Rev It Up Reading Review - Vera A. Omidpanah

Now's the time to get up to speed with what you read!

For as long as I can remember I have been a reader. Rarely will I find a situation I can’t fit reading into, from cooking to watching television. While this brings me much joy, I have always been a slow reader and therefore find myself getting frustrated when it takes me longer than I feel it should to finish a book. I think this is partially due to the fact that I had an Astigmatism when I was a child and the muscle in my right eye would weaken when tired and cause my vision to jump across the page. I wore glasses to correct this when I was in Elementary school but even today if I have been reading too long my right eye might jump. This has caused me to slow down and read each word carefully to try and keep my eye on the page.So, when I was given the chance to take this speed reading course I jumped at it! If nothing else I figured it would teach me some strategies for breaking some of my bad reading habits. The course is broken down into 9 modules, with the intention of the participant completing one module a day and practicing the lessons found in that module before moving on. An e-book (10 Days To Faster Reading by Abby Marks Beale) is provided along with an e-workbook for the reading materials and timed reading exercises throughout the program. I recommend printing these out as I attempted to read them on screen alone and found that slowed me down and made the activities more cumbersome.

Module One introduces you to the basic concepts you will be learning throughout the program and has you assess your current reading attitudes, goals and skill level at the onset.
Module Two teaches you to begin expanding your peripheral vision ability, practice with the “White Card Method” (the method of putting a piece of paper or any blocker above the line you are reading and continually pulling that blocker down as you read to reduce you going back and rereading what you have read) and how to improve your focus and concentration to allow these speed reading strategies to work most effectively.
Module Three encourages you to stop the “talking” as you read, which slows you down and makes you read word for word across the page, as well as introduces you to the strategy of “Key Word” reading (reading only the words that appear to be pertinent to the material).
Module Four has you continue your work on expanding your peripheral vision and has you work on reading using “Phrasing” (reading the words in thought groups that allow you to move more quickly through the text).
Module Five deals with securing your reading comprehension while stressing that, in the beginning, you might lose some comprehension while trying to speed up your eye work. It also introduces you to two more strategies: “Pull Down Center” (placing a finger in the center of a line and continually moving it down the paragraph to encourage your eyes to keep going) and “Two Finger Pull” (placing a finger on either side of the text and moving both fingers down the page as you read).
Module Six introduces you to three more strategies: “Left Side Pull” and “Right Side Pull” (placing a finger on the appropriate side of the text and skimming down the paragraphs as you read) and “2/3 Underline” (moving your finger under each line of text in the middle 2/3 of the line).
Module Seven deals with reducing your reading pile and creating a more manageable, quality stack of reading materials.
Module Eight teaching you how to find the key information more quickly by establishing what information you are needing to discern from the material, proof reading and establishing the author’s outline for the text (this is for nonfiction material that follows the standard Introduction, Body, Conclusion structure).
Module Nine encourages you to review all the procedures discussed throughout the program and establish with strategies and tools will work best for you in the long run.

Coming away from this program it appears that it is mainly designed for professional or student reading. For entertainment reading many of the tools employed wouldn’t help, such as skimming through the material to find the main points of interest. If you are reading a novel, why would you want to skip all the description? It also recommends to stop purchasing books when your “to be read” pile becomes overwhelming and to actually get rid a large amount of what you haven’t read to minimize the pile. Anyone who is an avid reader knows that will never happen.I did learn a few strategies that will help reduce the bad habits I have acquired as a reader, all of which were discussed in the program: talking while I read, reading each and every word and reading back over information I have already read. I have been utilizing the “White Card” strategy and, at times, the “Key Word” strategy and this has helped speed up my reading slightly. I do also think working with the activities meant to strengthen the eye muscles and lengthen your peripheral vision will help speed me along in the end. The helpful hints of reading in a quiet, distraction free zone and focusing on the reading material are helpful but should really be common sense.If you are looking for a strategy to help you quicken your work assignments I would definitely recommend this program. Or, if you or someone in your family is a student, this could be highly beneficial as well. If you are like me and just want to speed up your extracurricular reading I think it has some beneficial components but much of what you need to know you can probably figure out on your own.

Vera A. Omidpanah
www.luxuryreading.com

Twitter: twitter.com/LuxuryReading

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