Has anyone ever taken a speed-reading course?

[ACMESkydiver 0]

Did you take it in a classroom environment or self-study? And how much did it cost you?

I just got some info in the mail. I wanted to check it out for my 10 year old daughter and myself. The cost of the class is $299 PER PERSON and it is a 2 hour class, one night per week, for 6 weeks.

Has anyone gone this route? Was it successful? Was it a local thing or a franchise-type program?

Thanks!

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

[Sockpuppet 0]

You planning to read the Da Vinci code while skydiving?

------
Two of the three voices in my head agree with you. It might actually be unanimous but voice three only speaks Welsh.

[jjiimmyyt 0]

I did a week long study skills course at King College, ondon a few years back. It did work, and improved my reading speed of technical documents by sevreal times. BUT I also read a lot for pleasure and it took me a long time to be able to switch between work and pleasure mode.

"This isn't an iron lung, people. You can actually disconnect and not die." -Dave

[ACMESkydiver 0]

Quote

You planning to read the Da Vinci code while skydiving?

That wouldn't require speed reading, that would require osmosis.

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

[ACMESkydiver 0]

I have tons and tons and tons of literature to get through for business and flight.

It might be worth it, but $299 is a bunch.

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

[shropshire 0]

I guess that I need too. It's taken me days to get around to reading this post

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[caress 0]

Only speed reading course I ever heard of is the Evelyn Woodhead speed reading course back in the 70's. I had a lab that I went to in school for learning to speed read in 1st grade and 2nd grade. Because of it I read exceptionally fast. I am not sure that they have it available anymore or what it was called.-caress

I've learned.... That being kind is more important than being
right.

[Rebecca 0]

I have the Evelyn Woodhead book, but I haven't gotten around to reading it.

you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' -- well do you, punk?

[cocheese 0]

Yes but i got into an accident. - Steven Wright

[TheBachelor 5]

I took one at a college at night. I think it was a quarter or semester-long course. I think $299 for 12 hours of classroom time is a little much, but if you can't find it anywhere else I guess it's O.K. That being said, I'll also say that the concepts taught could easily be done via self-study.

There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

[ACMESkydiver 0]

Quote

I have the Evelyn Woodhead book, but I haven't gotten around to reading it.

-You haven't gotten around to reading the speed reading book? That's funny stuff!!!

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

[ImGunnaJump 0]

I took a course but didn't find it all that helpful, only for things that you didn't need to read very carefully...maybe certain reports or articles where you only needed to get just some idea of what's going on, "skim" reading I believe they called it. And for learning that, I agree w/a previous poster that you could self-teach that concept. Comprehension is the key - it does you no good to be able to zip through material if at the end you don't know what it was all about.

For anything important, I found I had to take the time to read it regular...but then, it could just me and my fart-slow brain!!

"...I've learned that while the "needs" in life are important (food, water, shelter), it's the "wants" in life (ice cream, chocolate, sex) that make it worth the effort." Kbordson

[jheadley 0]

I took one, biggest waste of money ever.

[Guru312 0]

I took one *many* years ago. VERY worthwhile.

I still have all the materials in my attic. I paid something like $15.00/month for about six months and each month I got a new 'packet' of reading material.

The course included a mechanical timer and a battery powered gadget which had an arm which scrolled down the page and forced me to read faster. The scrolling arm was adjustible in speed and a very cool idea because of its simplicity and reliability. It had a rotating threaded shaft on which the arm was threaded. Quite neat. [I'm an inventor so things like that impress me.]

One of the main parts of the course was the vocabulary lists. I learned to *really* love reading because the lists went into the etymology of the words. Learning vocabulary is so important if you really want to increase your reading speed because your speed slows WAY down when you don't know the word and the meaning in context. Buy a book like "30 days to a more powerful vocabulary" or any which has a step by step process for learning the words. A daily regimen of learning a word a day *really* helps. [I'm not trying to be ostentatious or pedantic, understand.]

Secondly, the course taught me that different material is read a different rates and that, with practice, one can learn to modify the reading speed to the material. One doesn't read a newspaper in the same way you'd read coursework for a class.

Only you can decide if the price is right, obviously, but it worked for me. Don't be a cunctator; go for it.

A few things you could do: Decrease your TV time and read instead. Decrease your video and computer game time and read instead. Decrease your freefall time and read instead.

Well, maybe not the last one...no sense being rediculous about it.

Guru312

I am not DB Cooper

[Rebecca 0]

Quote

Quote

I have the Evelyn Woodhead book, but I haven't gotten around to reading it.

-You haven't gotten around to reading the speed reading book? That's funny stuff!!!

I know! The thing is, I'm not interested in speed reading itself, just the ends of getting through more of what I am interested in... if that makes sense.
So, I keep reading the books I like, and put off reading that one.

Eh, whaddya gonna do?

you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' -- well do you, punk?

[ACMESkydiver 0]

Sounds good...all but the 'decrease your X time...' I don't do any of those things. I don't have time!!

Including freefall at the moment -but that'll change sometime soon.

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

[BlindBrick 0]

Along those lines,

When I was in high school, I went to a college literacy center to be studied because I had taught myself to read at three and was like post-college vocab at eight. While there they introduced me to this speed reading test on the computer.

Playing around with the settings, I was finally able to get real close to 2,000 per minute while maintaing 100% comprehension, but only with a custom display set up. However, the great about it was that it worked with any text file. So in theory, if I couod find the program, or one like it, I would have a lot easier time with my first year of grad school.

Anyone know about those types of programs?

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[ACMESkydiver 0]

That's amazing.

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.