Kilani Excellence
Speed Reading College
Chapter 3
Memory is Reading’s Best Friend
Overview
At the end of each exercise or practice
session you may be asked, or you may wish, to test your comprehension and
recall. The idea is to record the main theme and important facts of what you
have just finished reading. This is a great habit to develop, as it stimulates
the brain not only to control and monitor the eye movements, but also to use
its memory capacity at, virtually, the same time.
This chapter will cover the recommended
recall techniques that can be very useful in summarising
your efforts at the end of each exercise and practice session. The Power Memory
programme (refer to our website) has extensive and
comprehensive presentation and analysis of memory techniques, but we shall use
here what can be directly relevant to reading.
You may find this part of the Speed Reading
programme entertaining and sometimes a bit light
hearted. This is intentional. The most effective memory techniques are those
that stimulate your imagination and create outrageous and visual connections or
associations. When it comes to memory, the overly ridiculous and extraordinary
is much more effective than the formal and mundane.
Get ready to meet your best Memory Friends
(they are called Friends because they help you achieve your objectives ‘with a
little help’ from them):
Magical
Memory Mirror
Memory
Martian
Memory
Centipede
Memory
Clock
Memory
Friends
It gives us great pleasure to introduce to
you our Memory Friends:
Magical
Memory Mirror (MMM)
The MM Mirror is your most basic technique
and should be used in the early stages of high-speed reading recall. When a
recall activity is called, or wished, for, draw the following diagram on your
note pad, white sheet of paper, Pocket PC/Palm Notes, or favourite
word processing programme. If none are available,
simply grab the nearest tissue paper (handkerchief, serviette, etc.) like all
great thinkers. You can visualise the diagram as 2
E’s (or rotated M’s with squared corners and a horizontal top 
to
), one in the real
world and the other is its mirror image (as if there is a vertical mirror in
the centre, between the E’s or rotated M’s, facing to the right).
Now,
start writing on the diagram as follows, using different colours if available:
It is not important that you recall all the
facts in sequential order, but you may feel better if that happened to be the
case.
Why is this mirror Magical? It is magical
because the real (right) side of the mirror can never look like the virtual
(left) side of the mirror, as each side contains different keywords (that’s the
best explanation we can come up with;, there are reward Keys for anyone who
suggests a better explanation, email us!).
As an example, we shall assume that you
have read (hopefully) the Kilani Excellence web site homepage and, once
finished reading, filled in the Magical Memory Mirror. It may look something
like this:
Now, you are thinking ‘Yes, but..’, and the ‘but’ is usually the following:
.. but there could be more than 6 points or facts that I can
recall
.. but for each Keyword I can also recall related details
We shall leave you in suspense for another
few minutes, while we introduce 2 new Memory Friends.
[Pause for Suspense Break]
Memory
Martian
A variation of the Magical Memory Mirror is
the Memory Martian. S/He looks like this:
You can draw the eyes and mouth any shape
you like; we just simply assumed that Martians have square eyes and mouths, for
the sake of this presentation. The bottom lines are the Martian’s legs, the
middle lines are his/her arms, and the top lines are his/her antennas.
When the Martians remember anything new, it
‘springs’ up as a new antenna, in addition to the two built-in at birth. So, if
you can, with the help of your Memory Martian, recall more than 6 keywords from
your reading exercise or practice, on your first or subsequent readings, simply
add them as new antennas, with their keywords, like this:
If you are adding new ‘antennas’ in
subsequent readings (e.g. some exercises will ask you to read the same section
multiple times and add to your Memory Friends), try to use different colours.
The different colours will help you realise how much,
or little, did you recall after each subsequent practice reading. You can also
use different fonts or any other distinguishing feature of the new text
entries.
Memory
Centipede
By now, you probably have figured out what
the Memory Centipede can do for you. Well, she looks like this:
Some may argue that their favourite pet is a spider or octopus, which may look very
similar to our centipede above. There is a reason why we selected a Centipede
in preference to other, less endowed little and big creatures. When you can,
with the help of your Memory Centipede, recall more than 6 keywords, simply add
more ‘legs’, similar to your Memory Martian friend. We could not find another
little creature that can have as many ‘extensions’ to its body as a centipede.
However, if you prefer a spider, then let it be; just call it your Memory
Spider and get on with it.
The Martian and Centipede would have
answered your first ‘, but..’ above regarding more
than 6 lines/keywords. If you wish to add more details to the keywords, as per
your second ‘, but..’, branch out each line into
sub-lines, like this:
You may argue that Martians may have
sub-antennas to the main ones, but how can Centipedes have sub-legs? Well, if
they could not, they won’t be overly ridiculous and extraordinary to be used as
memory friends!
Memory
Clock
On a more serious note, or tick, one of our
favourite memory and recall patterns is the Memory
Clock. The concept is similar to the Mirror, Martian and Centipede, but has a
more orderly pattern. The Memory Clock diagram is as follows:
Using the Memory Clock after a reading
exercise or practice session, start by writing the main topic keyword in the
centre, then writing the keywords of what you can recall, in clockwise
sequence. You can start another clock of 13-24 if you can recall more than 12
keywords, though this would seem rather unlikely, and use sub-lines (minutes?)
as required. A completed Memory Clock of the Kilani Excellence web site home
page may look like this (text only):
This can be ‘livened’ up with using coloured words, as in our Mirror example. However, a more
visual, and hence a better aid in long-term retention and recall, is to use
pictures or graphics to complement the words. If you are feeling artistic, the
Memory Clock may look like this:
Are there other Memory friends? Yes, many
more. The limit is your imagination and social aptitude. We have tried to help
by introducing you to our Memory Friends, but you can always make your own
friends.
Immediate recall practice after reading is
important as it acts as an incentive to the brain to concentrate during
reading, knowing that it will be ‘tested’ afterwards. The simple nature of the
Memory Friends above is to allow you to have fun and do not take the need to
remember EVERYTHING too seriously.
The above simple techniques can later be
expanded into more complex patterns. These are covered in detail in the Power
Memory programme (refer to our website for details).
You can copy/paste/print the Memory Friends
‘templates’ (the empty diagrams) on paper and use them after your exercises, or
simply draw them on empty sheets.
Review
Memory Friends help you recall important
facts, in a visual summary diagram, at the end of reading exercises and
practices. We gave you a choice of 4 Memory Friends: Mirror, Martian, Centipede
and Clock.
The basic theme is a central circle, with
lines around it. The main topic is written inside the circle, and each line contains
a keyword representing main sections, headings, or facts. Each line can branch
into sub-lines containing the details of each keyword.
PAUSE READING NOW!
If
Eager reader, jump to Chapter 7 now and enjoy the journey.
If
Systematic reader, flip/scroll the page to Chapter 4 and read on.