know that I am headed to advanced classes for next school year, and this is the pinnacle to my success story that has been ongoing and ever improving for over the past year and a half. I'll be taking advanced classes that include the subjects Psychology, Sociology, and Algebra. This will be the very first time, since elementary school that I will be placed under advanced instruction.

In all honesty, I do not think I could have felt up to this new challenge I will face if it were not for PhotoReading, so I am saying this as very, very special thank you to Paul Scheele in particular, as well as absolutely everyone at Learning Strategies who has contributed to this reading method.

-youngprer

CONGRADULATIONS!!!!!!!!

Good **** man. But what are your plans for taking the ACT? In the photoreading book Paul mentions taking test using photoreading tactics? I was thinking about exploring this technique with practice tests and **** to get a super score on the ACT.

It's great to hear that you're integrating your learning skills so successfully. So, if you would, could you explain how it's been going, with the changes and all? Are the classes still challenging, but easily accomplished with PhotoReading?

I am having gradual success with my skills as well! Especially with activation. I've cultivated the concept of layers.

I have a really interesting background with PhotoReading, because I believe I was one of the most frustrated users there could have been. What can I say?...it never really was such a hard skill after all.

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Originally posted by EricML:
So, if you would, could you explain how it's been going, with the changes and all? Are the classes still challenging, but easily accomplished with PhotoReading?

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Haven't gotten into the classes quite yet, but when I do, I'll let you guys know, most likely. I don't know, though. Part of me is thinking that I may not have time to make posts on forums. Even so - I think that they could be even easier for me because of my learning style, and my way of thinking. Everything I do, especially in mathematics is done very fast, otherwise I have a hard time comprehending the material. This year a friend and I were doing problems in our minds, and then only writing down the answer after punching out a single calculation into the calculator. The teacher would say:"Where's your work?"

"In here," I'd replied, pointing to my brain.

"Well, I can't grade it if it's there, can I?"

I said: "You can if I can explain it to you, or if you have knowledge of my intuitive capacities," and then I'd grin. He'd of course totally not get the tidbit of humor, and would instead decide to inform the whole class that if you did not show your work, you would fail.

When I was in elementary, I'd be in a race to get done with my work before my rivals in the class whom, of course, got into the gifted & talented program and I, as I was told, was "a few points short."

I know what some of you are thinking. 'It's not about racing to get it done first, it's about the grade.' I know this, and that's the whole point. We'd be racing for the best grade, and in the shortest time. I started out slower than many in the early grades.

I have faint memories of kindergarden, and me asking my friends for answers to single digit addition problems, because I didn't understand what numbers were. I remember that in first grade I didn't know how to read, and even into 2nd, I don't think I knew how to read very well at all. Somewhere along the line, I became friends with a guy who I know to this today(but for privacy purposes will not reveal his name), and he showed me the ropes, so to speak.

I began imitating him. The tricks he used for math problems, his way of reading, his way of solving puzzles, and how he somehow learned the rules of grammar better than anyone in the class.

I don't know quite how it happened, but by the end of 5th grade, I was one of the best young students in the elementary school, and was living quite a happy life.

Intermediate definitely changed my outlook, though. When I came from elementary to intermediate, I was the little kid again, but this time surrounded by brick walls, metal clad lockers, strict teachers with no sense of humor, and administrators that didn't let you wear normal clothes. I began to create school as a place where we were put for reasons of us doing crimes that we didn't do. It evolved into a perspective of prison. We had to go there, and if we tried to escape, they even did things to stop us - and especially stop us from doing it again if we did manage to escape.

It was even up until this last school year that I maintained this 'prison mentality.' My father had hired a tutor who I'd been seeing for close to two years, and after that hadn't made a difference(and actually made things a little worse, it seemed), he sent me to a therapist. After seeing her for a solid half a year or so, I stopped having to go recently. Most of the conversations with her were topics of philosophy, psychology, and other areas of interest that were mostly just topics of conversation, not conversations of therapy. The one thing I think I did get from her, though, was encouragement, and the idea to let go of that 'prison mentality' that I had been hanging onto for so long.

So I said, "Oh, alright," and just like that:let it go. My grades almost immediately rose. I still think of the school system of today as prison, I just simply don't decide to have it bother me anymore.

As I get older, am able to explain things better, and those around me in the schools begin to understand my ideas better, I'm in a far more positive environment, and from time to time, I'm having short little intellectual conversations with the teachers - something I haven't done since I was, you guessed it: back in elementary.

I have an idea that I'll be zooming through worksheets and such like I did back in the day once again with a grueling pace, renewed energy, and this time:a whole new book of tricks on my side.

-youngprer

My thinking is that although we are all different, all unique, many of us on thsi board are of the same certain type of mindset.
I mean when certain people speak I sometimes think that it's me saying it.
When youngprer just mentioned seeing school as a prison, I was like "yeah, yeah, that's what I've always been like, always seen school as inprisoning me"

Although everyone can use photoreading, as everyone ahs a brain, maybe the people who pick it up the quickest, or just 'get it,' easier than others have had the same or near same experiences.

I just find that with some people on this board, things they say or maybe experiences they talk about resonate with me.

Sorry just an aside, thought I'd mention as I was nodding to laods of what youngprer was saying.

Interesting area, I always think about.

All the best in your endeavours youngprer.

Thanks!

[This message has been edited by flex22 (edited February 13, 2004).]

Do you take normal note in-class? Do you Mind Map them when you get home? What has worked the best for you activation-wise, and what modifications have you made for different subjects?

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Originally posted by CameronJ:
Do you take normal note in-class? Do you Mind Map them when you get home? What has worked the best for you activation-wise, and what modifications have you made for different subjects?

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Normal notes in class:
None.

Mind Maps at Home:
Sometimes. I usually mind map chapters in textbooks that I have difficulty understanding, which has only happened occasionally, most recently in my history class.

Activation Strategies and Adapting to Different Subjects:
Well, the truth about the matter is, is that most of what I do to excel in school, is based off of not understanding the content, but instead unlocking the systematic nature of how the class is designed, run, its loopholes/flaws within its grading tactics, and knowing what to except from the teachers' styles.

For example, in History, I know how the tests are designed, and what kind of information from the text I'll be looking for based off of what came on the tests the first several weeks. The first several weeks are easier to concentrate on anyway, because of the long break you get for summer. Once you come back, it's smooth sailing with opening material that you've likely already learned, but now you're going to discover how the classes work, rather than so much of what you need to know from them.

lol I know this may sound a little bad, but with the way the public education system works, this is simply the way it is.

Teachers in today's schools give out the same thing over and over again, except with different material on it. They get it back, then put a number on it, or they do something of this nature. Figure out the components of how they run their class.

Some of you might be thinking, well that's not true! My teacher(s) does new things all the time, and I fail that class. I think the truth is, they may appear to be doing new things, but they're really repackaging ideas from what they've done before. For example, my science teacher this year has us do tests, quizzes, warm ups in the beginning of class, take notes, study the notes, and sometimes we'll do labs. Oh, and of course: the occasional video.

Everything has a single format to it. The tests are all laid out the same way according to the way she got the questions from the textbook. All the quizzes are laid out the same way because of the way her character and personality chooses to design the quiz questions. The labs themselves offer some diversity and challenge, but without her enthusiasm or a future idea of application to back them up, they fall short of being more busy projects. I personally believe that if the school system in the United States of America was doing things right, we wouldn't need these numbers we know as grades, but would instead be focusing more on the ideas, rather than our ability to adapt to the rubric.

Until a change comes, it's simply about knowing how the system works, knowing the particular content that they emphasize, and doing the repetitive tasks they set in your hand. That's all there is to it! Colleges have a little more respect to the mind and its entertainment than highschools do, as well as the minds who attend, but speak about that when I've got some personal experience there.

There are some common rules for general learning, however. With anything like history, english, economics, business, marketing, and subjects like these good reading skills are essential. With mathematics, PRACTICE! Learn to enjoy the art of math if you can. If you need some inspiration, watch A Beautiful Mind. That movie gets me excited about math everytime I feel down about it. Of course, that could just be me.

For mathematics, physics, chemistry, and particular important subjects also like electronics, or any technical information, etc. ALWAYS, ALWAYS think about what is going on among the formulas they make you memorize, and the definitions. In order to excel in chemistry, and physics, especially - understanding what is truly happening within the subject matter can be a powerful step into advancing your knowledge in it. If you can, always try to get a visual picture of what the subject is talking about, if you do nothing else - get a picture, or a feeling of what the subject really IS.

More important than anything, and I mean anything, is to have fun, and relax! Relaxation, I've found, has been the total key in my success with so many things, and I think PhotoReading is one of those things. If you get stressed, you usually become anxious, and when you become anxious, time will likely pass faster for you. Don't panic, it's okay. Remember NOPS for your learning mindset, I say, and "don't beat yourself up!"

-youngprer

Congrates!! What a smart person you are. Toby