Speed Reading

[Doogie Howser]

How many of you on here have taken a speed reading/comprehension course? if you have, do you think it has helped your score on the mcats and in school in general? would you advise other people to take a course in it as well?

thanks,
tj

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[gdbaby]

How many of you on here have taken a speed reading/comprehension course? if you have, do you think it has helped your score on the mcats and in school in general? would you advise other people to take a course in it as well?

thanks,
tj

I used to teach speed reading/comprehension. It does help in school with plowing through textbooks, but judging from my MCAT score, it did not help much there. It may be helpful as a premed, but fromt he med students I have talked to, it sounds like a whole new type of studying takes place there and I don't know if the speed reading course would help. I used to teach for the Institute for Reading Development, if you are curious about programs out there.

 

[astrife]

I'm in high school still... so bare that in mind... but I read a book on speed reading and tried to employ some of their techniques... what I found was that when it comes to dense material (ex. biology textbooks) you cannot speed read yourself through those or you will have no idea what is going on...
I think for overall comprehension it's just better for my brain to take its sweet time getting through text... I am probably the slowest reader in the world, but because I take my time it allows me to absorb so much more which helped me quite alot on the ACT (where time restrictions are the real beast of the test) because I knew what was going on the first time through... but then again it all might just be how your mind works...

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

I'm in high school still... so bare that in mind... but I read a book on speed reading and tried to employ some of their techniques... what I found was that when it comes to dense material (ex. biology textbooks) you cannot speed read yourself through those or you will have no idea what is going on...
I think for overall comprehension it's just better for my brain to take its sweet time getting through text... I am probably the slowest reader in the world, but because I take my time it allows me to absorb so much more which helped me quite alot on the ACT (where time restrictions are the real beast of the test) because I knew what was going on the first time through... but then again it all might just be how your mind works...

I concur with this sentiment. I read novels/magazines/etc pretty quick (though I doubt I qualify as a speed reader). Textbooks frustrate me and I lose interest fairly quickly and end up skimming until I force myself to bear down, probably because I'm subconsciously looking to skip to the interesting parts. I've found you just have to plow through it, usually multiple times. Speed reading might help with the Verbal section on the MCAT, but probably not on straight up sciences.

 

[ShyRem]

ok. I think I'm dating myself here... but when I was in 5th and 6th grade, all students took speed reading at my school (and yes, it was a public school). But we also took typing, home ec, and shop. All students took those things.

You mean they don't teach speed reading in school anymore? What are they doing? Seems kids these days have all kinds of time in high school that I never had.. and I still don't get this "open campus" thing where kids are only in school for 3 hours a day. I mean, really. WTF?!?

 

[Hoberto]

ok. I think I'm dating myself here... but when I was in 5th and 6th grade, all students took speed reading at my school (and yes, it was a public school). But we also took typing, home ec, and shop. All students took those things.

You mean they don't teach speed reading in school anymore? What are they doing? Seems kids these days have all kinds of time in high school that I never had.. and I still don't get this "open campus" thing where kids are only in school for 3 hours a day. I mean, really. WTF?!?

Hmm, we all had to take typing, home ec and shop but no speed reading. My hubby never had to take speed reading either. Maybe it's something from your part of the country?

 

[gdbaby]

ok. I think I'm dating myself here... but when I was in 5th and 6th grade, all students took speed reading at my school (and yes, it was a public school). But we also took typing, home ec, and shop. All students took those things.

You mean they don't teach speed reading in school anymore? What are they doing? Seems kids these days have all kinds of time in high school that I never had.. and I still don't get this "open campus" thing where kids are only in school for 3 hours a day. I mean, really. WTF?!?

Here's dating myself: when I was in first grade they put me in a class for students with learning disabilities because I am left handed.

No speed reading though. I did have to learn sign language because we had three deaf kids in our school.

 

[astrife]

ok. I think I'm dating myself here... but when I was in 5th and 6th grade, all students took speed reading at my school (and yes, it was a public school). But we also took typing, home ec, and shop. All students took those things.

You mean they don't teach speed reading in school anymore? What are they doing? Seems kids these days have all kinds of time in high school that I never had.. and I still don't get this "open campus" thing where kids are only in school for 3 hours a day. I mean, really. WTF?!?

I go to one of the best public high schools in the South and speed reading was never apart of the cirriculum in the early grades. This "open campus" your talking about is kind of a fading thing. When I was a sophmore our seniors could take 2-3 classes a semester if they wanted and be out of school before lunch, however, state laws were enacting that forces us to be in class for a certain amount of time a day. This means that my senior year I am regulated to take 6 classes a semester. I also heard through the grapevine that the administration is about to force everyone to be in class for 7 classes a day (way too much in my opinion). Luckily I am out of high school in less than a semester so I really don't even care.

 

[deuist]

If you would rather purchase a speed reading book, get Reading Smart. Amazon is currently selling used copies for 88 cents.

 

[Hoberto]

Here's dating myself: when I was in first grade they put me in a class for students with learning disabilities because I am left handed.

No speed reading though. I did have to learn sign language because we had three deaf kids in our school.

Wahhahaaa!! When we started to learn cursive my teacher told me to use the other hand because she didn't know how to do it left handed! I'll never forget. I would be right-handed for the cursive lessons and use my left for everything else. This wasn't that long ago, I'm only 30. I think there are just some bad teachers out there.

 

[gdbaby]

Wahhahaaa!! When we started to learn cursive my teacher told me to use the other hand because she didn't know how to do it left handed! I'll never forget. I would be right-handed for the cursive lessons and use my left for everything else. This wasn't that long ago, I'm only 30. I think there are just some bad teachers out there.

I'm 33 so I bet we were of the same teaching philosophy generation. As a side note: now I do not know my left from my right (I actually use N,S, E, W when giving directions) and I write everything upside down and backwards with my right hand. Aahhhh public education....