Remember Everything You Read: The Evelyn Wood 7-Day Speed Reading \& Learning Program pdfdrive com

How Richard Learned to Soar
Consider what happened to Richard, a high school senior who took one
of our three-week Evelyn Wood reading courses.
He had been progressing quite well and had increased his reading
speed from just under 300 words per minute to just over 1,000,
according to the most recent test he had been given.
Many of our students end up reading faster than this, however, and
Richard’s fast-developing skills suggested that he might increase his
speed significantly if he kept practicing. His instructor expected him to
be pushing 1,200 to 1,500 words per minute before he completed his
work.
Toward the end of the course, however, something odd happened.
Along with the other students, Richard was assigned several short books
to read in class, the last of which graphically detailed the nuclear
bombing and devastation of Hiroshima at the end of World War II. The
instructor later recalled that she had been timing the class for only a few
minutes as they read the Hiroshima book when Richard turned his
volume over and walked out of the room.
“My husband was waiting out in the hallway for the class to finish,
and when he saw Richard come out, he thought the boy was sick,” she
said. Apparently, the young man had turned quite pale and seemed
extremely nauseated.
At the next break, the instructor, who had been apprised of the
situation by her husband, approached Richard and asked, “Are you all
right?”
“Yes,” he replied, “but something strange happened to me in there.”
“What was that?”

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“As I was reading, the words seemed to come off the page and become
a motion picture. I saw—literally 
saw
—the bombing and what happened
to those Japanese people! And I got sick.”
“You finished the entire thing?” the instructor asked, knowing that the
book was more than a hundred pages long.
When the boy nodded, the teacher went over and checked the time he
had spent reading the book. After a quick calculation, she discovered
that Richard had been reading at more than 3,000 words per minute.
Furthermore, a quiz on the book showed that he was reading with more
than 90 percent comprehension.
Think for a moment about the implications of this experience: If the
average student reads at 250 words per minute, it will take him nearly
seven hours to read a two-hundred-page book (assuming that there are
five hundred words to the page). But if that same student begins soaring
along at the rate of 3,000 words per minute, he or she will be able to
complete the same book in less than thirty-five minutes.
Is this really possible? It is indeed—for those who are willing to learn
and apply the principles and guidelines I’ll be describing. In fact, I can
guarantee that with serious practice, most students and parents can
move up to 1,000 words per minute in only a few weeks. And if you
continue to work at fine-tuning these reading and learning skills, it’s
possible to move even faster—perhaps up to and beyond Richard’s
achievement.
In the following pages you’ll be shown in detail many ways to increase
your reading speed and enhance other learning skills. Specifically, you’ll
learn:
• How to calculate your reading speed.
• The famous—and fundamental—Evelyn Wood speed-reading hand
motions, with illustrative diagrams.
• The “layering” technique of assimilating written material (also called
the Multiple Reading Process), which is the essential foundation for
high-speed reading.
• How to plan a study strategy, with suggestions for setting up monthly
and weekly calendars.
• Time-and energy-saving techniques for using lectures and class

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discussions as a warm-up for study.
• The highly effective “recall pattern” concept for taking notes—
including a detailed description of the famous “slash recall pattern”
used effectively by many top students.
• How a student’s ability to use important material on tests can be
improved during the “postview” phase of reading.
• Specific methods for achieving success on both essay and short-answer
exams.
• How to break through the “subsonic reading barrier” of 800–900 words
per minute by applying the secret of “visual-vertical” reading.
In one St. Louis school district, which had been performing quite
poorly on standard tests, only one-third of the eighth-grade students
passed a Basic Essential Skills Test (BEST) in 1985. This test included
questions on reading, language arts, math, government and economics.
But the next year, after the students took a special Evelyn Wood course,
75 percent passed.
In the same school, a group of twenty sixth-graders increased their
reading scores by an entire grade level after taking a five-week Evelyn
Wood course. Their average reading speed jumped from 115 words per
minute to 234 words per minute. Overall, 82 percent of the students
increased their comprehension and vocabulary reading levels, and 94
percent increased their reading rates.
These and other similar results have convinced me that our reading
and study program can transform the intellectual productivity of boys
and girls, as well as that of men and women at almost every age level.
We’ve encountered significant success with students from the fifth grade
on up. But to emphasize just how the lives of young people of different
ages can be changed dramatically, let me introduce you now to three
students—a sixth-grader, an eighth-grader and a newly arrived college
freshman.