Willie Said:

Need help "focusing"?

We Answered:

Hey, Nick - common question. Your mind "goes astray" because your personality is composed of a number of semi-independent "subselves" - each of which generates an inner "voice" (thoughts - some with images,memoriess, and sounds. If your subselves have no inner leader, many can "talk" (think) at once, .like students in a rowdy classroom. This makes it tough to focus and retain what you're reading.

You can learn to (a) identify your noisy subeselves, and (b) get them to be quiet, so you can read, comprehend, and remember. See these:

http://sfhelp.org/gwc/personality.htm

http://sfhelp.org/gwc/IF/innerfam.htm

http://sfhelp.org/gwc/IF/faq.htm

http://sfhelp.org/gwc/IF/ifs.htm

Get to know who's running your life!

Ross Said:

Ways to increase comprehension and focus when reading anything?

We Answered:

Ugh I know exactly what you mean! I love reading and especially writing, and this year have become particularly interested in history, but reading pure facts just kills my brain.

I think the problem is that you're focusing more on remembering and less on understanding. Try to pick just one topic that interests you, something very specific that you can focus your mind on. At school we're currently doing European history during the 1600-1700's, and my teacher gave us a project that requires each person to concentrate on a very particular story and a very specific group of people. When researching my person (Maria Theresa of Austria), I found that it's so much more interesting to learn about her story, her life, because it makes it almost like a novel where you really get to see who the person was and how they lived. If you take some time to focus on a particular event that interests you, it will (hopefully) add to your overall understanding of the subject and make it more interesting.

Draw pictures! They do help. I don't like science but my dad teaches it in college and is quite obsessed with it haha. Whenever I don't understand something, he finds ways to relate it to actual things I can see all around me, which makes it more interesting and obviously helps me learn and remember. Also, if you're struggling with a certain subject in science, try relating it to something you're learning about in a different class- English or history, for example. I had a project at school (last year I think?) where we studied different time periods in history class and then learned about the science that they had then in science class. It helps you relate.

Hope this helps!

Francis Said:

What is a good rate which a person can learn new words?

We Answered:

Read as widely as you can, and look up a new word only when you think you need to.

Learning new words by rote is hardly ever any use: if you don't have a need for a word, you won't use it - and you will forget it in next to no time.

But if you make sure that you read at least some fiction, some non-fiction, some contemporary writing, and some classical writing every week - you will find that your vocabulary grows naturally, and you will find your ability to think growing at the same rate as your vocabulary.

Many of my favourite words (accrete, empirical, concatenate, diastasis, register, metic) I never needed until I understood the ideas that belong to them.

If you expand your mind, your vocabulary will expand to fit. If you learn words without discovering the new ways of thinking they bring with them, you are learning to no purpose.

Kathryn Said:

how to increase comprehension level, mainly for reading?

We Answered:

Apply the subject to a known item that you can relate it to. In short put it in a category file in your mind and keep things organized. Keep things sorted by identifying it with common every day things. While reading place your self at the place where you are reading about or if it is a subject relate it to the next thing that the subject is about. Its kind of like putting it on a shelf until you need it, and knowing where it is when you need it.
Every thing that you see and read is stored in your brain, you just need to know how and where to access it when needed.

Andre Said:

How can I increase my reading speed?

We Answered:

People like that usually skim, or read several words in a given sentence to get an idea of what the sentence is trying to convey.

Or, if you're me, you just read the whole thing real fast. It takes practice.

Roy Said:

How do I increase reading speed without lowering my comprehension?

We Answered:

One technique that I learned is not to focus on the words but on top half where most lower-case letters don't go. You will see the upper-part of the small letters and your brain figures out the smaller letters with your peripheral vision.