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Originally posted by Dengus:

1)Purpose – I want a general overview of the main concepts with enough detail to enable me to apply the concepts to the activities (questions) without referring to the notes.


Your purpose needs work. One of the reason activation is not going to work too well here.

Your inner mind likes to be told thing simply and specifically like a 4 year old child.
Concepts? What the heck is a concept and how do you know you got it? Say to a child I want the "concept" of riding a bike they will ask what is a concept? Really what are you going to do with this 'concept' when you have it? That is the purpose... what are you going to do with the information? "So that I do not have to look at the notes" The message you are giving yourself here is "So that I have to look at the notes" The inner mind ignores the negatives it does not have a concept of what 'don't' means

As such you have not really got a purpose for reading and activating the material. So when it comes to activation you are not going to know what to look for. This is reflected in your mind probing question, I will come to that.

For your purpose consider what you will do with the information

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2)Preparation – What I do is scan through the table of contents first and read the main topic headings and sub headings. Then I scan through notes and read the topic heading and read all subheadings and whatever is in bold type. (Usually takes around 10-15min as it is 70 pages per unit)

Sounds like youve combined prepare and preview. Spend no longer than 8 minutes on a preview of a book for 70 pages 3 minutes is enough. Do not throw all the subjects together under one purpose. There is no such thing as one purpose fits all.

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3)PhotoReading – I then try to enter the accelerative learning state and PhotoRead straight after previewing (no breaks) and eventhough I have only done 3 days, I can see the “blip” page and can keep it for the entire PhotoReading session without breaking the state.

Do not "try" it implies that you expect to fail. Just do and accept whatever results you get as being good enough for this round.

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4)This is where I’m a bit stuck. Activation – I wait 24 hours before looking at the material again, but in the meantime I try to formulate questions and get Trigger words.

The q’s I ask myself are:
What do I need to know in order to answer the activities?
What are the Key concepts?
What are some creative thinking techniques? (Relates to content)
What are effective leadership skills? (Also Relates to content)


The questions need work and give you a limited point of view when activating.

"What do I need to know in order to answer the activities?"

Too vague. What are the activites? How will you know when you know if you cannot specifically identify the activities?

"What are the Key concepts?"

Again too vague... how will you know when you see them that you are looking at a key concept? Really what is the point of only knowing a concept if you are studying something? I'd be looking for understanding how this applies to the subject. You realise knowing the concept of something and understanding of something are significantly different. Concepts are vague...you'll only have vague to general activation when you look for a concept. Look for the application of something and you have a more indepth reason for activating.

"What are some creative thinking techniques? (Relates to content).
What are effective leadership skills? (Also Relates to content)."

Now these are activation questions. If your purpose is clear on how you expect to use this material you might not be stuck on merely the "what" questions. You might also be asking How can I know/recognise creative thinking techniques / Leadership skills.
When is it important, when should they apply, Where does one use them. Why do I need to know this. Why is it important... Your purpose swings these activation questions a so that you can reach the outcome you desire.

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Trigger words are: Leadership, Creative thinking & Team (All are scattered throughout the text)

They are fine.

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THEN – I scan through the text, basically in the same way that I previewed it, looking for those trigger words and then quickly reading whats around it.
I have only done this once per night.

Ouch, the method you used for previewing was merely to get an idea for the style, structure and order of the text. When it comes to activation start at the logical place where the answers are to be found, your inner mind can be the guide or table of content or index. Start superreading and dipping. If you are only scanning you are short changing yourself of activation. If superreading is difficult and it often is on technical material us skittering. This will make subsequent activation much more productive.


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That’s all I’m doing at the moment, I think my activation techniques are missing something. I am going to mind map the unit, but I don’t really know enough about the text to be able to do it without going through the notes at the same time. Do you Mind Map with or without looking at the notes?

Try activating in blocks of 20 minutes if your activation questions were clear then you will be able to mind map most of the answers after an activation pass. It is okay to glance back at the notes to get things clear again. If you have trouble finding it quickly consider adding it to the next activation pass. This helps to move the information into long term memory so getting it right on paper the first time is not the point it is about building it so that it can become long term memory stuff.

As shoddy as they may be I've never thrown out my first mind maps as for me they serve as better triggers for recall than the pretty redrawn ones.

Alex