How to Learn Faster - Howard Berg World s Fasterst Reader Guinness 1990

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How To Learn Faster 1 © 2011 Berg Beasley & Associates LLC. All Rights Reserved

HOW TO

LEARN FASTER By

Howard Stephen Berg

Director, Berg, Beasley, & Associates, LLC. The World’s Fastest Reader (Guinness, 1990)

With Comments by:

Dr. Kuni Michael Beasley Member, Berg, Beasley, & Associates, LLC

Dean, Gateway Preparatory School, Inc.

This document is made available to the receiver to download and print for personal use only. No part of this work may be

copied, duplicated, or distributed in any manner without written permission from Berg, Beasley, & Associates, LLC.

All Rights Reserved Berg, Beasley, & Associates, LLC. © 2011

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction to

Speed Reading

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INTRODUCTION

More information is published each week than in all of human history through the year 1800.

Yet today’s average reading speed is only 200 words per minute with a mere 10% being retained into

long-term memory. In the time it takes you to read this sentence, I can read this entire page … and

another as well. Recognized as the “World’s Fastest Reader” (Guinness, 1990), I will help you learn to

read faster so you can complete your work and learning projects quickly and easily, and still find time

for things that you enjoy.

THE ROOTS OF SLOW READING

You already possess the ability to rapidly read essential information. It is an innate ability. Let

me prove this to you. Think about how much information your brain must process while driving an

automobile on a highway. It must view and analyze the motions of the surrounding cars, road

conditions, and weather conditions, read signs, and at the same time avoid hitting animals or people

who might cross the road. Instead of being overwhelmed by all this information you become so bored

that you might turn on the radio, talk to other passengers, or make cell phone calls. If your brilliant

brain is so adept at swiftly reading a road during a drive, then why can’t it read text just as quickly and

easily? The answer is simple. Instead of seeing a book during reading, your brain hears a voice that

pronounces the word sounds printed on the page. Quite simply, you don’t see a book—your hear it.

Yet, vision is faster and more powerful than hearing. By becoming a more visual reader you will

instantly increase your reading speed. Let’s begin this process together.

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BECOMING A MORE VISUAL READER

Watch children reading and what do you see? You see them reading words one letter at a time,

such as D O G to spell dog. As an adult, your brain barely notices the letters appearing on the page.

Instead you see entire words like “dog,” or even entire phrases like “hot dog,” “ice cream,” or “United

States of America.” “United States of America” contains four distinct words, almost the width of an

entire column in a textbook or newspaper. If you can see four words then why can’t you see entire

lines, sentences, paragraphs, or even an entire page at a glance? You can! You just need a simple

system that improves your brain’s visual reading efficiency. The first step is understanding how your

magnificent brain is decoding text on the unconscious level. Once you become conscious of this

unconscious activity you will be able to speed it up to a higher reading speed still being able to

comprehend, store, and recall essential information.

As a student, I trained to become a Psycho-biologist at the State University of New York at

Binghamton. During my studies, I learned how our brain uses Schema, or more simply, our map of the

world, whilst decoding text. Each of us has a lifetime of experiences stored in our memory map, stored

experiences that writers expect us to possess and use while reading.

Let’s use an example to learn how you use Schema to interpret text. Imagine I wrote a story and

told you, “The woman wore a red dress.” I would expect you to know what I meant by the word

woman. As a reader you don’t expect me to explain to you that a woman is a female. You already know

this information. You are using your Schema or your life database to read this text.

Probably the best way to demonstrate Schema’s important role in making text meaningful is by

giving you a paragraph to read that is completely lacking any Schematic clues. Although the words in

this passage taken from my Ultimate Reading Solution Program are simple and familiar, you will find

them almost impossible to read:

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It’s pretty tough decoding this text since it lacks any Schematic clues. Did you guess that this

paragraph is discussing doing a load of laundry? Picture the word laundry printed right above this text

as a single word title, and read this passage once again. Isn’t it amazing how much clearer this passage

becomes simply by adding a single Schematically significant word? Even a single Schematic clue can

make text understandable. From this example it is clear that Schema plays a major role in making text

meaningful, but how do you know where to look for Schematic clues while reading?

This is an easy thing to do. If possible you will do it at home, but you can always go

somewhere else if it is necessary. Beware of overdoing it. This is a major mistake and may

cost you quite a bit of money. It is far better to do too little than attempt to do too much.

Make sure everything is properly placed. Now you are ready to proceed. The next step is to

put things into another convenient arrangement. Once done you’ll probably have to start

again real soon. Most likely, you’ll be doing this for the rest of your life.

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CHAPTER 2

How to Use Schematic Clues

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USING MORE OF WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW

Just what constitutes Schematic clues in text? Both nouns and verbs in text constitute its

Schematic clues. Nouns offer information about the people, places, and things while verbs describe any

actions that are taking place. The first step towards increasing your reading speed is to make a habit of

looking for the people, places, and things doing the activities. Fortunately your brain is well suited for

selectively filtering any information that you consciously command it to detect. Let me prove this to

you with a simple experiment:

• Take a look about you and make a mental picture of all the red objects you can see. • Look very carefully and make a detailed map of these items.

• Next, close your eyes and picture everything around you that is colored blue.

Notice what you brain just did? It said, “Wait a minute, you told me to look for red, so how am

I supposed to remember anything colored blue?” Your brilliant brain searches and finds exactly what

you tell it to look for. The same thing transpires while reading. You must tell your brain to look for

people, places, and things, and their actions; and it will seek and it will find them.

There are some very useful filters that instantly empower your brain with the ability to spot

important Schematic information. These are the same filters you were taught to use in school when

writing. These filters are the questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how.

While reading you must constantly ask yourself these questions to get the following related

outcomes:

• WHO is this about

• WHAT is this about

• WHY is this happening

• WHERE is this taking place

• WHEN is this occurring

• WHY is this important

• HOW can I use this information

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A simple and effective way for remembering this information is to picture these key questions

floating in your mind on cartoon shaped balloons linked to their appropriate data. The more visual you

make your important information the faster you will be able to read and later recall it.

For example, if I read about Paul Revere riding his horse to warn the Minute Men about the

impending British invasion during the American Revolution, then I would do the following:

• I see Paul Revere’s name pasted on my WHO balloon.

• I paste a picture of him warning the minutemen on my WHAT balloon.

• I see him riding into the woods on my WHERE balloon.

• It is during the American Revolution so I paste this on my WHEN balloon.

• He does this because he is a patriot so I paste this on my WHY balloon.

• Paul is using a horse to accomplish his task so this gets pasted on my HOW balloon.

The following is a graphic illustration of what I am suggesting you do in your imagination:

Now that you can easily spot Schematic clues you will learn how to use these clues to increase

your reading speed.

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CHAPTER 3

Increasing Your Reading Speed

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GETTING A BETTER RETURN ON YOUR READING INVESTMENT

In the last two chapters, I have shared with you the importance of Schema in making text

meaningful. Now let’s learn how to use Schematic clues to increase reading speed. Consider this very

important statement: authors publish text for a group of people, but you must read that text as an

individual. A writer offers all the information he/she believes that anyone reading their text might

require, because a writer can’t anticipate what every possible reader’s map of a subject might contain.

On the other hand you tend to read text on subjects that are relevant to your work or hold special

interest to you. This means that you often have a map of many of the important points found in many

of the texts you must read, and you can use this map or Schema to reach incredibly high speeds in

much of your reading.

Ironically, many individuals actually slow down when encountering familiar or easy material.

It is human nature to seek out and feel comfortable with familiar surroundings. For example, what

might happen if you were reading a really complicated, boring, and challenging Chemistry text, and

then found a really interesting, familiar, and easy section in that text. Would you be in a hurry to finish

this easy and interesting portion of the text so you could focus upon difficult and boring information, or

might you spend more time than you should staying in this comfortable and familiar text?

Most people make the mistake of wasting valuable reading time focused upon things they

already know, rather than productively using their time to learn new and necessary information. You

won’t make this mistake ever again. In the future, as soon as you spot familiar or easy information, you

will increase your reading speed and use your time to learn new, unfamiliar, important information.

There are many significant applications of this in business that I would like to share with you.

Imagine you are reading your daily newspaper. In business, it is essential to stay on top of

timely and important information. Yet, you often hear the news on the radio on the drive to work, or

perhaps view it on television. By the time you read the newspaper, you’ve already learned much of the

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information it contains. Spend more time on the news that you didn’t know about, and you will find

yourself becoming a more productive newspaper reader. This is a skill I’ve shared with companies like

Prudential Realty. Information changes daily in real estate, and good brokers search for leads in the

newspapers, while keeping abreast of economic changes and changes in the law that can affect their

industry. They know that failure to keep abreast can hurt their bottom line just as using that information

correctly can increase their profitability. This same principle holds true for newsletters and magazines

that often contain sections of very familiar information.

Your daily mail and e-mail are other areas where you can put this reading strategy into practice.

Many executives have their mail screened by others, because they don’t have the time to pour through a

pile of unopened mail. How often has someone made a poor judgment call and not shown you a piece

of mail that you would have judged important? Scan your mail swiftly looking for things that require

your personal attention, or letters that are responding to your personal requests. Look for mail that can

be tossed, postponed, or delegated to someone else.

Using Schematic clues you will find yourself quickly getting through your mail more efficiently

than any assistant could possible accomplish. During a recent program I gave in Montreal for Cisco

systems, I was told how they were receiving as many as 300 e-mails a day that seriously compromised

their time and efficiency. Learning to speed-read their e-mail greatly cut down on this waste of their

time. Ironically, many of the e-mails were sent simply to notify people that a letter was on the way.

You can significantly cut down on this waste in your company by making people aware that they

should either send their letter by e-mail, or use the regular mail. Have them stop cluttering up your

associates’ time by sending e-mails announcing that regular mail is on the way!

The Schematic technique we have just learned works well for familiar or easy material, but not

everything you read is easy or familiar material. We need a different strategy for speed-reading

unfamiliar information. It is important to remember that only about 40% of a text is information, and

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that the rest is explanation. Explanations take the form of stories, anecdotes, examples, and

illustrations. Writers use these structures to clarify, simplify, and exemplify the information they are

offering to you. However, you will often find that you understand points made in text and don’t require

any additional assistance. When this happens, you can quickly skim these embellishments and move

onto the next new and significant point in your text. Only when you find yourself confused or unable to

understand a technical point should you take advantage of the extra information the writer included to

help make difficult text easier for you to learn.

Let me give you an example of how to use Schema to speed up your reading in unfamiliar

material. One of the most successful books ever published is the “Power of Positive Thinking.” Other

self-help book authors often use the structure of this book. First, there is a paragraph describing a

potential problem. Next, there is a paragraph describing how to solve this problem. Finally, there is a

28-page story about someone who has the problem and successfully used the solution. Do you really

need to read these 28 pages if you already understand how to solve the problem? Absolutely not! You

won’t waste your valuable and limited learning time doing this either. Instead, only use this additional

help if and when required. You will find a new zip in your reading speed with essentially the same

comprehension. Next we shall deal with the secret to maintaining an alert, focused, and positive

cognitive state that is essential for successfully conducting business.

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CHAPTER 4

Increasing Your Emotional Intelligence

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ESTABLISHING A POWERFUL LEARNING STATE

No matter how well you learn material, you will not benefit from your knowledge if you

become too tired. There is a simple technique developed by Marcus Conyers, one of the graduates of

my Mega Speed Reading Program, which will enable you to instantly tap into the unlimited energy

necessary for successful business operations. To get optimum results from this exercise it is important

that you stand up and also imagine that your energy is increasing as you perform each of the following

steps:

1. Touch your left hand to your right shoulder.

2. Touch your right hand to your left shoulder.

Repeat these steps 3X

3. Touch your left hand to your right knee.

4. Touch your right hand to your left knee.


5. Raise your hands high over your head.

6. Scream out enthusiastically “I FEEL GREAT!”

7. Scream out “YES!” while squeezing your right thumb tightly and pulling it

toward your right side.


This really can turn up your energy when done properly. Why does it work? It is based upon the

time-honored principle of classical conditioning from Psychology. Think back to school when you

learned about how the great Russian Psychologist Pavlov conditioned a dog to drool while hearing a

bell ring. Pavlov consistently rang a bell each time the dog was fed. Eventually, just hearing the bell

elicited a drooling response from the dog.

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In exactly the same way, squeezing your thumb and saying, “I feel GREAT! YES!” each time

you create a high-energy state, you will make this gesture a powerful stimulus for releasing your own

limitless energy. This is an incredible tool for you to use when you need instant energy. Imagine having

to work late at night, or attending a long demanding meeting, and suddenly needing some extra energy

to accomplish your task. Squeezing your thumb and saying, “I feel GREAT! YES!” (inside your head

silently) will release a flood of much needed energy. This is one of many tools we have developed to

help you create a peak state for successful business practice.

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CHAPTER 5

How to Retain & Recall Information

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USING MORE OF YOUR NATURAL MEMORY CAPACITY

Only four hours after studying you will forget over 40% of what you learn. Over 40%! As the

world’s fastest reader, I have learned the importance of accelerated memory skills for retaining

information. The same memory skills that enable me to retain details at even 80 pages per minute will

also help you retain essential information. Let us see what makes things more memorable. Centuries ago the Greeks discovered one of the major secrets of memory. They found that

powerful emotions glue information into the permanent memory. Let’s see how this works.

Information already stored in your permanent memory is similar to hangers in a closet. In the same way

that hangers enable the storage of clothing in a closet, mental hangers in your permanent memory

empower your brain to store new information. Emotional glue instantly links your new information

with stored information already in your brain. Your ability to remember is directly proportional to the

powerful emotional responses the image elicits. In short, effective linking requires you to create a

unique image that produces extremely powerful emotions. Let us see exactly how this works with the

following simple drill.

Using your traditional memory technique, memorize the following 5 items in less than one

minute:

(1) Screw, (2) Two By Four, (3) Sneakers, (4) Tomato Soup, (5) Window Cleaner.

In less than a minute, using your traditional memory tool this list can be difficult to permanently

remember. Using the emotional anchors discovered by the Greeks, you will remember this list in a

flash. Furthermore, you will be able to remember it backwards, forwards, or perfectly in any other

sequence. Additionally, you will effortlessly be able to accomplish this more difficult task. Hard to

believe? Let us do it together.

The first step is to use a list of objects already familiar to you. Objects previously stored in your

permanent memory. These objects will become your memory hangers. The parts of your body meet all

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the necessary criteria. Your body parts are highly familiar to you, and are already stored in your

permanent memory. Let us use the Feet, Shins, Knees, Lap, and Stomach, which are in a convenient

order for remembering new information.

Our next step is to create a highly emotional image that links the objects in your list to your

familiar body parts. The first object is a SCREW, and the first body part is your FEET.

Imagine a sharp, rusty SCREW, going through your FEET and out the top. OUCH!

This is certainly a powerful emotional image. When you think of your feet what object

immediately is recalled? The screw. Congratulations, you have just memorized the first object on your

list.

A TWO BY FOUR is the second object on your list, and it must be linked to your SHINS.

Picture your SHINS being shattered by a TWO BY FOUR.

Thinking about your shins, instantly makes you remember the two by four.

Next you need to link SNEAKERS to your KNEES. To create this emotional image requires a

bit of imagination.

Picture Dirty Harry wearing a pair of SNEAKERS, kicking and shattering your KNEES.

Imagining your knees instantly helps you remember a pair of sneakers.

The fourth object in your list is TOMATO SOUP, and your familiar object is your LAP. This is

an easy image.

Think about a boiling pot of TOMATO SOUP spilling onto your LAP.

Contemplating your lap you instantly remember tomato soup.

Your last object is WINDOW CLEANER, and it must be linked to your STOMACH.

Think about drinking a bottle of WINDOW CLEANER and it draining into your STOMACH.

Pondering your stomach immediately makes you think about window cleaner.

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Now you are ready to instantly remember the FIVE OBJECTS on your list by recalling the

emotional images linking them to your FIVE BODY PARTS. I will give you the name of a body part

and you picture the object linked to it. Ready? Begin:

(1) Feet, (2) Shins, (3) Knees, (4) Lap, (5) Stomach.

See how easy it is to remember items when using emotional anchors. You can use this same

technique for memorizing any information. Incidentally, I used painful images because everyone agrees

on what is painful, while our concept of pleasure can vary. Nevertheless, strong positive emotions are

also effective in anchoring information into memory.

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CHAPTER 6

Learning for the 21st Century

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SURVIVING – INDEED, THRIVING – IN THE INFORMATION AGE

Comments by Dr. Beasley

We need to understand the three principles of processing information:

1. Volume: The sheer volume of information is increasing exponentially. Every two years, the

amount of information doubles and soon information will double every six months!

2. Velocity: Not only is there more information, it is coming at us faster and faster, which

compounds the Volume problem.

3. Value: Someone has to assess the value of this information – determine what is important

and what isn’t. This takes time!

Earlier, Howard shared the idea of Schema and how a simple word like “laundry” could help

you “connect the dots” in an otherwise confusing text. Once you get the Schema, and your brain knows

what it is looking for (something we call “Purpose”), the dots line up and the puzzle pieces come

together – almost instantly! Schema and Purpose establish the Value of the information you are

processing. If you know your Schema and know your Purpose, you will be better able to deal with the

Volume and Velocity issues. Let’s look back at a real event where Schema and Purpose would have

helped before, and certainly helped after a tragic event.

LAUNDRY AND 9-11

September 11, 2001 saw America under attack by terrorists. Almost all the information that

could have given clues to government officials on what was being planned was easily available.

However, with the Volume and Velocity, it was almost impossible to attach the proper Value to the

information being processed. Most of the data looked like that “Laundry” paragraph earlier.

Unfortunately, it took airliners crashing into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the field in

Pennsylvania, for someone to get the epiphany “Laundry!”

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Many who remember those events, will recall that officials had most of the dots connected by

that evening – even the names and pictures of some of the hijackers. Once they had Schema and

Purpose, the information was quickly and easily assimilated.

This is a heart-rending example, but as Howard mentioned earlier, it’s the “pain” that makes it

stick. The key to finding Value is Schema and Purpose. As you read with Schema and Purpose, and

know that it is about “Laundry” when you start, you connect the dots quickly.

KNOWLEDGE AS A STRATEGIC ASSET

If you know more than others, you tend to have more options, opportunities, and, of course,

more income. A physician certainly has a greater income than a laborer. Why? Because the physician

has accumulated more knowledge that has value in our society, he/she has a more valuable position and

is thus rewarded for the knowledge he/she is able to apply to help others. People who know more have

a strategic advantage over those who know less.

If you are able to read more, better, faster, you can have a strategic edge. The edge will be

determined by the value of what you know and can apply. If you read a lot of junk, you might be

entertaining at a party or in a trivia contest, or even have a crack at Jeopardy, but these opportunities

are very long and narrow. Hopefully, you will focus your reading on those things that are valuable and

profitable.

SOME CLOSING THOUGHTS

Howard mentioned earlier your “brilliant brain.” It might sound facetious, but it is true, and I

can prove it. Consider this:

1. I don’t know anyone who has had to send his or her child to remedial Nintendo class.

2. I don’t anyone who has had to hire a Game Boy tutor.

3. As far as I know, Xbox has never had to “dumb down” any of their games.

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We know the capacity exists to learn quickly. When children get a new video game, many

usually have it mastered in a few hours. How? They use Schema and Purpose, and they don’t even

know that they are doing it! Their memory banks from previous games provide excellent Schema and,

of course, they have a lot of “Purpose.” Why should it be any different for adults – who have greater

Schema and even clearer Purpose.

Dr. Beasley

Accelerate Your Learning – Increase Your Productivity

Ultimate Reading

Solution

Program

Designed by the ‘World’s Fastest Reader’ (Guinness, 1990), this leading edge read-faster-with-

better-comprehension Program will help you to learn the best techniques that Howard Berg can

provide. This innovative and inspiring 3-disc Program includes 3½ hours of video instruction

(carefully organized into short, easy-to-understand-and-practice lessons) and a data disc that

provides you with Howard’s Ultimate Reading Solution Program Workbook and three sequential practice reading texts (designed to help you quickly double and triple your current reading speed –

and beyond – as you practice your new skills with Howard’s guidance. This exceptional Program

includes Speed Reading, Accelerated Learning, Study Skills, and the continuation of many of the

topics introduced in this note.

https://www.LearningFasterAndBetter.com

Learning

Advantage

Program

This comprehensive 4-part learn-how-to-learn Program, designed and delivered by learning

leaders Howard Berg (World’s Fastest Reader, Guinness, 1990) and Dr. Kuni Beasley, includes

Speed Reading (Howard’s Ultimate Reading Solution), Studying/Analysis, Test/Exam-

Taking/Application, and Writing packages – all presented in over nine hours of video and

supported by detailed question-and-answer programs, workbooks and reference guides. These

learning materials are designed to accelerate your learning in today’s fast-paced, knowledge-

intensive workplaces. This Program is designed to increase your productivity and the productivity

of those around you. In classroom environments, the Learning Advantage Program has helped

hundreds of students to complete their full high school programs in an average of 2½ years. In

workplaces, this high performance learning program will help you to enjoy a higher return on your

investment in the individual, team and organizational capacity you’re already paying for.

http://www.LearningFasterAndBetter.com

Contact us at the address on the next page for prices on these learning programs,

or to help with any questions you might have.

Thank you for

any feedback

you might wish

to share with us.

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How to Contact Us

in Canada

For information on learning programs available from

Berg, Beasley & Associates LLC. in Canada, contact:

Jim Muckle

Phone: (613) 841-4332

Toll Free: 1-888-384-6666

Fax: (613) 841-4335

E-mail: [email protected]

Web site: www.BrainsInAction.com

BrainsInAction Inc.

6152 Ravine Way, Suite 201

Ottawa, ON, Canada K1C 7E9

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NOTES

Documents

How to Learn Faster - Howard Berg World s Fasterst Reader Guinness 1990