Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer comprehension

i remember a passage in the book that says that we have to superread without preocupate with comprehension.. whats this about? if we pass rapidly trough a text how we will comprehend the text?

Hi Flamerozzy.

First you have to make the distinction that superreading is not reading.

Second remember the old, inefficient, ineffective concept of i must get it all now. I must read it, comprehend it and understand it all on the very first pass.

A very ineffective reading strategy.

Photoread4me

This is something I can empathise with Flamozzy.

I have applied the photoreading steps to a computer programming book on C#. The way the book is structured (there are 6 topics within a chapter)
is that on a full page on the left, it describes in detail a specific topic. On the right side, opposite this page is the code examples relating to the description on the left. In order to understand the code, you need to understand the text based detail page. Then depending on how well you understand the code, you then tackle programming problems at the end of the chapter which tests your knowledge of the chapter.

I have tried the superreading approach to each of the six sections of the full chapter, noting important keywords and examples. However I feel that I can't understand the code unless I fully understand the detailed explanation, and can honestly say that I struggle to get the comprehension I need.

I do:

state purpose for the chapter, which is to have a good understanding of the concepts and how to do the coding so that I can apply this knowledge to successfully tackling the problems at the end of the chapter. My global purpose it to apply these skills to improving my career prospects.

preview the whole chapter pulling out the sections and writing these down.

Ideal state and photoreading.

Then for activation I start to ask myself questions about the key trigger words, like "how does this work" "what does this concept mean", "where in the code do you use this", "why does this happen" etc.

I then try superreading the whole chapter to try and answer my questions, but only scanning the text. I then always feel that after the first pass I don't get any comprehension at all. I then try another superreading session and reflect after that,and again, because this is a fast process, don't get much comprehension. I seem to have to start reading at the 'normal' speed to get comprehension.

I am therefore wondering if it is taking me longer to get the comprehension I need with multiple passes of superreading and dipping than actually reading from start to finish because after about 4 passes of a section, I still dont have the explicit detailed knowledge I need and have to revert back to the old style reading.

I am however still very determined to master the photoreading techniques if they can save me time, but at the moment I cant see this happening so I would greatly appreciate any further instruction which can solve my problem.

regards
dmlocke

Hi dmlocke,
I'm new to PR too and still getting a 'feel' for the techniques which are right for me. Just to let you know my story thus far, i have found that when i PR books on my personally favourite subjects i seem to be able to activate them much easier and they seem to 'gel' much quicker for me with information i require coming easy, this is obviously due to me already having some knowledge in this field and any further information can be easily integrated with associations and connections made.

However, when i try to tackle books with subject matter that is relatively new to me i too have difficulties with comprehension and ultimately frustration which leads me to end up wanting to read in the regular way, i do try to stick with it though and trust that it will come together for me as i make multiple passes and try to focus on purpose which adapts as comprehension slowly comes to me.

I know this isnt much in the way of advice as im new also but that i had the same experience with new or complicated material and that i think as long as you have a purpose and determination it will get easier as you learn to establish clearer and more focused purpose and develop awareness of communication between inner mind and conscious mind; i have found also, that it is really tough sometimes to define a specific purpose when all you really want to do is get a better general understanding of a subject.

Be nice to hear how you get on,

Be well,
Mitch.

Great to know other people share the same experiences.

Right now I am kind of getting the picture that using photoreading to learn programming does not save me any time at all. I have to do multiple passes until I get the level of understanding that I need. I thought photoreading would speed up the time it takes to get to this level of comprehension needed but so far it doesn't. Normal reading is doing the job better!!!

Granted I believe in the other than conscious mind very much and have great faith in it helping me reach my goals when I am learning about programming, but wondering if I am asking too much of it to help me understand things a bit quicker.

Maybe I have the wrong expectation of the technique or maybe I am slow grappling with the information. For example when I dip into an code example in the book, it is not clear what is going on until I really stop and think about the code and the logic behind it before I get the "I get it now" moment. I try suggestions to myself saying to accelerate the understanding of the examples but I still come to a roadblock where things take a while to click!

I really believed that photoreading would improve the speed of me coming to click quicker!!!

Hopefully I am wrong and I can in fact speed things up with photoreading but maybe it is actually the technicality of the subject matter that is icompatible with the photoreading technique?




regards



dmlocke

I was wondering about something related to activating and comprehension.
It's often mentioned in the forum that comprehension comes in layers and that's why we need to do multiple activation passes on some materials. But when it 'all starts coming together,' it's like a sudden insight right? Not just referring to additional information because more information has been processed into the conscious mind.

Simon

Hi Dmlocke.

It is obvious that superreading and dipping is really not working for you with this book.

I would go with skittering. I believe i mentioned it to you before on another post. With skittering you read the first sentence of the paragraph then you read the last sentence of the paragraph. Then you let your eyes bounce wildly all over the complete paragraph looking for the words that support the paragraph's main premise.

Remember that skittering works well with material that is instructional in nature and this book you are referring to is exactly that.

I think skittering would work much better for you in this situation.

Photoread4me

Textbooks take more activation passes so stick with it. Also use skittering for many textbooks that's a better option than PhotoReading.

If you don't have any questions you'll not find places to dip during superreading so it's important to have your mind probing questions in mind. You're not trying to comprehend everything that is written in the traditional sense you are aiming to find the important nuggets of information that concisely build the understanding you need.

Authors tend to repeat themselves and what you are looking for is the passage that sums it up for your conscious mind because your non-conscious mind has already processed it.

Alex