Hi Jorge,
I received an eMail yesterday from some beginning PhotoReader, asking for some advice - he too has a pressing exam to take.
I know that you are not a total beginner, but perhaps this will help you to spark your own solution (I leave out the name of the asker):
Hi,
first: thanks for your trust in my opinion.
second: PhotoReading is easy. Out there's a technique called SQ3R (Survey - Question - Rewiew - Read - Recite) which resembles a lot the PR-System. This technique has quite a tradition, is conventional and even taught at universities. So, even if you have a PR-block, the other steps should work, perhaps with a little modification.
1. Take a book (or a chapter of a book), Preview/Survey it for Key-Words, special graphics, tables, headlines etc. Take some notes on this, perhaps in a list, perhaps in a MindMap.
2. Ask Questions to the book: Ask for definitions, connections, whys, wheres, whos - whatever you think is important about the material. A list of official questions can help, but let your curiosity guide you.
3. PhotoRead. With your questions at hand, you should have no problem to state a specific goal for your PR.
4. Review the book (the chapter). Look for answers to your questions. You can do this by MindProbing, SuperReading & Dipping, any combination of this or something completely new. Part One of Activation.
5. Read the book (chapter) again for answers to still open questions. You can additionally use RapidReading or normal reading. Part Two of Activation.
6. Recite the answers. Are they satifying? Do you feel competent to answer your questions? Any new questions?
Repeat as long as you need to answer your questions - the initial ones and the new ones. You can include the PR-Step in your repition if you like. If you are working chapter for chapter, you will need the PR-Step.
If you want to do this chapter by chapter, you could first do one sequence on the whole book to get an overall feeling for the material and its location.
You do not need to cling to the sequence of the chapters. Well, it's your time, your book, your mind. Choose any sequence of chapters that feels right for you.
Well, as you see, I just included the PR-Step in this time-honored technique, so it should work, even if PR itself doesn't. And the few additional minutes do not hurt. Stick to this sequence and stop wondering about the PR-System. Just work, stay alert and be active in your way to learn your stuff.
For me, it was important to take notes: make lists and tables, scribble some graphics, mindmap, record any ideas on tape. Whatever works best for me and the material. Well, I even take my dictaphone out for a walk and after some time try to give a spoken summary for a specific topic or pretending to hold a lecture on it. In this way, I can let my thoughts and memories flow, revealing any gaps in my knowledge.
With my notes, I tried to develop a structure of all this material, a structure which made sense to me, whether it was in the books or not.
One other thing I used once to stay motivated: I pretended, I was a student in the year 2225, preparing for a homework on information archaeology. As a SF-fan, this worked fine with me. It helped to take the immediate pressure out of the task.
Regards,
Jens
P.S.: Paul Scheele posted something on the discussion board about a learning schedule/rhtythm. But as far as I can remember it was stuff out of the PR-book or the course.
