Hi.
You're doing fine. 
The photoreading step helps you put the material into your inner mind. When you activate, the mind-probing questions help focus your purpose and direct your superreading sessions. You will not be encumbered with material irrelevant to you, and this will speed up the process, and also because it is a process of accessing information from your inner mind, you will find yourself somehow familiar with the text, especially after you've practised PR for a bit.
Mind-mapping is a great way to collect your thoughts after the activation process. It also helps you to piece together the ideas into a coherent whole, helping you to see the whole picture, as well as being a way of showing you how your comprehension is building up. That last bit is very encouraging and helpful, especially when you're new to the process. Also, mind-mapping acts as a platform for further mind-probing questions and, as Kaiden pointed out, it helps memory too! 
You might wish to time your activation sessions for about 30 minutes at a time, with 5-minute breaks in between. This helps you get into the flow of finding the material quickly. Successful activation is when you have what you want from the book. The instinct is that you want "everything", but everything is not always relevant to your purpose. When you are satisfied with what you have, then you have been "successful". A useful post to read for understanding how activation sessions work is Alex's experiment: http://www.learningstrategies.com/forum/ubb/Forum8/HTML/002346.html
As far as I can tell, you are doing fine. As Alex pointed out, the process will become easier and comprehension better as you practise the system. It's not so much of finding new gimmicks, but getting good at what you're doing. 
Good luck!
KWLee
[This message has been edited by KWLee (edited November 29, 2002).]
