Speed Reading : The Setup (part1) (Patreon)

(This is my personal believe. It still need further researches and confirmations. The effect might be vary on different people.)

I'm not an expert on speed reading, But I love to have this skill.

Last week, I had an exam about Laws subject. I spent all my time on reading and preparing for it. I had to read 7 books, around 5000 pages within 2 weeks which is impossible to do a normal speed reading. So I had to tried speed reading and I found that it's not easy as the internet told me. It didn't work well as I expected. Until I realize that they told about the tips on how to do it. But they forgot to tell the most important part about speed reading. "The Setup" 

So I combined this technique with the science-based and others learning techniques. It works better...not much...but better.

here're what I've found.

1. "Speed reading is not about how fast you can read, but there's all about how fast you can encoding the knowledge"

2. "You can't do speed reading without knowing the scope"

3. "Read fast if it's old, Read slow if it's new"

4. "Not every word, weight the same"

Here's why I think it works.

This article will focus only the first choice...(because it might be too long)

(from 1) : This is the most important. All new knowledges are stacked from the old ones. So when you learn something new, your memory will recall some part of your experiences in to help you comprehend new knowledges better. the more experience you have. (The neurons in your brain are already formed. The data will be transferred very fast).The faster you can learn...sometimes it fasters than the blink of the eyes. So you might not even notice it happen.

for me I see some flash picture, a millisecond movie scene. a scene with a blur details. or sometimes a hologram like Tony Stark seeing Jarvis...it's nonsense yet related to the topic I read. It's so hard to tell what is really happen. Some picture are wrong, some inner sound are not related to the subject...but it helps encoding faster.

If you love spaceship and you're reading the subject about exploring the Milky way, and you're STARWARS fans, you might see the scene of X-wing flying through the blackhole in your head even it has nothing related with the subject you read. But surprisingly, you can remember it.

In the opposite, if you're reading something OUTSIDE your field of understanding. You have so little raw materials in your brain. So little imaginary pictures you can use while reading. So little concept in your head. So you might have a very hard time remember new things.

for example, me...I feel comfortable reading new Science and Technology articles. Because I love sci-fi movies. I've seen so many info graphics and tons of documentaries. So when I skim over the paragraph, I see pictures forming in my head...But in contrast, when I read anything about Laws and Histories, I haven't learn on that field before. I don't even know what these technical terms mean, I have no visual knowledges enough to form a new knowledge within a second. It cause me a very hear time. I have to read the text very slow....if I read too fast, I have to repeat reading it again, waiting my brain to create a picture matching the text I read.

And that's the first key I found. Before doing a speed reading, ask yourself first how well you understand the field of the subject. If you already familiar with the topic, you can do speed reading. If not, please read it slow, repeat the line if you must, read every word, until your brain can catch the speed.

(Sorry for writing in a broad concept. I found that these information are very complexed and entangled...I can't explain it by text....or maybe I'm not fully understand how to tell it.)