Hi there, I'm also new at this, but I've been scouting around on this forum for a while now and have been reading many posts. To learn photoreading you must "play" with it, don't take it too seriously. Having that kind of mind system will help you learn this process much easier. From your post, I can sense a bit of urgency due to your finals. From what I know, stress and urgency are the one of the major blockages that prevents you from learning PR. To learn PR, one must be in a totally relaxed state and a curious mind, but if you're very anxious and stressed b/c you have to learn it before a certain time, you're pressuring yourself making it extremely hard to learn the PR whole mind system. I'm still new at this and I'm taking advice from all the others who have been using this whole mind system for a while and that is to try the whole mind system on things that may interest you and have nothing to do with school, so that you feel more relaxed and want to "play" with the system so that you can discover what works for you and what doesn't. I hope this helps, I also hope that others can correct me if I'm wrong and I hope someone more experienced can give you a hand as well. Good luck with the PR whole mind system and good luck with your finals, don't give up!