Reading faster and more efficiently [part-1]

Reading faster and more efficiently

Reading which is often defined as “getting from the book what the author intended” or “assimilating the written words” deserves a far more complete definition. It can be defined as follows: Reading is the individual’s total interrelationship with symbolic information. It is usually the visual aspect of learning, and contains the following seven steps:

1.    Recognition: The reader’s knowledge of the alphabetic symbols. This step takes place almost before the physical aspect of reading begins.

2.    Assimilation: The physical process by which light is reflected from the word and is received by the eye, then transmitted via the optic nerve to the brain.

3.    Intra-integration: The equivalent to basic comprehension and refers to the linking of all parts of the information being read with all other appropriate parts.

4.    Extra-integration: This includes analysis, criticism, appreciation, selection and rejection. The process in which the reader brings the whole body of his previous knowledge to the new knowledge he is reading, making the appropriate connections.

5.    Retention: The basic storage of information. Storage can itself become a problem. Most readers will have experienced entering an examination room and storing most of their information during the two hour exam period! Storage, then is not enough in itself, and must be accompanied by recall.

6.    Recall: The ability to get back out of storage that which is needed, preferably when it is needed.

7.    Communication: The use to which the information is immediately or eventually put; includes the very important subdivision: thinking.

 The definition includes consideration of many of the problems listed above. The only problems not included are those which are, in a sense, ‘outside’ the reading process, such as the influence of our reaction to our surroundings, time of day, energy level, interest, motivation, age and wellness.

 The finger technique to improve your reading speed quickly

 In this section will prove that your mind is capable of much more than what others have told you so far. In half an hour, you will learn the “finger techniques” for faster reading and prove that you have the ability to read much faster than you currently do.

Practice exercise 1:

Read this paragraph to understand all the instructions first. Put the book upside down, yes. All the text will look upside down. You will use your finger next to thumb to train your eyes. Move your finger under a line of text as shown below. Move your eyes as the finger moves. 

Make sure that your finger does not cross the line. Do not move your lips and do not make sound as you read. Practice this for 5 minutes. Do not skip this step. Read this paragraph again to make sure you understand. Move your finger end to end under each line to guide your eyes for reading faster.

Turn a book upside down select a chapter and being practice for 5 minutes. Since the book is upside down, you should not try to understand any word. Just practices moving your finger and move your eyes with the finger and move your eyes with the finger. Move your finger faster and faster. Keep moving your finger smoothly.

Exercise 2:

Repeat the practice exercise. This time does not move your finger from end to end line, but a little less than end to end under each line. Practice for 5 minutes. This time move your finger faster than ever yet smoothly.

Exercise 3:

Repeat the exercise once again. But this time keep the book normal. As you move your finger, see the words. Do not try to understand everything. It is enough to understand 75% to 85% only. What is important it to move your finger fast and see the words as your finger moves under a line. Practice for 5 more minutes.