Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer Activation questions

lol, they were countless! The more questions I asked, the more questions I ended up asking. A lot of it, I realize, has to do with terminology that I haven't yet fully understood. I suppose that might be the problem, now that I think about it.

By the way, I've just done the first 4 steps of the PWMS for another book which I have to read for tomorrow, and fortunately, I think I'll be ok by the time I activate it. It's much easier to comprehend, and I've been asking better questions to get my mind working. I'm quite optimistic about it since the book was very userfriendly for mindprobing and finding trigger words: It was packed with headings that jumped out at me.

What are the major points the author is trying to communicate to you?
Photoread4me

Hmm...that's a good question I need to ask myself.

And I haven't mindmapped yet. I'll get to it in the morning.

Photoread4me, thanks pointing me in the right direction =)

I'll let you know how things go tomorrow.

Thanks!

-Jason

I forgot to mention. The book doesn't really have a main point. It's more like an anthology, and to find the main point is difficult since there really isn't one. It's like I'd have to get the main point for every single section (which is about a page each)

Whole day??????

Great way to go about UNlearning. If you spend more than 4 hours at one thing you're not learning it anymore... You're scrambling up every thing you have learned. Breaks and incubation are an important part of learning.

Alex

I was somewhat exaggerating and I gave myself a lot of breaks inbetween

In anycase, I don't know if I'm activating correctly.

I constantly remind myself that understanding comes in layers (from whole to parts) when I activate. Once I do that though, it seems I haven't really comprehended any of the details.

So I'd go through it again to more specific points, and I find that it's not really working.

I wonder if it's because of the particular text. There aren't any main points to it since it's like an anthology that isn't cohesive at all.

Today, I thankfully managed to get by in class without any problems. However, I photoread a long article and it took me about an hour to get through it (3 passes, 20 minutes each). But during that time, I think I could've 'normal' read the entire article in less time. The only difference is that I mind-mapped the entire article after activating.

I'm really confused about what I'm not doing right. I've set my purpose, and I always restate it at every step: prepare, preview, photoread, postview and even when I activate.

As I activate, at what point do I start digging into specifics?

I think I'll review the PR book. There's clearly something I'm not doing right...

-Jason

It seems like you are lacking a purpose. Last night when i asked you what are the major points the author is trying to communicate to you you mentioned that you hadn't really thought about that. You have to be really clear on what your purpose is. You can't be vague about what your purpose is if you are vague or weak on your purpose you will definitely have problems activating.
Photoread4me

I think you're right. My purpose could certainly be more defined. As of yesterday, my purpose was to understand what all the Church Fathers taught regarding the beginning chapters of Genesis. But that's practically what the entire book is about....

I'll try it again with a clear purpose and will update either later today or tomorrow. I'm quite determined to develop my photoreading skills

Ok. I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. I set a very definitive purpose, and the process became much easier. I realized that part of my delay in the activation process was jotting down notes. I was actually mindmapping while I was activating. But I noticed I'm far more efficient when I mindmap afterwards.

As far as note taking is concerned, I'm still not sure when to take notes and how to go about the most efficient way of doing that, but I know for a fact that activation is working.

By establishing a good purpose and asking good questions, the activation process was quite enjoyable as if I was literally interacting with the text, rather than passively reading. I think I just shaved off around 2 hours of reading time and I've got mindmap notes ready for my next class

-Jason

Bingo... That's the idea all along.. if you don't have a purpose you're not creating a mind map that takes you to your goal.

Alex