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#44335 05/10/05 09:02 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Hermionics:
My counsin just got his Ph.D. in Economics. He didn't have to read that much. About 3-4 hours for studying, I'd say. Also, he follows Dr. Green's study methods. Studying from 7am to 11pm is nonsensical and quite incredible. No-one should study that much, even the less bright.

Hi Hermionics

Could you please tell me more about Green's study method? What is the secret, how does your plan look when you study?


#44336 05/11/05 04:37 AM
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Deadlife;
"purpose: know and understand everything possible, the most hidden information as well, in order to possess the contents and navigate through my mind as if it were an encyclopedia."

That is your problem right there. Your purpose really isn't a purpose at all. It is too broad, too all encompassing.

Your purpose needs to be very specific. You need to be very clear on what is it that you want from this book or assignment. Why do you need to know this information? Once you have identified what it is how will you use this information?

You don't want to learn everything when there are some things you will never use.That is what the 80/20 rule is all about.The Photoreading book addresses this when it talks about books have 15% to 20% salient meaning. You want to spend 80% of your time on that 20% most important,crucial, critical part of the book that has the most significance
and essence of the book. 80% of the book is filler you want the main points,concepts, key terms.

You don't want to spend 4 years learning something.Purpose will drive the engine. You can come back to things later.

Finally that first initial superread and dip pass is not going to give you everything on the first attempt. See what happens when you are on the 3rd,4th,5th pass. See how much more information you will get.

Some general info for you; Alex is not a man. She is a woman.

Photoread4me


#44337 05/11/05 02:58 PM
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Firstly, let me apologize for having misunderstood Alex... ehrm.. MRS. Viefhaus

photoread4me, I'm aware of the fact that there should be more specific purposes.

e.g. in history:
- My purpose is to understand why Hitler wanted to commit genocide
- My purpose is to understand which population groups he managed to influence more
- My purpose is to understand how Hitler finally came to power
- My purpose is to understand the foreign reactions to the nazi regime
- My purpose is to undersand the effects of the WW2 events today
- My purpose is to understand what benefits and negative aspects fascism has
or if you want something more practical:
- My purpose is to practically use this knowledge in my future work in social sciences

Hence, I should create many different purposes?

Or maybe should it be something like
- My purpose is to get an A+ in the history examination?

I sincerely have no clue on what you mean with a precise purpose for an examination.

- My purpose is to fully understand the whole context
is what seems more appropriate to an examination in which YOU DON'T KNOW BEFOREHAND what you will be examined about.

Questions in the last history exam were:
What are Charles Darwin's theories' responsibilities in the mid 20th century holocaust?
Could a better organization of the american economical plans in the 20s prevent the instauration of the nazi regime?
Have Stresemanns and Briands foreign policies efficiently contributed to the contemporary situation of Europe?
What are Germany's responsibilities in today's European Union and in general international relations?

Questions that are totally unexpected, yet have been hidden, less important-looking contents of the book.


#44338 05/11/05 04:47 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Deadlife:

e.g. in history:
- My purpose is to understand why Hitler wanted to commit genocide
- My purpose is to understand which population groups he managed to influence more
- My purpose is to understand how Hitler finally came to power
- My purpose is to understand the foreign reactions to the nazi regime
- My purpose is to undersand the effects of the WW2 events today
- My purpose is to understand what benefits and negative aspects fascism has
or if you want something more practical:
- My purpose is to practically use this knowledge in my future work in social sciences

They are not purposes they are questions.

why Hitler wanted to commit genocide
which population groups he managed to influence more
how Hitler finally came to power
(what, why, etc)the foreign reactions to the nazi regime
(what, why, etc) effects of the WW2 events today

Mind probing questions perhaps but not a purpose for reading.

quote:
or if you want something more practical:
- My purpose is to practically use this knowledge in my future work in social sciences

How?

quote:
Or maybe should it be something like
- My purpose is to get an A+ in the history examination?

Best passing grade is more resonable buy saying A+ you have taken the all or nothing attitude. If you cannot see yourself getting near that grade you've set yourself up for failure. If you best passing grade is an A+ great but watch out for that all or nothing thinking.

quote:
I sincerely have no clue on what you mean with a precise purpose for an examination.

What are you going to do with the information after the exam?

quote:
- My purpose is to fully understand the whole context...

What does "fully understand" mean? (abstract wording) How do you know when you have reached "fully understand"?

quote:
...is what seems more appropriate to an examination in which YOU DON'T KNOW BEFOREHAND what you will be examined about.

Yeah exams are like that and irk your instructor they can be unforgiving with the grade the give you.

quote:
Questions in the last history exam were:
What are Charles Darwin's theories' responsibilities in the mid 20th century holocaust?
Could a better organization of the american economical plans in the 20s prevent the instauration of the nazi regime?
Have Stresemanns and Briands foreign policies efficiently contributed to the contemporary situation of Europe?
What are Germany's responsibilities in today's European Union and in general international relations?

Questions that are totally unexpected, yet have been hidden, less important-looking contents of the book.


Here you learn to train the mind body connection to look for the unexpected for exams like these. How does one guarantee themselves that they will think and write the answer the way the instructor will accept the answer? By knowing the instructor. Reading the books s/he reads and has on their recommended reading list. Making sure they get notes from their lectures.

What you get from a book ultmimately is what you personally consider important. If you want to understand what the instructor considers important review their previous years exams.

Alex

[This message has been edited by Alex K. Viefhaus (edited May 11, 2005).]


#44339 05/11/05 07:52 PM
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Hi. I was reading this thread and even though I just started the course, I found it very interesting.

I wanted to tell Hermionics that going from 4 hours of study to about 15 minutes of photoreading and her grade only came down a point is an incredible display of photoreading since she just learned it. I would be excited if I were her. Photoreading like everything else takes practice. I think she's being hard on the system, and she didn't answer anyones questions either which tends to make me suspicious.

Deadlife You have way too much on your plate. Your mind is overloaded. You need to get a good dictionary and look up the meanings of all the words you don't understand. You'll feel much better. You're right. Wait till you're done with school and take a summer to learn PR and you'll enjoy it much better.


#44340 05/11/05 07:55 PM
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quote:
If you best passing grade is an A+ great but watch out for that all or nothing thinking.

"Best passing grade" is firstly very vague, unprecise and secondly relative and reductive. In past I managed to set goals and reach them set in a realistic way: the ingredient was an appropriate studying. Where this "talent" has disappeared meanwhile, I don't know, but my heart says that the answer lies in what you called this "cognitive" mistakes, hence I repeat the question done a few posts ago on what you know about curing these.
"All or nothing thinking" is too exaggerated to depict my condition since A+ is not "all", and an A- is also not nothing. Nevertheless, I remain faithful to the famous quote "Aim higher than your target"

quote:
What are you going to do with the information after the exam?

Try remembering it for the next time I'll have to prepare a speech when I'm the president of the USA?

quote:
What does "fully understand" mean? (abstract wording) How do you know when you have reached "fully understand"?

When I have understood the contents, whether secret or not, of the historical events. When the why, who, where, what questions can all be answered and when I am able to transmit the book to someone else.

quote:
By knowing the instructor.

Where I go to highschool, exams are prepared in collaboration with different teachers of one subject, and corrected by different teachers of partner schools. It has always been like that. Hence, it is indepentent from the instructor. It depends only on the individual's intellect.

And here we are again at the beginning of the vicious circle.

Hence, I stress the question to which you didn't reply yet: what is this stuff on cognitive mistakes while studying?

If it has no connection with PhotoReading (which is actually the only change that occured in my entire life, followed by the bad marks), then what can it be?

Some genetically predetermined brain damage?

Thanks for your attention!


#44341 05/12/05 06:10 AM
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As I said the topic does not relate to PhotoReading

I have not replied because I don't want to discuss it here.

I do have a question for you though. One which many people who would like to get an A on one of their exams are probably wondering.

If you already had a perfected system that allowed you to average A's. Why would you be changing that system?

The saying often goes if it ain't broke don't fix it. The reason is taking things apart to fix them will break down the working system (lower your grades) until such time as you've recreeated the working system for you.

In MSN I have often admonished my chattees not to throw away what is working for them but to bring PhotoReading into the picute slowly. This is so they don't have to suffer a loss of grade while they are learning. And it allows them to be creative adding PhotoReading to what already works for them.

Don't dump everything you know to reinvent the wheel.

Learn the system first on non textbook related material. If you were not happy with the results there why would you use it if your system was already getting you A+?

Alex


#44342 05/12/05 07:07 AM
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I'm sorry I posted "cognitive" thing on this forum, then at least tell me in which section should I do?

Why I changed? Ah, that's a question, I, too, often make ever since these matters began.

At that time I was obviously not satisfied with my A average. It was an AVERAGE and that included the B/B+ in two, three subjects, too (French, Philosophy). Then, even in subjects where I had an A, I personally didn't consider MYSELF as good enough. I attend an international school where there is no specific direction (majors?) of studies, but still, in each subject I try to compare myself with people who have A in schools where that subject is relevant to the school.
So, I may have an A+ in math, but the guy attending the Scientific High School is two years younger than me and knows better than me in spite of his B.
Secondly, especially because I also wanted to succeed in extra stuff - as I said before, driving license, hobby manuals, guides, and the big books that can also add strength to the practical use of what you study at school.
For example, at school, for physics, we may have the school book and exercises, but it's also good to read the literature by the scientists themselves, entire philosophical treaties, etc.
Infact, I didn't want to confine my knowledge "only" to what we learned at school, but extend it beyond. To prepare for the philosophy exam, I didn't just read the anthology normal book you have for school, but tried to read original works, contemporary author's criticism, other books related, university studies related etc.

Normally, by reading and engaging that much, you should not be only A+ average for your own school but beyond in an unwritten sense.
I'm trying to enter already the pace of university, of what I'll have to expect in future studies, etc.
And there are also so many other subjects in life that we don't learn at school, but are essential for what you consider your future.

Therefore, I thought, it wouldn't be bad to learn PhotoReading. How could I expect that I was "fixing" what I had?
I thought I would be GROWING and not FIXING.
I was so attracted by the product that I didn't expect... this, whatever you call it.

[This message has been edited by Deadlife (edited May 12, 2005).]


#44343 05/12/05 08:01 AM
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True success is not measured in a grade. It's how you feel about yourself.

The danger of reading books beyond what they set for you at school is you have an even broader view and your answers are not confined to to the same boundries as an instuctor. There is only one subject where ones answer can be worked out right or wrong ant that is maths. All the others are subject to the beliefs of the human mind asking the questions and deciding the answers they get. Their interpretation of what you write just as your interpretation of what you read is affected by your memories and other text that you have read. So any grade you get needs to be taken with a grain of salt. A pass is all you really need to beable to go to the next level of learning. No member of the public would ever grant any president an A+ for their performance in life and the more successful of them had learned from the greatest failures.

You learn more from your mistakes than getting it right everytime. That human failing also earns you a lot more respect than someone who always gets perfect grades has.

I've tried to overlook your defensive responses to my questions and suggestions. Because I know it's possible that your replies are not meant to come across that way. The written word lacks the reast of the comunication that our bodies provide. So what I percieve as righeousness on your behalf, might coloured by my perception based on my experiences. For this reason I've continued discussion. Thinking it is possible that you do sincerely want to learn PhotoReading.

However I continue to percieve that you want something to blame rather than considering my repeated suggestions that there is a learning curve for PhotoReading itself and you need to learn on books other than textbooks before apply it to school work.

What happened when you did the star of wonder exercise?

If you are learning PhotoReding from the book alone. You'll need more patience and persistance than you have applied. As I already said our interpretation of what we read, especially with traditional reading techniques is coloured by our personal expectations. It is quite possible that what you understand from the book is not what the book is telling you (PG 17 What you must give up in order to learn PhotoReading).

Unfortunately how to read a book is not taught taught in school. They discovered the reason for that here in Australia. Teachers never learned it in the first place. You cannot teach what one hasn't learned. That's why as much as 70% of students are unable to read beyond age 9 level. 80% of all the words you use were learned by age 14. Very few people go beyond that.

Alex

[This message has been edited by Alex K. Viefhaus (edited May 12, 2005).]


#44344 05/17/05 03:14 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Deadlife:
Hermionics: consider yourself lucky. I, too, am still a student and ever since I discovered PhotoReading, things have changed - negatively!
Consider yourself lucky because meanwhile I have fallen from A+ to an average of C in most subjects, which, in addition to the resulting confusion and stress, becomes a sort of hell.
In any case, I perfectly understand your agony: it's not nice to go A- instead of A+. Many people seem not to care about the + or -, but, in my personal view at least, it is relevant, especially when in past you have always had that average.

Before Photoreading, I had automatically read much faster than the average students - what later I discovered is called "speedreading".
This was probably due to the fact that since childhood I used to read a lot and developed imagery.

I generally needed to read the books once one or two days before examination and make notes in form of rethorically correct sentences
(- The strength of an acid is measured by its K value.
- Strong acids have large K values.
- etc.).
Then, I calmfully read the notes a few times before going to bed and during the next day, and I generally always got A+.
Especially in chemistry, which had been my best subject.

I guess that Photoreading, which I used for a few months - until I noticed the huge drop of my marks! - is not appropriate when you already have good techniques. And maybe it's not appropriate for reading difficult analytical stuff that requires constant attention. I would not PhotoRead Blaise Pascal's "Pensees". But maybe that's just a personal judgement.

All I managed to PhotoRead effectively was the driving license guide. It had easy contents.

But I stopped PhotoReading because of the strange symptoms that occured in my mind:
1) When I wanted to read "normally" (that means, in my natural "speedreading" way), I started having difficulties in understanding and imagining, ENTERING and feeling the contents of the text, whatever it was, literature, guide, newspaper, etc.
2) even now, and that really adds a bit of bittersweet anger: I often misread words. Just a few seconds ago I gave a quick glance to my bookshelf and instantly read PHILARMONICA. When I focused 2 seconds later it was SHAKESPEARE. And that's just an example of what occurs daily whenever I give "quick glances". Sort of corrupted subconscious?
3) I used to speak and read fluently 7 languages, even the most "difficult" texts with the most diverse grammatical forms. The corruption of my former mind configuration has led me to write poor texts (just take this text I'm posting on the forum to get an idea of how my grammatical power has dissolved). I confuse between the different languages and often fall into false friends.
4) My ideas in general are since lately considered weird and of poor intellect.

I stopped PhotoReading together with several other self-improvement methods (mindmaps,etc.) hoping that one day I may find the way back to my previous mental conditions.
Doctors, friends and teachers (who have noticed my great fall) don't believe in what I tell them on [what] these techniques [have done to me] and all they can advise me is: "Maybe you're simply not working at all for school" - which is really bitter to hear, I assure you!

Hence, I, too, would like to hear the experts opinion on my condition.



Excellent to see a polyglot linguist here at a modest discussion board such as this one. I confirm you that there are ways to fix your mental condition.

First, I'd like to tell you my progress at school recently without using PRing at all. I've gotten excellent grades, including a 100% on the latest chemistry test and a 99% on a history in-class essay which I wrote yesterday.

Second, I've concluded that PhotoReading is an innate ability, which cannot be learned. Individuals are either born with this ability or not. It is similar to photographic memory. Every single mnemonics books I've read (I'm very interested in neurology) offer no satisfactory methods to improve, or "boost", as they say, your memory. There is no way for a genetically forgetful person to take photographs of what they see and read.

Now let me come back to your mental condition. The more you try to use other systems of studying, the more damage you will cause to yourself, because of your current condition. Make attempts to calm yourself and concentrate on the "classical" learning method. Find a method that works for you.


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