Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer Please Help...Taking MCAT again

So it's now May. How did the MCAT go?

Margret's idea about state and mind management is definitely worth it's weight in gold for now and long into the future of graduate school.

Personally, the notion that the designer's of the test are out to "trick" you is off base. The MCAT Verbal sections are out to test your verbal reasoning skills. If you consider them devious in some way...or boring as you described in your first post, you are inviting a kind of mental switch-off that can only serve to derail your mind doing it's best work.

PhotoReading the text and questions followed by skittering of the text seems best strategy for most of the kinds of materials you described. Rapid reading is ok if you have a way of keeping it moving.

Sorry if this came after the test, but hey, there will probably be plenty more, eh?

Paul,

Paul:

One thing more frustrating than taking this test is having to wait for 6-8 weeks for the scores. Overall, I feel that i did better. I was able to finish all nine passages (last time only seven). The funny thing is that the prep course I took said that it would be normal if I only finished seven or eight. Anyway, I got into "state" w/affirmations, set my purpose to "understand the passages and cue up associations that will help me answer most of the questions correctly", photoread all my passages and questions and then rapid read the passages. Before rapid reading, I had mind probed by asking myself what the main idea and the author's point of view were. As I answered the questions, I would also superread and dip to find the answers. I started to get tired towards the end, but I went with what I felt was the best answer. I am very nervous about this. I feel good, but I don't want to be too optimistic. I still feel that i need work on my activation. i don't know what kind of feeling to look for when activating. My best guess is that activation should feel like deja vu or like it all comes together. I don't quite get that feeling. Skittering or Super reading/dipping feels the same with or without Photoreading. Maybe, you can suggest a solution. When I hear all the success stories on this forum, I feel like I am not doing something right. I would greatly desired to master this whole mind system. With your guidance and hard work, I will do so. Thanks in advance.

If a book doesn't come together for you when activating, then keep activating the book until it does.

It should come together in 1/3 the time it will take you to read the book regular. So, if it would take 10 hours, then plan to spend at least 3 hours activating (or as long as it takes until it comes together).

SDs.

Re activation. You said...

My best guess is that activation should feel like deja vu or like it all comes together.

May I suggest that you forget that idea? How activation can feel for you might be very subtle and in which case you are closing it off by "shoulding" on yourself and waiting for a particular feeling. It might not be a knock on the head feeling or even eureka... it might be more like the silent oh and you'd miss it by waiting for/looking for a deja vu.

As long as you keep waiting or expecting a particular feeling associated with activation you'll forget to notice what 'is' happening and missing the small successes that leave the message of how its really feels when you are activating.

Sorry I don't know if I've managed to explain very well. Let me know if you don't understand I'll find a better way of saying it.

Alex

For me, sometimes after multiple passes, it's not so much deja vu or gelling or seeing it all coming together as, 'Boy, I've had enough of this book.'

It's amazing what some are able to gain from just one pass. I've been amazed at myself. I did a book called "Battlefield of the Mind" in around 45 mins tops. It was fun!

Depending on the complexity of the texts, your knowledge of its origins, and your previously developed skills as primarily a regular reader, it will take more or less time to get into the "groove" of being able to smoothly go through the system.

I remember when I was learning, and quite frankly I STILL have more to learn about the system, but I believed I would be able to get all of the book. And I did. Some say seeing is believing, but truthfully, its believing is seeing. Then for about 2 weeks, my parents and my brother had convinced me that I wasn't getting all that I needed from the book.

Then, I tried using it in my science classes, and said you myself: "It doesn't matter what anyone says. This is possible. This is not that far to reach. I'll get better all the time."

Then I went through a chapter, did a worksheet, and whizzed through it in under 3 minutes. Comes back with a grade of. . .

*GASP.* A 97! *Starts dancing around the room.* The following papers would also be A's.

Then I learned the reason for failing many of the tests on these books. The questions, at least a little bit over half of them were irrelevant to the story/purpose of the book. Merely insignicant details about the entire plotline, character development, etc. I would have to make multiple passes.

For me, I prepare, PR, then skitter through tests, followed by reading some of the last questions in a few of the problems in various parts when test taking.

I forget what I was meaning to talk about. . . Kinda trailed off there. . .

Thanks, Youngprer, that's really interesting, what you wrote. When you read a book in 45 minutes, do you do all the steps?

quote:

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Originally posted by Hel:
When you read a book in 45 minutes, do you do all the steps?

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Well, excluding the final and "optional" step of RR, yes. On that book, it's one of the last ones I have ever previewed, but as time moves on, I feel that I phasing out a few of the things from within the system, feeling as if I don't need them. You don't need to preview.

After that, I went through it in photofocus twice. Once upside down, and right side up. During activation I would really not even intend to skip paragraphs. It just felt natural. I didn't feel as though I was really going "fast." But then I looked down at the page number after a little while, and saw that it was a very high page number. (Forget now, but something like 75-120.) Only about 5-8 minutes had passed into my activation session. By the end of it, I was able to finish off the entire book.

This story is one of my most remembered, because it was one of the first ever times that I had gone through a book that fast, and gotten that amazing comprehension.

Many PRers probably have these memories. Like the first time they experience spontaneous activation, or after photoreading the dictionary, the word:

disestablishmentarinism

pops into their head. (No, it's not a word! I'm kidding, but read it carefully! It could be! )

[This message has been edited by youngprer (edited May 14, 2002).]