Neal
This is my view.
What you should gauge really whether Photo-reading is working or not is the way in which you are summarizing a book.Do you see yourself summarizing a book easily,do you see the interplay of ideas and you can group the ideas and give it a framework.Do you see patterns ,can you easily match with whats happening in the world around you and compare and relate it to what you have read?If you see yourself getting good at this then you are getting good at photoreading .Can you regroup the ideas in the book as per your own requirement not as per the chapters or the authors way of writing it.
That for me is the real measure.What i suggest is do the steps ,do lots of mindmaps.And take the mindmaps you have come out for a book and redo it a couple of times meaning group them better .If you have ever read TOny Buzans book on mind map he directs us to mind map words only and if and really if one has to write down a phrase he suggests how to do so.So what happens when you mindmap a lot you get to get good at recogninsing patterns ,you get good at interplay of ideas,you aske yourself better questions.Photoreading for me is 2 steps ---why am i reading this and how is this book designed or arranged.These two questions are really the core essence of activation for me (u can use them on novels also right?).It gets me going after i photoread,i keep to this questions consistently.This helps me make mind maps even in my mind ,cause i keep grouping and regrouping many times in my head.What does speed really got to do with reading ----for me speed is getting the idea or the story very very fast But can you read a poem at 25000 words per min and then do what?
Speed is what got our attention to do photoreading but the beauty is in reading and applying and using the book or simply enjoying the book.All these promises are definitely are the essence of PRWMS.
Even if one doesnt get to high speeds the 5 steps of PRWMS is the best way to approach reading .For me it is!!!Cause all other speed reading ideas
dont help u in pattern recognition
dont help you compare books and ideas
dont help u see the ideas in action in the real world
dont help you get "oh i have read this somewhere" type of feelings!!!
But PRWMS get you into such a mind frame and the skills help you much much more .If you have any other speed reading course try them as far as i know they make you do lot of drills and then once you let go of the drills u r back at the starting line!!!in fact here is what i have tried before---tony buzans speed reading book,Howard Berg Super reading book ,rocket reader ,peter shephers speed reading book,Ron White Speed reading and what did i get from them ---Drills are moving my eye ball faster and faster.But PRWMS i got my MBA certificate and i enjoy activation.For me its a different way of looking at the world,i dont have to ever ever ever worry about completing a book ,i want my answers so i photo read 1 to 3 books a day and then activate 7 mins or 10 mins or 20 mins or if i am lucky much more in a day depending on how much i can afford to spend time on that day for reading.Read Novels in the loo as if my daughter sees me reading a book she hides the book from me----so you knwo how much time i do get to activate.But gone are the days where i want to complete a book gone are the days i see my book racm oh my god 1000 books un read an 100000 books yet to read.I have completed many and i am confident that when i want to read them i will do it .But your career has so many challenges !!!Getting to complete a bok is child play,i recently completed one up wall street by peter lynch in some 5 or 6 20 min session ---mainly let me tell you i had lots of lots of prior knowledge of the terms used in the book!!!Now where did i get that from ---from my studies and i am an engineer and i have studiesd hard in my engineering days but this never happened to me that i built on from my prior knowledge but with PRWMS its hapening .I keep grouping ideas under different branches then i keep askign myslef lots of questions.When i read Black Swan i realised i have very little knowledge in statistics and propbality theory its only limited to what i learnt in high school so i am now learnign them from Khan Academy ---5 years ago i had dropped the idea that i can even do an aMBA and now i am planning a phd in 10 years.
DOnt Give up Sir!!!! try it in all ways .Even you dont get it do it again ,take a break go see a movie and do it again,thats what i can say.
Hey i have also planned to activate big novels in a different way,i am planning to rapid read them and then second activation come out with a giant mindmap and then third activation do a search on vocabulary---lots of time ---yes but who cares ,its fun for me ,its the joy of going into so much of depth on a book!!!
And as i said its only my view but i sincerely suggest just keep doing it!!!!
