Power Reading
POWER READING
by Rick Ostrov
The best, fastest, easiest, most effective course
on speedreading and comprehension ever developed!
Third Edition
Copyright © 1978, 2000, 2002 by Rick Ostrov.
All rights reserved.
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Ostrov, Rick
Power Reading : the best, fastest, easiest, most effective course
on speedreading and comprehension ever developed!
1. Education. 2. Speedreading 3. Comprehension
4. Speed Reading. 5. Study. I. Title
ISBN 0-9601706-0-X
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Power Reading
Welcome to Power Reading
Preface
I am happy to have the opportunity to write the preface to this new and latest
edition of Power Reading. Over the years that this course and book have been
successful in helping people read faster and more effectively, there have been many
changes in the world. This makes the benefits that you will achieve from Power
Reading more important and more valuable than ever.
The need to read, cover, understand and use large amounts of information
grows with each passing day. The tools of the information age, such as computers and
the Internet, have placed huge amounts of data within our reach. At the same time,
these tools have increased the burden on us to cover more just to begin to acquire any
area of knowledge. To become an expert and to keep up with the latest developments
in any field almost requires the advanced Power Reading skills.
The first page of this book explains my background. I have always loved to read
and learn. In college, I specialized in information and communication among people
or within any system whether it was biological, physical or electronic – this is the field
known as cybernetics. I witnessed the beginning of the information explosion in the
1960s. This information explosion has progressed at an ever accelerating pace and will
continue to do so in the future.
As a result, Power Reading becomes more important every day.
Power Reading is different from all of the reading programs that came before it.
Over the years since it came out, I have seen other programs try to borrow some of the
techniques and terms and even the title of this course, but I believe that you will find
that nothing else really compares with Power Reading.
Power Reading is purposely simple and easy to learn. It emphasizes
comprehension first and then teaches you how to speed up your reading. It teaches
you in your own materials while you work or study. It shows you what to do step-by-
step to become one of the most powerful readers in the world.
Power Reading is so effective because it has evolved from years of successfully
teaching thousands of others how to do something that I love to do myself – read and
learn!
I welcome you to Power Reading and look forward to helping you now and in
the future.
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Power Reading
Table Of Contents
Preface _______________________________________________________________ 2
Table Of Contents_______________________________________________________ 3
Power Reading: Course Instructions ________________________________________ 5
1st WEEK – LESSON I_____________________________________________________ 8
Chapter 1 How Well Do You Read Now? ____________________________________ 8
Chapter 2 How Much Can You Expect To Improve? __________________________ 14
Chapter 2 How Much Can You Expect To Improve? __________________________ 15
Chapter 3 What is Power Reading?________________________________________ 20
Chapter 4 Looking at the Whole — The Preview _____________________________ 23
Chapter 5 Your Approach _______________________________________________ 27
Chapter 6 Varying Speed – The Regulator __________________________________ 29
Chapter 7 Comprehension And Concentration ______________________________ 34
Chapter 8 Another Regulating Method ____________________________________ 38
Chapter 9 A Look at the Whole ___________________________________________ 40
Chapter 10 1st Week’s Exercises __________________________________________ 44
2nd WEEK – LESSON II __________________________________________________ 48
Chapter 11 Increasing Your Speed ________________________________________ 48
Chapter 12 Perception _________________________________________________ 51
Chapter 13 Why You Read The Way You Do ________________________________ 56
Chapter 14 Changing Your Habits ________________________________________ 61
Chapter 15 Reading Various Types of Materials______________________________ 64
Chapter 16 Newspapers, Magazines and Correspondence_____________________ 67
Chapter 17 Pleasure Reading ____________________________________________ 72
Chapter 18 Reading and Drilling _________________________________________ 73
Chapter 19 2nd Week’s Exercise __________________________________________ 75
3rd WEEK – LESSON III __________________________________________________ 77
Chapter 20 Mid-Course Exam ____________________________________________ 77
Chapter 21 Technical Reading ___________________________________________ 81
Chapter 22 Study______________________________________________________ 83
Chapter 23 Note-Taking ________________________________________________ 93
Chapter 24 Vocabulary _________________________________________________ 96
Chapter 25 How To Research An Area ____________________________________ 100
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Power Reading
Chapter 26 An Advanced Preview Technique ______________________________ 103
Chapter 27 3rd Week’s Exercises ________________________________________ 105
4th WEEK – LESSON IV _________________________________________________ 107
Chapter 28 Fundamentals Again ________________________________________ 107
Chapter 29 Reading and Thought _______________________________________ 108
Chapter 30 How Do You Know What’s True? _______________________________ 112
Chapter 31 Speedy Speedreading — High-Speed Techniques ________________ 115
Chapter 32 High-Speed Drills ___________________________________________ 124
Chapter 33 __________________________________________________________ 127
4th Week’s Exercises___________________________________________________ 127
30th DAY____________________________________________________________ 128
Chapter 34 __________________________________________________________ 128
Chapter 35 Conclusion: Power is Knowledge Plus Common Sense _____________ 131
BIBLIOGRAPHY _______________________________________________________ 133
INDEX ______________________________________________________________ 137
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Power Reading
Power Reading:
Course Instructions
In the past 20 years alone, more discoveries have been made and more
information has been published than in all of mankind’s history up to this point. How
can the average person keep up with this explosion of information? What is to happen
to students, parents and everyone else who need to stay ahead of this changing
world?
These are the people for whom this book is written.
Power Reading is actually a course in book format. It is a distillation of years of
teaching and research. It contains the techniques I have evolved through teaching
myself and thousands of other people how to become more powerful, more effective
readers.
I love to read; I always have. I became interested in reading faster soon after
learning to read. I was my own first research subject and I continued experimenting
later in high school and college with friends who were willing to cooperate.
After completing college, I continued my studies in this area. I spent years
professionally teaching reading improvement, speedreading and advanced technical
reading and study skills. The courses and seminars I taught always had guaranteed
results, and the cost to the students enrolled was usually hundreds of dollars.
During this time, I studied, researched or experimented with almost every
method known in the field. This included years of teaching with the largest
commercial speedreading program, the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics Course. In
fact, a film was made of one class I taught. The class consisted of engineering
professors on the faculty at the University of Texas. This film has been shown on
television for years in almost every major city in the United States and many foreign
countries. It has also been used in advertisements, lectures and seminars.
Over the years, I have personally found that everyone can learn to read better
and faster, but only a few individuals achieve miraculous results. The range varies, but
almost all of my students have learned to read at least half again faster, and most
doubled their speed without difficulty. At the same time, they equaled or increased
their comprehension and enjoyment. This includes individuals from all walks of life:
students, executives, housewives, professionals, blue-collar workers, doctors,
secretaries, lawyers and many, many others.
These are not the usual spectacular results claimed in TV commercials and
newspaper advertisements, but they are honest, realistic and achievable by everyone
with a minimum of effort. Advertising, of course, sells the sizzle and not the steak. It is
true that you can read two to ten times faster, but it is far more likely to be two than
ten.
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Power Reading
How To Do This Course
We will start with realistic expectations, and, with a reasonable amount of
effort, we will achieve them. This won’t happen magically or overnight; it will be a
gradual, building process over the next four weeks. It takes at least this long to
effectively change any old habit and begin to firmly establish a new one.
This course is divided into four lessons. It is a four-week program and you
should do one lesson each week. Each lesson is subdivided into chapters for easy
study and later reference. Once each week, you should pick a definite time to do each
lesson just as though you were attending a class. During this period you should cover
all the material as presented in the lesson. Then, during the week, you can refer back
to individual chapters for further study.
One week later, at the same time, on the same day, you should cover the next
lesson, and so on. If you wish, you may preview or read ahead, but, if you do, you
should still sit down and cover the entire lesson again at your assigned time. This
course continuity will ensure your maximum gain.
You can do this course as a group with your family or friends. If so, don’t lose
anyone along the way, and be sure that everyone understands each step and does
each exercise.
How This Book Is Different
This book differs from other books on reading improvement and speedreading
in several respects. Most books on reading tell you generally what you should do,
cover many theories, give helpful advice and tell you to push yourself. Many of these
are filled with reading passages and multiple choice tests that may or may not be
interesting, meaningful or beneficial to you.
This course is specific in its recommendations and directions, and you will
choose your own reading materials. Use materials from school or business or use
pleasure material. You decide.
You do not need to attend lengthy classes; all you need to do is use the
techniques as taught in this book on everything you read for the next 30 days and
practice at least 150 minutes during the four weeks. This comes to 5 minutes of
practice a day for the 30 days, plus at least 10 minutes of normal daily reading.
In one month, you should be reading about twice as fast as you presently do in
most materials. Some people will be reading faster than this and some will be reading
slower, but the average person will be going about twice as fast.
During this course we’ll cover many basic areas in a simple, straightforward
survey approach. You will learn not only how, but why you do each step in changing
your reading styles. Later you will be asked to use the bibliography and read other
books and articles about this subject. I want to encourage you to come to your own
conclusions and opinions in this as well as every other field.
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Power Reading
By the end of this 30-day program you will find it easier to sit down to read and
research an area. You will learn how to cover a large amount of material and cull it
until you have isolated the essentials and pinpointed the crux of the issues.
You’ll be able to read easily in many types of material and will be comfortable
with varying your speed to obtain the comprehension and enjoyment you desire. No
longer will you be limited to just a single reading rate as most readers are; the basic
rate at which you read everything will increase and your comprehension should
improve.
This gives you an idea of what you can expect from this course and what we
will cover. Later we will discuss more specific goals and expectations for you, but now,
let’s begin and find out how well you read presently.
* Note *
If you need a new prescription for glasses or have a medical
condition that causes you discomfort or pain when reading,
you should consult your optometrist or doctor before
beginning this course.
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Power Reading
1st WEEK – LESSON I
The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.
Socrates
Chapter 1
How Well Do You Read Now?
Initial Exam
How well do you read now? Most people, when asked this question, respond:
"Oh, I read pretty well" or "Well, I enjoy what I read" or "I don’t read too fast, but that’s
because I am very careful and don’t miss anything."
Most people feel that they read well, but they don’t know precisely what that
means. As with most things, some objective standard is necessary for measurement.
Without some measure you would not know how much you actually had improved
upon finishing this course. You would probably end up feeling that you improved
somewhat, but you wouldn’t know for sure just how much. Some measure is needed
to show how well you read now and how much you progress through the course.
How well you read is based on two factors: the first is speed and the second is
comprehension. If you read extremely fast, but can’t understand the material, then
you might as well not have read it. For all practical purposes – and as we will later
define reading – you haven’t. At the other extreme, if you read too slowly, you may
never have time to finish what you start. You may not be able to keep up with what
you need to read and know. Both factors are important.
Speed
Reading speed is usually measured in words per minute (wpm). Your wpm is
actually the average number of words you read in one minute of a reading test that
lasts several minutes. But it is not the only way to get an idea of how fast you read. For
example, you might read a book in a few hours, days or even weeks.
If you take weeks to finish a book, you shouldn’t feel bad. There are many
people who have never completed reading a single book in their entire lives. And,
incredibly, a few of them are college graduates. Only 15 percent of the people in the
United States check out and read 80 percent of all the library books. About half of the
people in this country have not read a book in the last four or five years. So even if you
take weeks to finish a book, you are far ahead of many people.
If it takes you a week to read a book, we could say your reading speed is a book
a week, or 1/7 of a book a day, or so many pages an hour. The same could be done
with newspapers or magazines. As long as we use the same measure and time period,
we could see if you were improving by comparing the amount you read now and the
amount when you finish this program. For some people, this might be a more
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Power Reading
meaningful standard, but the measure commonly used and accepted is words per
minute (wpm).
Unfortunately, most reading tests are too short. This stems from limitations on
time and testing facilities, and when millions of tests are being administered, these
limitations become critical. The average reading test covers a short passage and takes
little time to read. Unfortunately, this does not correspond to the bulk of daily reading
that most of us do.
That is why our reading test period will be 10 minutes long. This will give you
enough time to settle down and relax. A shorter time span sets up an artificial test
situation and promotes a tendency to speed up. Everyone likes to do well on tests and
naturally tries hard to push himself or herself, but that is not the purpose of this test.
Its purpose is to get as accurate a measure as possible of how fast you read when you
are relaxed and reading normally. I have found this measure to be the most useful one
for the average person.
Comprehension
In our 10-minute test, you will choose your own material to read. This will help
give you the most accurate evaluation. You can also repeat this test in several types of
material if you want.
People generally tend to read better and more accurately in material they find
interesting. One thing we want to establish is how well you read in your normal daily
reading. Then later, for comparison, we’ll repeat this test midway and at the end of the
course in the same material.
Speed is relatively easy to measure, but comprehension is another matter
because it varies with the individual and material as to quality and amount. As yet,
there is no single "ruler" to measure the scope, view and depth of the human mind.
You already have your own methods, approaches and habits of reading, and
they are strongly cemented by years of experience.
They are more entrenched than many other habits because you use them so
often. Everyone feels comfortable reading in his own manner and usually thinks he is
understanding what he reads. Of course, background, experience and interest all
affect your ability, results and appreciation.
You know how much you understood from what you have read, but is this all
there was in the material? Whom should you ask? Who should decide what you should
get from the passage? How important is it that you remembered or guessed more
correct answers on a particular test than someone else? Did you understand more
when reading than you could remember later when taking the test? Does this mean
you didn’t comprehend it when you read it or that you couldn’t remember it later? It is
difficult for any test to account for these factors when it is used to ‘‘measure’’
comprehension.
Standardized tests often favor students who come from similar cultural,
economic and intellectual backgrounds as those who created the test. A streetwise
orphan may not score as high on a standardized test as a private school student, and
yet, may be much more intelligent. For these and other reasons, there is a good deal of
controversy going on about the efficacy of standardized tests, but no final conclusions
have been reached. Standardized tests are not bad, but they do have their limitations.
As long as these limitations are kept in mind, such tests can be useful. At present, they
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Power Reading
are the only practical way to look quickly at and compare the millions of people in
schools, jobs and other institutions.
There are many standardized reading tests available. Many of the leading ones
are listed in the bibliography and are available through your school or library. You can
take one now and another at the end of this course if you wish, but it isn’t necessary.
One alternative to the standardized test is the essay test in which the student
writes down or summarizes his understanding of the material. Then it must be
checked for correctness. The main criticism of the essay test is that of subjective
evaluation. Whoever grades the essay may vary the standards from one essay to
another.
However, we will use this type of test for several reasons. There is no limit to
the type of test material that can be used, and you can cover as much material as
necessary. Also, you can correct it yourself for quality as well as quantity of response.
This requires a little honesty, but if you have enough desire to take this course, you
certainly have enough to grade your own test honestly.
Essay tests also have their difficulties in that many people have had little recent
practice summarizing in written form. On the other hand, most people talk about
current events, sports, fashions or other topics in a summarizing form. In addition,
most people write summaries when they write letters. For all these reasons, we will use
an essay test to check your comprehension.
You will summarize what you have read after the 10-minute reading period.
This way, you will find out how fast you read. Then you will check and see for yourself
how accurately you understood and remembered what you read. This is the most
important reason why we will use this form of test.
Test Material Selection
This brings us to the type of material with which you should test yourself. It
should be a non-technical book, something you would normally read and enjoy.
Choose something you can continue later in the course. Remember, you will need
more pages later for your mid-course and final tests, at least twice as many for each. So
pick something you can read a part of today, and then pick up in two weeks and again
at the end of the course. At each point, you will read a new section for 10 minutes for a
comparison and to measure your progress. It is necessary to use the same material on
the three tests to ensure an accurate comparison, so be sure to pick something long
enough.
I suggest you pick a simple fiction or non-fiction book. Difficult, technical or
study material is a special category of reading and is something we will cover in
Lesson III in the third week. If you wish, you may choose something technical for a
supplementary test, but you should not use it for your primary measure. Use
something fairly simple and average for you.
Now, stop at this point and select your test material.
SELECT TEST MATERIAL
Preferably a fiction or non-fiction book. Be sure you will have enough material
for the mid-course and final evaluations.
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