PhotoReading is a bit of a gray area in the world of speed reading. Is it a scam pure and simple? Well, quite possibly, but he still has defenders and redeeming qualities. Is it a good tool for those of us in high school, college, etc.? No, probably not. Let’s first take a look at the pros and cons for us in school, then we’ll look at the tricky side of Photoreading, and finally a better solution to incorporate Photoreading into your speed reading routine without wasting time.
First off, straight to the dirty facts:
Learning curve: Much more than other speed reading methods, Photoreading requires a great deal of training, exercises, and learning before you can “photoread” a book. If you get the “Classic” course, which, by the way, costs $245, plan on spending about 10 hours going through the various course materials, doing the exercises, etc. If you get the Deluxe course, plan on spending double the money and at least another 4 hours on top of the Classic course, plus time to use the additional course paraliminals.
Time needed to read: Plan to spend 30-40 minutes on the “photo-reading” portion, depending on your level of experience and the length of the book. Then plan to spend another 40-3 hours for the “activation” part, depending on your experience level, length of the book, wpm reading speed, etc.
Understanding/Comprehension: Hardly any for me personally. While I haven’t photoread 500 books as advocates claim, I’ve read a good 15 at least, and never got any understanding from the photoreading part. Almost everything came to me during the “activation”, where I pretty much skimmed through the entire book and mentally mapped it out.
Bottom line: Don’t use Photoreading if you need to read a book in one day (they suggest waiting at LEAST one sleep cycle between photoreading and waking up), and don’t use it if you need to understand the book, remember details or anything like that. Basically, there is no reason why SchoolDestroyer.com users would want to use Photoreading.
Positive things: Photoreading, during the course, DOES teach a good normal speed reading technique or two, and teaches mind mapping, a very effective note-taking process. He also does a pretty good job of teaching the right mindset, but he spends too much time there for it to be considered “efficient.”
Read on to see how to use the basic principles of Photoreading for an EFFECTIVE study!
Is photo reading a scam?
Depends on what you call a scam. It certainly doesn’t deliver on the promises made in the sales newsletter, it doesn’t work for a lot of people, and some even claim that it’s a copy of the ZOB speed reading system. So it’s probably a scam. Let me give you some examples of RIDICULOUS claims made in the sales newsletter that the product does NOT measure up to:
- In fact, we taught you to “mental photograph” the printed page at 25,000 words per minute.
- You can even read a photo dictionary, think of any word and know where it is on the page!
- The PhotoReading technique is part of a larger system, called the PhotoReading whole mind system, which makes it very practical for everyday use.
(Note that these are all copy/paste).
SO HOW DO I USE THE PRINCIPLES OF PHOTOREADING FOR MY OWN GOOD?
Ahhh, here’s the juicy part of the post! The good things about Photoreading that we can extract and check. First, keep in mind these two principles they teach:
1. Maintain an ideal mood for reading
2. Make a mind map of a book after you’ve finished reading it.
You can easily apply both techniques to your reading right away. For a shorthand version of the actual “photoreading” process that is put to good use, in an effective and efficient reading system, see [Reading Genius 2.0 by Ed Stracher]. In that course, one of the steps you take when you read a book is to “photocopy” it, which is essentially photoreading, except it takes less than 2 minutes instead of 40 minutes. 2 minutes seems pretty efficient to me!
Otherwise, that’s it for this post on Photoreading, SheeleThe speed reading solution any schoolboy should STAY AWAY from. But don’t worry, there are AMAZING speed reading solutions (including Reading Genius) that will make speed reading easy, fast and effective for you (which means comprehension!). We will talk about that very soon.
