Thank you very much for your reasonable and helpful reply, Alex. I have the courage (and enough experience to back it up) to follow the plan you say now. I would like to clarify a few small details, however, so that I can best use my time.
1. If I really don't want to (either consciously or if I just have a lot of sublinimal resistance) read something that I've been assigned, how can I develop a meaningful purpose that motivates me through it? Is it as simple as making the purpose clear, subject-oriented and also stating long-term reasons I want this (to keep up with my school work so that I can both get better and have more free time -> so that I'll have the best choices of colleges open to me)? Or is that too elaborate?
You are quite right to say that not having a clear enough purpose has been an issue for me -- creating a purpose filled me with great fear in the beginning -- I've been caught between making the purpose as true and exact as possible and not spending 10 minutes on it! I don't know exactly why I've had such a resistance to active and clearly purposeful reading, but at least I already see my progress in this area. I am more in touch with why I do things now, but it took a while to build that seemingly simple awareness. The simple suggestion of a subject-oriented purpose you gave is a key to a quantum leap for me, definitely.
2. Do you suggest that I PhotoRead each of my text books as often as possible (nearly daily?) Are there any indicators I should look at such as if I'm having an easy or a hard time in the subject? I ask this because as a human being, my time is limited, and I'd rather use that time I'd be PhotoReading to activate or Mind Map stuff unless repeating the PhotoReading step over and over again on my text books is really going to help me.
3. Should I bother to activate parts of text books even if reading within them has not been assigned to me? For example, math, where the text is used mainly for the problems it has within it for homework.
4. Should I get it in mind that eventually, I'll be wanting to superread/dip all of my school reading materials, including novels? I have had MAJOR resistance to this because thus far, regular reading has been much more enjoyable (and comfortable) for me, and thus, it was hard to sustain motivation to continue activating them. Also, I am supposed to read everything analytically, annotating comments, literary devices, notes, and realizations in the margins. Could I eventually do this with PhotoReading? Or would I want to do a few activation layers, then go through Rapid Reading and slow down where necessary to write stuff down, analyze, and accomplish what I'm supposed to be doing for English class?
And also, I'm wondering about the reading section of the SAT. Though I tried sr/dipping in the beginning, recently I've been using slow reading (after PRing, of course) to gain the comprehension to answer the MC questions on practice SAT tests. Is it as simple as me deciding to switch over to activation instead of reading when I have the confidence to do so?
I'll spare you any further questions. Thank you so much for your help, Alex. I'm not sure why this has brought up so much fear for me -- still! Perhaps part of me is still not ready to have stable, lasting success with reading and school?
CameronJ
