Speed Reading?

[Sigmund Freud]

I wrote TPR's diagnostic MCAT recently and found that it was difficult to finish the sections in the allotted time mostly because reading the passages slowed me down. I'm sure that I'll get faster as I become more comfortable with the material tested and the format itself, but, I was just wondering if anybody has any resources for increasing reading speed and comprehension that they'd recommend? 

 

Thanks!

[makingfetchhappen]

I don't think that there is a trick to it besides practice.

 

I read a lot faster now than I used to and it's mostly because I have had to. I had a certain amount of readings to do everyday, and if I wanted to get through them and get any sleep, I had to speed up. 

 

I think that people do adjust their reading speed and comprehension when they are forced to. In law school, they started off giving us way more readings than I was comfortable with, and then they doubled it 2 months in, and doubled it again 2 months after that. I think that they do that to you because it works. You adjust to what you need to and then you can adjust again.

 

It's a little difficult to apply this principle to the science passages because they are short on their own. But if you have any sort of dense reading to do, I would say see how many pages you can get through in an hour and then make your goal to get through that same amount in 45 minutes. If you don't have anything you need to read over the summer, I'd print off a bunch of the science passages and read like an hour's worth of them at once. 

 

LOL, that sounds like torture doesn't it? Oh well, it would be worth it in the end. Plus, you get to a point where it's not difficult anymore. I can read dense stuff really quickly for hours at a time now and I find it easy. 

I think you sort of rewire your brain by doing this over and over again under time pressure. But you are the neuro scientist right? So you tell me!