18 to me used to mean 6 classes a semester, 3 hours (roughly) per week each.
1 hour M-W-F or 1.5 hours T-Th
That is entirely possible without Photoreading because I've seen many (some of them not too bright) people do it.
Photoreading would cut your reading time and study time down and yeah, you can learn it in a month but I think actually using it for real on the classes would make it work even better.
Paul never once mentions "LEVERAGE" in his book or course - probably because Tony Robbins beats it to death but he's right. If you have a real reason for reading something you'll be more into it than if you're just "learning" something or "testing" the system or "practicing Photoreading." I'm willing to bet that the people here that like PR and have it working for them have actually used it on something IN REALITY and those that have just went thru the motions to "see if this works" don't like it or don't have it working for them.
