Using speedo to increase reading speed

Aiesha G.

Before I officially became a 7sage/trainer student, I dabbled around on a few other forums and found that many instructors suggest using a website called Speedo to increase reading speed. It is designed on the premise that the subconscious mind prohibits people from reaching their reading speed potential due to the subconscious "reading aloud" even when one is reading silently. Learning to ignore that inner voice allows u to take in what u physically see which can be four or more words at a time, rather than reading the one word at a time that you hear in your head. I tried it for a while and it seemed to work but later felt it was unnecessary. What do you guys think? Has anyone done this long term and reaped positive mind blowing results in RC?

Pacifico

I don't think it makes a big difference for RC because the passages aren't long enough for differences in reading speed to make a huge difference. Speed reading a novel might help you finish several minutes or even hours before a slower reader, but RC passages are like the 40 yard dash, they're really isn't that much of a difference between a 4.4 and a 4.7 and the difference there exists is totally blown out of proportion. Subvocalization probably costs you far less time than you think it does, especially in such short passages. RC is what it is and there aren't really any shortcuts, if you're reading the passage in 2-3 minutes with decent comprehension then you're way ahead of the game. You don't need to speed up, you need to deepen comprehension and retention.

nicole.hopkins

@"Aiesha G." said:
Learning to ignore that inner voice allows u to take in what u physically see which can be four or more words at a time, rather than reading the one word at a time that you hear in your head. I tried it for a while and it seemed to work but later felt it was unnecessary.

We've discussed "sub-vocalizing" around here before. I think speed reading programs are really geared towards a different kind of reading. We do LSAT reading here. It's quite another breed.

And how to tame this wild breed of reading beast? Oh ho ho. With many lashes of intellect and hours of practice.

ENTJ

There's no fast and easy way to improve. If you're already accustomed to dense reading, make sure to focus on the structural aspects of the passage. What does this mean? Pay mind to the following:

- What's the overall main idea of the passage? (This should be self-evident since the first question usually asks you of this).
- Pay attention to specific references. You have this one source that said this one thing, a counter, and then this third perspective. Wait, what? Mark it.
- Enumerate your paragraphs! Please, please do this. It makes going back to the passage easier and more fluid (if you have to). A big mistake that people do (yes, I was guilty of this too) was to go back to a specific point in the passage and ended up reading the whole damn thing all over again. You end up more confused and will kill precious minutes doing so.
- Break up the central idea of each paragraph and mentally summarize what you just read.
- Analyze the relationship between paragraphs.

If you're not accustomed to dense reading, there are plenty of ancillary resources that may help. (There are plenty of threads within 7sage that are filled with great recommendations). But really? Doing tons of reading comprehension passages is pretty much a guaranteed way of improving.

Alejandro

Agreed. Talking to yourself about the reasoning structure, opinions,predicting how the passage is going to go, etc. should be promoted in the LSAT, not discouraged!

mc_meatt

@ENTJ can you actually name some websites that contain dense readings except for like economist wsj time etc? thanks

DumbHollywoodActor

@mc_meatt http://nautil.us/issue/26/color/the-girl-who-smelled-pink

I actually like the app Elevate, especially the “Processing" exercise. It appears to be a speed reading exercise, but it’s really developing the skill of processing what we read into our short term memory. Check it out.

c.janson35

@mc_meatt the internet is more saturdated with great writing than ever, so really just pick a respected publication and start browsing. I'm reverential to The Atlantic, New Yorker, New Republic, etc. (admittedly not the most right-leaning stuff, but to each his own lol), but there's so much more you can go with. Read some Supreme Court decisions, scientific American, or policy journals. There's also some really dense and complex culture writing/critiques too that can help with identifying and parsing arguments, and it may even be fun to read up on some of your favorite shows or movies. I love grantland for just that. Wesley Morris and Andy Greenwald are pretty awesome in the movie/tv departments (and they'll change the way you watch too). The New York Review of Books publishes some great commentary/reviews that are also pretty demanding. Finally, get an account with longform! I'm pretty sure it's still free and it has a great variety of (obviously) longform articles there for you to choose from.

If it's familiarity with subject matter you're looking for, podcasts are also a great option.

nicole.hopkins

@c.janson35 said:
I'm reverential to The Atlantic, New Yorker, New Republic, etc. (admittedly not the most right-leaning stuff, but to each his own lol)

For lit/arts strugglers, check out http://www.aldaily.com/ . Happy to see they haven't changed their website since 2004 (when I frequented the site).

c.janson35

@nicole.hopkins I was eagerly waiting your response, thanks for not letting me down. Should I also suggest reading Road to Serfdom and Free to Choose? (which, yes, I did read lol)

Aiesha G.

I like "The Economist!"

nicole.hopkins

@c.janson35 said:
Road to Serfdom

This one!

nicole.hopkins

@c.janson35 said:
I was eagerly waiting your response, thanks for not letting me down.

I aim to satisfy and exceed expectations when I can.

DumbHollywoodActor

@"Aiesha G." I would also encourage you to get your hands on every RC passage the LSAC ever published. While all of these publications are great, there’s one problem with them: there are no LSAT-type questions at the end of each reading to test your comprehension. Reading varied types of material will give you familiarity about about lots of different subjects, allowing you not to freak out when you have to read a science passage about fractals or a law passage about some obscure law theory of copyright, but they won’t help you answer the questions with (let’s be honest) insanely tricky answer choices. Get the Cambridge RC packets and drill those first. Then start reading The Economist and Scientific American.

nicole.hopkins

@DumbHollywoodActor said:
Get the Cambridge RC packets and drill those first.

Amen to this! Put the money you'd spend on those (super pricey) subscriptions towards some real LSAT meat.