Sounds to me that you're not getting that feeling of familiarity from the PR step.

Not one "AHA!" experience in 8 months? You kinda almost have to have those in order to keep motivated.

"My question is this. Is there a way to get useable
knowledge from the photoreading step or will I only
know what I have specifically dipped or rapid read?"

I would like to hear what the guru's have to say to that also, for I am completely stumped as to why it's not working. It seems as if you already have a way of studying- it sounds like what you did before was Preview and Dip at the same time and then stopped after one pass. If that's all you do while having good enough comprehension to takes tests, I see why you're taking more time with PR.

You have alot of good, hard questions and I'd like to see the answer to some of them myself.