Oh I understand the theory behind the photoread step. I just question the efficacy.

What I'm getting from the materials and from the commentary on the forums is that repeated encounters with "activating" makes or breaks the experience in photo reading. In activating you are skimming whethere yo are using super reading, skittering or rapid reading...they all essentially do the same thing--give you a quick visual refernce to go and read what you need.

If you know what you are looking for, the skimming will lead you there (especially if you previewed) whether you photoread or not.