Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer From A+ to an A-

Dear KW,
nice to hear you graduated! My wishes!
What makes you believe that you couldn't have studied extra material and despite that understand what the teachers want from you?

Isn't it just organizing one's information on one topic directing them further towards what the teacher wants?

Well, anyway, I suppose I have no other choice but rely on the notes I'll take in the classroom. That's life apparently...

Maybe I can start reading all the things I'm interested in, all the extra books, when I'm a retired old man

Anyway, thanks for the insight, I'll start.. taking notes... notes... notes...

It's just a too new rule for me to accept: the more you know, the worse you get in grades...
Let's hope it works!

Deadlife,

I am studying in Oxford for final year. Oxford does not look for straight As students but all round students. 5 of my friends got straight As got rejected while I did not straight As in O-level. But you need straight As in A-level to fulfill the conditional offer. By the way, Bill Clinton could not get the cert which means he could not graduate in Oxford. But his daughter did.

Alex, KW,

As Alex has mentioned, it is better to develop the body mind connection before to apply PR to textbooks. I just PRed the books and activated my notes by traditional skills but I set purpose and ask questions as well. For maths, the notes are just about 30 pages so I don't really bother to super read and dip. The most horrible part is to solve questions esp the last part of the past exam papers. I just try my best to solve them anyway. This is the short summary of my study.

For my personal matter, I am indeed quite nervous about not being able to get a First this year. Last year I did too badly so that I need 73, which is a High First in Maths, to get an upper second overall. I think KW would understand my situation. Most of the companies require an Upper Second as a minimum requirement for them to scan my CV further.

Alex, I need to get an upper second just to get Goldman Sachs or McKinsey to scan my CV. My purpose of going to these companies is to learn to invest intelligently. Though there are some people like Warren Buffet who did investment successfully on their self-study, I guess most people need some proper training and a good enviroment to develop the valuation skills and great intuition for investment. An CEO came to Oxford and he told me that his great investment sense comes from his character and the training from McKinsey and Goldman Sachs. He worked in McKinsey for 3 years and Goldman Sachs Private Equity for 7 years. He did a lot of good deals. In short, I need a high First this year in order to get an Upper Second overall as an admission ticket to apply to these companies.

There are only less than 3 weeks to exam. I have prepared much more well than last 2 years. I have gone through everything already and doing the past papers. But I always get stuck in the last part(hardest part) of the question and I feel quite frustrated. Though the professor explains the answers, the same type of qu would never come up again in the exam. This is the way Oxford differentiate the Best and the Very Good.

I tried to work for 13 hrs a day and the next day I was exhausted. Alex, KW, can you 2 suggest me some ways to improve my efficiency and thinking skill to solve these problems? It is now not the problem of not knowing the lecture notes, but the ability to demonstrate high level thinking and application of the theory I have learnt.

[This message has been edited by Michael S (edited May 17, 2005).]

Michael I've told you before and I'll tell you again. As long as you focus on having to get an A+ youare setting yourself up for failure. Because you are focusing on failing. You're worried that you won't get it.

Concentrate on what you need from your studies. What your purpose is for reading, learning and reviewing. And it's not to work for any elite business. Your real purpose should be learning the stuff so you know it when you work for such a business and evidence of that is your best passing grade.

Your best passing grade can be an A+ but you need to focus on learning and knowing the information so you can work for such a company not worrying about failing. That is what continues to undermine you.. You're focuseed on the possibility that you might fail. Bypassing the real purpose that you need for your textbooks. (to know it, understand it so I can work for a company like... and for that I need my best passing grade.) Own the A+ as your best passing grade. But quite worrying about failing. What you see is what you get.

Alex

[This message has been edited by Alex K. Viefhaus (edited May 18, 2005).]

I found this thread very interesting.
A decade ago, I was a tutor for the Stanley Kaplan Co., and could teach students how to really get super high scores on the SAT and PSAT, as I scored perfect on the math and near perfect on the verbal myself.

Today it is a different type of test, but the point is I had learned how to apply myself with the SQ3R method of the 1970s and 1980s (Study/Survey, Question the material with the books and notes closed,Read (to answer your questions), Review, and Recite (put it all in your own words). Dr. Green's book appears to be a rehash of this tried and true method, that allowed me to get a 4.0 average at two of the leading Universities in the USA.

Photoreading, which I just started 9 months ago, is entirely different from Dr. Green's methods. Photoreading allows you to do the Survey portion of SQ3R and the Reading Portion. I believe for technical courses, you may still need to do a lot of reciting ( in math that would mean playing around with the equations and doing lots and lots of homework problems similar to what your professor plans to test your knowledge of on the midterms and finals).

Some of the writers on this thread appear to be giving up on photoreading, because they want to superread and dip everything. I use PR on mathematical and science materials, as well as amartial arts material. PR allows me to conceptualize the flow of the equations and gives me a quick map of where to go. The map is not the territory and I still have to do the old fashioned get down and dirty to work out the "cognitive" challenges. That means in math, I have to get out the calculator, slide rule, and pencil and paper just like Dr. Green would suggest for such courses. In martial arts, I need to find a partner and work through the moves I have mapped out by photoreading.

PR helps me acquire the map faster than I usually would. I still must dig through the territory.

I also want to comment on the disbelief that graduate students may study from 7am to 11pm. I , personally, found reading that much to be counterproductive, and I studied in 50 minute sessions, taking a minimal 10 minute break, and would maintain strong focus. I found that studying on and on without a break would create diminishing returns. I knew many graduate students who did study from 7am to 11pm, bringing their books to dinner and even to the latrine-- I kid you not. Many of them made fairly good grades and many others barely passed!! Most students who focused in small blocks of time (one hour or less) using the 20%-80% rule discussed in this thread, almost always made As or Bs at the worse.

I have worked with gifted students and just plain hard working students and feel pretty confident about what study techniques do and don't maximize the GPA (Grade Point Average) by watching others and my own success.

I have dramatically increased my reading skills through photoreading and my life is getting so much better ! Sorry to be so long winded, but hope this has helped somebody out there.

Just a quick question: Does PRing guarantee a 100% (or close to 100%) comprehension? If not, then it cannot be used to read academic materials.

quote:

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Originally posted by Hermionics:
Just a quick question: Does PRing guarantee a 100% (or close to 100%) comprehension? If not, then it cannot be used to read academic materials.

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I don't know anyone who gets it all perfectly.
We are all human and our comprehension is
clouded by our way of thinking and our
experiences. I can't conceive of The Perfect
Method of doing anything. I think you are
asking too much of yourself and of life
in general

Any method is like the Japanese Garden,
perfect except for one imperfection.

Gianni

You might never reach perfection, but near-perfection is ALWAYS possible. Otherwise, PRing will only increase the rate, but decrease the accuracy.

[This message has been edited by Hermionics (edited May 22, 2005).]

You ask if PR can guarantee 100% comprehension?!
First does 100% comprehension mean the ability to get 100% on any test on the material?!
Does 100% comprehension mean to be able to get outside of the box and use this material
in new and creative ways that the original author never any considered?!
The answer would depend on how much work you put into the activation stage. Activation could actually require heavy duty SQ3R for science and math materials.
All I can say is when I was a student, I aced exams with perfect scores that most people could not even pass. I was a hard working student and most would have said I comprehended the material 100% at the time.

As an older man, I have revisited old subject matter that I mastered and have PRed it. I feel my level of comprehension is higher than ever, as I can take the material way outside the box.

Personally, I am not bold enough to ever say I comprehend anything 100%. All I can say is with PR, my comprehension is higher than ever before and I believe it is applicable to ALL academic material. The key is how you choose to activate the different materials.

Also I agree with many other experienced PRers on this thread who state that there are more important objectives than getting that 100% on the exam!

I recommend that you reread the entire thread, and really think about what has been said here. I think this particular thread is fantastic and chock full of information to give anyone an edge in academic or personal studies. In fact I feel guilty that I can get all this information for free--SERIOUSLY-- many people go to high priced tutorial sessions and will not get half the keys on how to learn, as this particular thread is revealing.

I have great gratitude for this discussion forum!

I think Raleigh199 is definitely correct.
At the moment, I just strggle hard to get my highest possible mark in order to secure an interview chance of the great companies. Afterwards, I will throw away the garbage that I learnt as the knowledge itself does not help my career and life at all. The purpose of PRing and learning is to be able apply the knowledge to our life and to get some new insights which are helpful. Guy, if you aim at 100% only, don't do PR but just do past papers. A-Level repeats past papers and it is dead easy to get As. You don't even need 100%, you only need 80%.

I have taken PhotoReading course just a few weeks ago. The instructor emphasized that photoreading textbooks is different than photoreading other books. As there was one student in the class, the instructor dealt with her separately.

PhotoReading is natural. Anything that comes in contact with any of our 5 senses, is permanently recorded in our brain. It is about our ability to access the information already stored. For example, if I give you a keyword and send you to a city library to get the book, you'll go no where. If I give you a sentence, your chances are better but still very difficult. If I give you the name of the book and the sentence, it becomes very easy. If I give you the book, and the page, you can find within seconds. PhotoReading is about accessing information. As we grow up memorizing stuff, we forget natural way of learning. How do you think kids learn multiple languages as correctly/incorrectly as the people around them?