Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer Perfecting PhotoReading and School Performance

It's funny, really. Only now am I starting to use PhotoReading to its fully efficient capacity. During the past few months, I have been very busy preparing for my school play, (the last performance is this evening) so in effect, the technique bought me sleep. :-) Still, however, I was not completely confident with my ability to activate in layers (Livingsuccess's inspiration has helped me to recognize this now, and, especially now that I have more time on my hands and will be more relaxed, I'm going to implement a quick, systematic activation system like you described in your post. What I have already succeeded in doing is activating one subject -- AP American -- in layers.

It's rather funny, really. Most students end up spending 40 minutes every night slowly, painstakingly reading word-by-word 7-10 pages, yet retaining about the same that I have in 2-4 15-20 minute passes through the WHOLE chapter. I've learned that it's amazing how important trust is in this process! When I've simply relaxed and trusted that learning in layers works, I can skip over entire passages because I get an intuitive feeling which summarizes its meaning and significance with the rest of the chapter's themes.

One more question, Livingsuccess. I feel that some chapters in my AP Americna text which, I either speed-read, slow-read, (before I did PhotoReading) rapid-read, or even super-read/dipped, have not reached a level of stable, conscious activation in my mind. I was able to do reasonably well (B+/A-) on all of the recent AP American tests I've taken, but I don't feel like I know the material and its details as a cohesive, progressing whole. I always felt like I should have done better on those tests, but all of the different pieces of events and concepts seemed to confuse my conscious mind. Up until now, I was still learning how to activate while still not fully believing that I could truly activate!

The same goes for the PhotoReading step, so therefore, I am going to re-PhotoRead my texts front-to-back, like you suggest (I did this already, but in a hardly-relaxed state, around mid-term time.)

And I will certainly let you know the results. One thing which was holding me back before was my poor test-taking habits, but now I have learned to budget my time very well on exams, jumping from easy problem to easy problem, only lightly contemplating the hard ones at first.

One final thing I'd really like to improve is my math performance. When I get tired or stressed, math, and simple linear reasoning, are the first abilities I lose! It's rather strange because my more complex facilities are still available to me, but I make 'careless' mistakes such as sign errors on even simple math problems, or I misread a word or phrase from a test question so that I answer a different question than the one being asked!

Sure, these are common issues for students. However, I want to be beyond them already because they make my grades reflect a lower level of understanding than what I really possess! And it's not just simply test nervousness. I was more relaxed than usual for a recent pre-calculus test, and I thought I had done well, but I actually got an 83 on it. Very few points were lost to misunderstanding or poor comprehension. I simply didn't properly apply the step-by-step process to solving trigonometric problems. I am proud, however, that, for a change, I didn't feel bad about the grade because I knew it didn't reflect my true potential or self-worth. Emotional detachment has been a big step for me!

I have rarely gotten A+'s on math tests since before middle school. But I'm not discouraged because I know I'm on the threshold of finding out the perfect solution to resolve this!

I wonder if I could do any DirectLearning on this. Where should I look? What kind of books might help? I have the Sedona method book, but I'm not clear on whether that might help me to accomplish this specific goal?

Or maybe would it be helpful for me to continue on in the Genius Code course (I've just finished High Think Tank) in order to model my skills after a master high school test-taker?

So many possibilitiies :-)

Thanks in advance,
-Cameron

CameronJ - You said:

"One more question, Livingsuccess." But you never did ask a clear question. I could take a swing at what I think you need to hear from what you have said, though.

Your key problem is still resistance - to yourself, to the materials, to the process. You are doing the right things, but you are also cancelling out your efforts through your inner resistance and learning "emotional detachment" which you seem to have noticed and you are seeing improvements here. Keep on with this ongoing development process.

By all means you should use the Genius Code program as much as you like - I think it is a great program and it could only help.

I would further suggest that you branch out your reading well beyond the prescribed reading of your teachers. If you are reading AP History textbooks, go to the library and pick up 5 to 10 books on related history topics. Pick up some biographies of some of the main players of your topic area. Photoread them all as a syntopic reading. This will give your mind lots of data for making broad and abstract connections within your mental web of knowledge. If you do this and keep at it, you soon will surpass the knowledge of most of your teachers. Just make sure to stay humble when you do. This is especially true in college, where the teachers are often just a few steps ahead of the students with the material.

Thank you. I believe you answered my "question." Basically, it was an expression of my lingering doubts over my ability to fully activate the AP American material because the test is coming up in May :-).

The syntopic idea is indeed a good one. I have tried to do this throughout the year whenever possible, and indeed, I'm sure that it helped me a great deal for writing an insightful paper for the class for which I earned a high A/A+. Actually, I can do this syntopic idea without ever setting foot in a library because our school subscribes to several online services including ABC-Clio, a wonderful AP American supplement, and Questia, an online e-library with unlimited access to books and even some academic journal articles.

I'm not sure if you understood what I meant about "emotional detachment." That's probably because I wasn't either! I think I meant 'sufficient confidence to enable future success' Like Paul Scheele repeatedly says, I believe it is optimal for the learning process to consider tests as "feedback" instead of as a "failure." In the past, if I received a grade lower than what I either expected, hoped for, or thought I was capable of, it would sort of sadden me, and that grade would feel like an emotional burden. Instead, it seems obvious to me that the best way is instead to deal with grades as learning opportunities -- ways to learn to do better the next time.

I guess what I really meant, then, is that sometimes it's been frustrating for me to look at my non-successes as feedback because analyzing the apparent causes of my mistakes seems to reveal that I forgot to take into account an important detail here, forgot a dot there, and used A instead of B accidentally.

Even with these complaints, my grades are still good, (straight A's; and I stay humble now ;-)) but you're right -- I can easily rise to the top of my class.

Of course, this is a process both of learning and of development. I fully understand that. Could you please clarify what you meant by cancelling out my efforts with my "inner resistance?" Resistance to what?

I wonder if some of my test-taking issues might be helped simply by a daily meditation practice to clear my mind and clarify my intentions?

Thanks, Livingsuccess!! I hope you're enjoying your weekend.

-CameronJ

[This message has been edited by CameronJ (edited March 20, 2004).]

Hey, that's really cool. I'm continuously looking for new ways to make textbook learning easier. Word-by-word is just too wasteful!

When you mentioned those short passes, were those just super-reading and skittering sessions? (and anything in between)

Actually, I've done both, depending on my mood. If I have definite questions and am in a flowing quest for knowledge, the sr/dip works the best, of course.