10 replies to this topic

[ImmortalSpace]

For as long as I remember, I took forever to read through practically anything. Is there any way i can fix that, I read a LOT but I read slowly. I don't know of anything that's helped me. Any suggestions? I really need to be able to learn to read faster, because school starts and I have a lot and lot of reading. Anyone with extensive knowledge on this, please help me out! Thanks!

[Duchykins]

You need to just read.  Reading rate, fluency, really does come from practice above all else.  You probably don't read as much as you think you do, or that most of your habitual reading material is subpar in quality (such as nearly everything on the internet or novels from shit authors haha).  

 

Practice with Wheel of Time, Song of Ice and Fire, Coldfire Trilogy, Death Gate Cycle, Earthsea, you can find pirate copies of them on Kickass Torrents or the Pirate Bay, but real books would be best here.  

 

It's my personal experience that the best fantasy novels (or sci fi) often contain the widest and most interesting modern usage of English than the best of any other literature category.  I think it's very good exposure.  It augments your writing skills as well (handy for those essays you'll be writing).  You could go for the classics first but the reason I recommended more modern authors first is because of the changes in the use of common English.  You should master the current use first so that you won't be as overwhelmed or frustrated by the old classics.  My nonfiction library is 100% science and philosophy, no history or biographies or stuff like that, so I'm sure that would be pretty boring or obnoxious for most people.

 

Drugs are unlikely to help you because things that speed you up will also increase your risk of skipping words, phrases, perhaps even full sentences and small paragraphs without really being aware of it.  In a bad way, not a useful way.  Or reading too fast and not retaining as much as you otherwise might.    Your brain and eyes need practice for doing that kind of thing without it compromising your reading comprehension.

 

I do something similar to this just because I read so fast (without drugs).  I didn't even know it until I was being tested for a few things years back and one of the things I had to do was read out loud into a microphone with a professional present.  I learned I always skip over common words and common phrases, and if I don't read aloud then I skip even more.  Much more than the average reader does, apparently.    I do it because I've read so much and at such an early age, my brain just uses a few keywords in the sentence, the general context, and fills in the blanks for me.   Although it somehow (magically) doesn't seem to hinder my actual comprehension of the material in any significant way, I don't know if it a good habit or bad.  I get mixed reports on it.  A lot of people can do this kind of thing though.  I think it can be learned.

 

 

Other things you might be doing that are slowing you down:  

 

- Saying the words in your head or under your breath.  Just don't do it.

 

- Highlighting or taking copious notes during the first reading.

 

- Going through sentences one word at a time.

 

 

 

Good things to do:

 

- Reading in small chunks.  Let yourself "see" the whole paragraph, comprehend 4 or 5 words at once, don't focus your vision in a word-by-word style.

 

- Knowing the appropriate times to speed up or slow down reading rate so that you don't have to read it over a few more times before you understand it.  Control is important.

 

- In nonfiction, since the writing style is so different from fiction, you can often get away with skimming just the first sentence, a middle sentence, and the final sentence of a paragraph to get the context of the paragraph.  This will help you skip over concepts or information you are already familiar with, or it can let you know that you need to read the whole paragraph.

 

- Connect the material with something you are already familiar with.  It doesn't matter what it is, it doesn't have to be academic, or anything you read before; just anything in your life, let yourself make the connection without really trying to force it.  Associative memory and associative learning are awesome.

 

- Take readings in sections and take small breaks to think over the material you just read.  You're not trying to memorize here, you're trying to understand and solidify the concepts in your mind.  Ask yourself questions about it.  Use mental imagery.  Fit it in with the other things you previously read.  

 

 

 

 

Somethings especially badass for handling course materials:

 

- SQ3R.  GOOGLE IT.  Make it your own.

 

- Cornell notes.  Adapt this style for either lecture or reading notes.

 

- Some people process better while standing or pacing (I do).  Experiment to see what's best for you.

 

- Pretend you're trying to explain/teach the material to someone else.  Usually best method for deepest comprehension and retention.

Edited by Duchykins, 30 July 2015 - 10:14 PM.

[Duchykins]

Oh yeah, and have some complex carbs.

[ImmortalSpace]

Thanks for the info, and i limit my carbs they make me feel sick if i take too many (no matter which)

 

I'm well aware that reading the words slows down your reading, but how do you stop yourself from doing that? Willpower doesn't seem to do it.

 

The fact of the matter is I Do read a lot, and I usually do read scientific materials- literally daily. I still read slow, I'm sure this must be  a chemical imbalance problem or something- because even though I read a lot it isn't seeming to work.

[Duchykins]

I didn't mean for you to binge on something.  Just have an ordinary meal or snack that has plenty of complex carbs and fiber.  Why are you on low carb?  Is it a medical condition?  

 

 

Scientific literature is a style unto itself.  Much of it is written in the passive voice and can be lumbersome.  The use of language in scientific literature, the vocabulary, is also probably the most limited of any other lit category, even if it favors the active voice.  Expand your reading materials to at least include fiction to improve your overall language fluency.  

[ImmortalSpace]

Alright I'll give it a try, thank you for the information~

 

I'm mainly on a low carb diet based on information I have read that high carb diets adversely affect gut bacteria and worsen depression. (Also anti-aging reasons. Ref: Low carb roundworm study)

[Duchykins]

I tried low carb once because I heard all that silly stuff and all it did was make me slow and sick.  I went right back on my old diet because it was mid-semester and I couldn't afford to be tarded.  I study evolutionary biology.  In fact everyone I know at school that is on some low carb kick (the ones that told me, anyway) is slow.  Annoyingly slow.  I even once refused to have one of them as my lab partner, not because he's stupid (he's not really that bad) but because he is literally slow on the uptake.  Kind of a dick move, I know, but my grade was on the line and I needed someone who could keep up.

 

I get that there is scary stuff out there about high carb diets (though these studies tend to focus on the crappy junk food high simple carb diets people like).  Some of it may even be true.

 

That is no reason to go to the other extreme.  We need carbs.  Nothing beats complex carbs as brain food, they are the most efficient source of glucose, period.  Except eating glucose tabs I suppose.

 

Roundworms aren't human.  They aren't even mammals.  Humans are well suited to omnivorism and we thrive best on a high variety, balanced diet of carbohydrates, plant and animal proteins, natural fats.  

 

That our gut flora cannot handle carbs is an absurd notion considering how heavily we relied on starches in our evolutionary history (this is not to say other nutrient categories were not important or did not also play their part).  Carbs were so useful to us that we actually selected and spread several new (relatively new to our ancestors) mutations that cause the body to produce proteins that break starches down into glucose.  We're the only primate that has this - and we have it because it's advantageous to our brains at the very least.

 

Additionally, though we don't digest cellulose and pass most of it, the insoluble cellulose provides substrate for our gut flora.  It's prebiotic.  Next time you hear or see someone saying "carbs" (whatever monolithic evil "carb" they're referring to, most people don't know wtf they are talking about when they discuss carbohydrates, they are just parroting some bullshit they saw on a health nut website) hurt our gut flora, walk away from them.  Our species has a very intimate, very old relationship with carbs.  We're buddies.  

 

Low carb diets, since they also tend to be low in cellulose, stand a greater chance of doing something ugly to your gut flora because of the relative scarcity of substrate they get from proper carbohydrate sources.  

 

Low carb diets cannot sustain the average human for life in any semblance of health that would be seen in a peer who is not going in either extreme, just coasting down the middle, following their cravings within reason.  They consistently do more harm than good to otherwise healthy people.  And all of this bullshit is founded on medical high protein, low carb diets for people with serious diseases -- but they leave out the fact that these diets have significant adverse effects on the patients.  But because of their illness they are still better off with the low carb diet, even with the side effects.   The average healthy person, however, would be worse off after 10 years of low carb high protein, if they even managed to last that long before giving up.  Most can't even do 2 years because it makes them feel so shitty.

 

 

[James44]

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[ImmortalSpace]

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[James44]

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[James44]

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