Kilani Excellence
Speed Reading College
Chapter 4
Exercises Methodology
Overview
This section will cover the following
topics:
·
Objectives
·
Approach
·
Assigned
Material
·
Selected Material
·
Reading Speeds Calculation Methods
·
Stretch
& Warm-up
·
Book Holding & Page Turning Methods
Objectives
Speed Reading Excellence exercises and workouts aim to
achieve the following objectives:
1. Prepare
for the reading session prior to actually reading the material, so you can start your
reading at a high mental state of alertness.
2. Increase your
reading speed, so you can read set material in less time or more material in a
set time.
3. Improve
your comprehension, so you can understand the material while reading it at
higher speeds.
4. Retain the material
(or parts of it), so you can recall the material after you read it.
5.
Optionally,
record the material in formats that facilitate long-term recall (e.g.
important documents, study material, etc.)
Obviously,
simply glancing over the reading texts using high speed eye movements (the most common on
TV is reading vertically down the page) and turning pages quickly may not constitute proper reading, if you cannot
remember a single thing of what you just read, unless this is your
intention as part of a workout session.
The
most important fact is that you are not in a race! There is no one watching or timing you and you
will not win any prizes, unless you are participating in a competition. So, relax and enjoy the ride. It is
fun and highly satisfying when you reach
your goals. Yes, it does need some practice time and you must put in the
effort, but you decide what your goals are and that will guide you to
the amount of effort needed.
We just love it when
we can enter a library and ‘browse’ through a book using the speed-reading
techniques and immediately feel that we truly enjoyed that book, even though our acquaintance was brief! We also enjoy
practicing our reading techniques ‘on
the road’: reading highly textual ads in railway stations with a few eye movements,
absorbing the contents of signs in one glance, etc. Simply challenging
ourselves on these every day encounters with the textual world.
Reading at high speeds, with
better comprehension, retention and recall is one of the simple skills that can greatly enhance your own
personal well-being and enjoyment of life,
as well as, if you desire, increase productivity in your professional career or
business endeavours.
Approach
The Speed Reading Excellence
approach is designed for maximum practicality and effective habit forming. We
use a combination of established speed reading schools techniques, new and unique ideas and state-of-the-art web-based
technology to facilitate optimum learning experience. Some reading
schools emphasise faster and faster hand/eye movements (hoping that comprehension will follow), some recommend practicing on your own material rather
than pre-selected articles (while others
disagree), some believe that achieving high multiples of reading speeds is simply not realistic and focus on improving
reading, comprehension and recall skills as a Chapter, and some believe
that achieving incredibly high speeds of 25,000 WPM is feasible with proper
preparation and execution.
We have aimed in Speed Reading Excellence to focus on
reading as a holistic activity that must be tested every
day in real-life scenarios. We have researched and practiced all the methods and techniques available to the general
public, and, hopefully, benefited in enabling us to form such a holistic approach to our
speed-reading programme.
Generally,
reading exercises and tests (of all speed reading courses, books, etc.) are
divided into two main categories:
q Assigned Material: where a set reading material is
presented to you for reading, usually followed by multiple-choice questions to test
your comprehension and recall, or
q Selected Material: where you are to choose your own
material, but read it in set amounts of time or pages/lines, usually
practicing new hand/eye movements and decreasing the time, hence
increasing speed, as you re-read the material or read new
own-selection material.
Assigned
Material Based Exercises
The reading material is already selected
for you; hence the number of words is known beforehand. You time yourself at
the beginning and end of exercises/tests, divide the pre-calculated number of
words by the time of reading to get your speed. Then you are tested on the
material by, usually, multiple-choice question type comprehension test.
Advantages:
§ Minimal effort
needed in preparation or after reading. The material is pre-selected, the total
number of words is known, and the comprehension test is pre-defined. You can
just get on with the actual exercise straight away.
§ The comprehension
test will quantify your recall measurements (e.g. you answered 7 questions out
of 10 correctly, so your recall is 70% rather than ‘good’)
Disadvantages:
§ There is no choice
in the material. If the subject is not of much interest to you, or it is
completely outside your comfort zone of comprehension, then you probably read
it at a slower speed and forget it a few days later.
§ When you read your
own material you, hopefully, have already decided what you want to get out of
it. In a pre-selected material, the comprehension test is what the author, not
the reader, believes are the most important facts or ideas presented.
Material
Based Exercises
The
reading material is of your own choosing, but it must be read in set amounts of
time or pages/lines. The approach is usually as follows:
1.
Decide
which material you are going to read
2.
Start
your reading timer device and begin reading
3.
Stop
at the pre-defined time or selection limits (1 minute, 6 pages, etc.)
4.
Calculate
the reading speed using averages (details below).
5.
Repeat
the above as directed for the purpose of reading same material or new material
Reading
Speeds Calculation Methods
There
are generally 3 methods for calculating reading speeds, in order of accuracy
(least to most):
1. Page Estimates
2. Line Averages
3. Words
Counting
words of a line, page or document needs a specific definition of what exactly
is a ‘word’. Well, it is any group of characters preceded and succeeded by
spaces on a text line. Hence, the group of words ‘reading is a great
experience’ has 5 words. This may not sound precise, as ‘a’ and ‘experience’
are both counted as words, but this is the industry standard and within a
larger context of pages, chapters and documents it all averages out.
The
Page Averages method uses a ‘quick and dirty’ technique for a ‘gut feeling’ of
speed without precise measurements. Usually used
if you are practicing without the need for recording or charting progress. If
the below calculations seem too ‘mathematical’ then ignore them and use the
‘rough guides’ after the Words calculation steps.
The
steps are as follows (assuming a printed hard-copy book):
line words)
The Line Averages method uses
an averaging technique for a more accurate measure of speed without precise measurements. It is used when practicing on your
own material with the need for recording or charting progress.
The steps are as follows
(assuming a printed hard-copy book):
1. Count the number of words of a full block of lines (bw) on a selected page, the block should contain
at least 3 lines, preferably 4 or more (bl)
2. Calculate
the average line words (lw = bw / bl, block
words divided by block lines)
3. Count
the total number of lines (tl) that
have been read
4. Calculate the total number of words read (tw = tl x lw, no of lines multiplied by average line words)
5. Record
the time (in minutes m, or seconds s) needed to read
6. Calculate
reading speeds:
7.
In Words
Per Minute WPM = tw / m (total words divided
by minutes)
Optionally, if you needed a rough PPM or SPP then refer to Page
Estimates above.
Word Totals
The Word
Totals method uses the exact number of words to measure reading speed. It is usually used with pre-selected material, where
the number of words has already been calculated precisely by the author or on
your own material if exact measurements
are necessary. Since precision is the overriding concern, the exact total
number of words (tw) needs to be counted without using estimates or
averages. Once counted, the reading speed is determined as follows:
i)
In Words Per Minute WPM = tw / m (total
words divided by whole minutes), or
ii)
In Words Per
Minute WPM = tw / (s / 60) (total words divided by seconds divided
by 60) if the time is best measured in seconds.
A practical way to
count the words of an essay or paragraph is using Microsoft Word, if available.
Open, or copy/paste, the required document or text, then highlight the required
text (if not the whole document) and select Tools: Word Count. The total number of words, and other info, will be displayed
(see an example below for the word count of this paragraph).
Rough Guide
1.
A
page contains 36 lines
2.
A
line contains 10 words
3.
A
page contains 360 words
4.
If
you read 4 pages in 4 minutes, averaging 1 page/minute, then
5.
Your reading speed is 360 WPM
Refer
to Chapter 6 Speed Reading Tools for
easy-to-use Speed Reading tables.
It is highly recommended that you stretch
and warm up before you perform the Exercises. This is similar to stretching and
warming up before a physical workout in the gym and the reasons are the same.
Your eyes, hands and brain need to be gently prepared for the workout ahead to
achieve maximum performance. Few athletes will jump straight into heavy
training workouts without stretch and warm ups. Such an approach may cause sour
muscles and/or physical injuries. In Speed Reading, such an approach may cause
disappointment and self-doubt, as you may not achieve your desired or previously attained Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) in the early exercises.
·
Stretch
Practice the following ‘stretch’ routines,
in 5 cycles, on any 2 (left and right) full text pages of your exercise book.
|
Stretch |
Cycle
|
Material |
Movements |
|
|
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) |
2
Pages (1) (1) (1) (1) |
Move
Reading Guide Move
Eyes 4
Fixations 3
Fixations 2
Fixations |
Hands
and Eyes Stretch
o
Cycle 1:
Move your finger/pointer under the full lines, from left to right margin, as
quickly as possible; do NOT try to read anything. Focus on the finger/pointer
movement to ensure it is smooth without any jerks or stop/starts
o
Cycle 2:
Move your eyes across the text lines as quickly as possible; do NOT try to read
anything. Focus on a smooth ‘glide’ forward on each line and do NOT regress or
read again any line or word(s). Just keep moving your eyes forward, from left
to right margin, on all the lines.
If you like, repeat the above stretches
until you are happy that movements are smooth. There is no reading involved;
you are simply ‘stretching’ your hands and eyes.
Horizontal
Span Stretch
The Horizontal Span stretch is basically
‘soft reading’ the same page repeatedly using fewer fixations. Soft reading
means you are seeing the words but do not care much for their meaning
(comprehension) or their recall. The idea is to stretch your horizontal span,
not understand or remember the contents.
You may like to use transparencies, a ruler
and pencil, or just mentally guess the divisions of the page.
1) Cycle 3: Divide the page
into 4 vertical parts. Move your eyes across the text lines, from left to right
margin down each page, focusing ONCE on the centre of each part. This stretch
will, on average, span 3 words per fixation on a 12-word line.
2) Cycle 4: Divide the page
into 3 vertical parts. Move your eyes across the text lines, from left to right
margin down each page, focusing once on the centre of each part. This stretch
will, on average, span 4 words per fixation on a 12-word line.
3) Cycle 5: Divide the page
into 2 vertical parts. Move your eyes across the text lines, from left to right
margin down each page, focusing once on the centre of each part. This stretch
will, on average, span 6 words per fixation on a 12-word line.
The ‘6 words per fixation’ is often sited as the maximum words that the human eyes can see per
fixation on a horizontal text line. So, you are stretching your eyes to their
limits.
·
Warm-Up
Practice the following warm-up routine on
your exercise book before starting your first exercise.
Book Holding & Page Turning
People
hold books and turn pages in many and varied ways. Left-handed readers differ
from right-handed readers as well. We will explain the concepts using right-handed orientation, please reverse the techniques
if you are left-handed. The section will
address the English-language books, which usually need their right pages turned
to continue reading. Please reverse
the discussion for other languages that need left page turning.
Here are
a few book holding methods, and which ones are best suited to Speed Reading:
o Baby
Some people hold a book like a baby; their left arm will
hold the book from its back, open wide (both pages facing you) and resting on the
inside part of the arm. The left hand fingers will sometimes ‘wrap’ around the
right page edge. They will use their right hand, usually index and/or middle
fingers, to turn the pages.
o Prayer
Some people hold a book with both hands holding the left
and right edges of the book, the thumbs usually supporting the
pages from the front while the other fingers support the book from the
back. When page turning is required, they will use their right hand index or
middle finger to turn the right page.
o
Folded
Some
people hold a book folded in the middle so they only see one page at a time.
Usually, one hand is sufficient to hold the book in such a manner. When page turning is required, they will use their
right hand index or middle finger of
the other hand to turn the facing page, followed by turning the whole book so
they can read the next page.
Turning the pages
is also an individual preference: some will turn the page from the middle,
others from the top right hand edge and some from the bottom edge.
As you progress in your Speed Reading techniques, the few
seconds needed to turn the page will begin to
impact your times. This may sound a bit superficial now, before you start, but soon it will become a problem! In order to
achieve high reading speeds, you simply cannot allow yourself to be
slowed down by turning pages.
Here are
some tips and tricks to contemplate, refer back to these later as you reach the
advanced chapters in the programme:
·
Whichever hand you are using to hold the
book, use the other hand to turn the pages.
However, the holding hand can HELP speed up the process and save a few micro
seconds by using the index finger of the hand to lift the top right hand
edge of the page to be turned BEFORE the actual turning is needed e.g. while
you are reading the right hand page. When the time to turn the page has come, the page will already be lifted slightly
making it easier to hold by the index finger of the other hand and turned.
·
The index finger of the hand preparing the page turn may
‘fumble’ on the top right hand corner trying
to lift only the next page. You may encounter a tendency for the finger
to turn a group of page together, which is not desired. Using the index finger to turn one page only will need practice,
especially at high speeds.
·
You may find it easier to turn the page if the index finger is
closer to the right hand CORNER of the page
than to the middle of the page. Practice until you find the top ‘spot’
for maximum speed of turning.
·
You can use the right hand to push up the page slightly to allow
the left hand index finger a better ‘grip’ on the top of the page. You can use
the right hand thumb to ‘push’ the page up from the bottom edge of the page.
·
If you reading sitting on a sofa, realise
that as your hand is coming down the page to
help guide your eyes, your elbows will move backwards. At some point,
your elbows may hit the back of your chair or sofa. Allow enough space for the
hand movements to progress smoothly.
·
Turning pages for left-handers is more difficult than for
right-handers. This is because we read left pages first, and then right pages
that we eventually turn over to the read the next left page.
In the text of all exercises,
reference will be made to a ‘standard’ page turning and holding method. The ‘standard’ is YOUR standard that you feel most
comfortable with and also allows you maximum efficiency and speed in turning
the pages. You will need to practice with different page turning techniques
before you can ‘feel’ the perfect fit with your hands.
PAUSE READING NOW!
If
Eager reader, jump to Chapter 7 now and enjoy the journey.
If
Systematic reader, flip/scroll the page to Chapter 5 and read on.
