Mark,
Your issue of asking the right question I notice is a common problem and I have been doing some research to find out what people who are successfull in learning from books are doing compared to what people who are not successful. It does seem to boil down to good questions and knowing what to look for.
I have found some information of what I notice that I am doing without thinking when Photoreading and what I was doing when I was regular reading. Like you I thought that I had good comprehension out of a book while regular reading and would have scored myself at 60-70%. Since learning to PR I realise that I probably only had 40% since it didn't really stick in the memory as well as I would have liked to believe.
I accidently learnt a lot while searching for some decent mind mapping sites. I discovered that in asking questions and looking for information from books I am doing stuff that some people don't do or need to learn to do consciously. I realise the reason for this might be due to the fact that I was a distant learning student. I learnt from written material no teachers. Perhaps that's why I try to keep referring photoreaders to the Northern Territory University site since it is a distant education system and they provided many techniques on their site.
I've also started writing some of my findings. The additional thoughts or ideas to consider when activating the material. However this is already 7 pages long and anything but complete at this point.
While I know it irks you. Initally I feel that you would have to spend more time using the activating and mind mapping. By doing this you'll find that you build a set of decent questions when you activate. At the moment you have no way of identify which ones work which ones don't. So you'll keep falling into the trap of using what you are familiar with and it is even apparent to you they are not the ones that help.
Alex
