How to Cram Fast!

If you need to learn something urgently in one day, then cramming might be the trick for you.

Cramming information is storing it temporarily. You need to know a lot in a very short time. Time is running out and you need to know things fast.

Mental Mindset
You're a robot without feelings. You just read information, take it as it is without question, and spew it out when the right time comes.

- No distractions
- Take good notes
- Make big things smaller
- Get the ideas
- Remember it easily (mnemonics, flash cards, diagrams)
- Test yourself to reinforce it

If you really have to be human for a few moments:
- 5 minute break
- Eat
- Drink
- Toilet

Sometimes cramming works great, and other times you take a hit. :(

Speed Reading Techniques

wpm - words per minute.

Many people read as fast as they can listen (150 - 200 wpm, maybe 300 wpm).
Guinness World Record Holders can read into the thousands.
It's possible to double or triple your reading speed while retaining comprehension.

Speed reading techniques are used to train your eyes and mind to read and comprehend texts faster.

It's like walking versus speed racing. You get used to the speed.

Know how fast you read:

Calculate your wpm:

- Online Test

or

- Timer for 1 minute

- Read something familiar until time is up

- Mark where you stopped
- Count the number of words

or the hard way

- Timer for 5 minutes
- Read something familiar until time has stopped
- Mark off where you stopped
- In the first 5 lines, count all the words
- Divide by 5, is the average words per line
- Count all the lines read, and multiply by average words per line
- Divide by 5, is the wpm

- For those who want to know, here's the wpm formula for reading:
first 5 lines ÷ 5 = average words per line
all lines read × average words per line ÷ 5 = words per minute

- For those who didn't want to know, here's my sympathy. *pat pat* there, there. Everything will be fine.


Mental Mindset:
You're a warrior (or a monk if you'd like). You have found a few ancient scrolls to read and train from. They tell you the Secret Art of Speed Reading.

Use yourself and what you have to your advantage:

Tracing:
- Use a finger, hand, or a pen to guide your eye.
- Attach your eye to the movement of your hand.
- Move across the text.

Chunking:
- Each line of a book is about 4" long.
- Don't read each word.
- Break line into 2 - 3 chunks.
- Use either a straight line motion, or a curvy "W" motion to sweep across.

Peripheral Vision:
- The mind will understand the blurry words in the corners of your eyes.
- It raeds in pattrens and atuomtaically undresatdns the frist to lsat lettres of ervey wrod yuo konw.
- Dats y u can tyoe wrng an evry1 wil stil noe wat ur typng. :)
- So your mind makes sense of these things.
- Even if it's blurry, your mind will take what it understands and know the meaning.


Dojo Training for Speed Reading Warrior (...or Monk):

Train eyes to move faster:
- Use finger and hold in front of you.
- Go from left to right like being hypnotized.
- Let your eye follow the movement.
- Be careful of eye strain. :(

Train mind to recognize words faster:
- Use a software or app that flashes words.
- Flash it at max if you can.
- Trains mind to get used to speed.
- Slow down to the point of comprehension and try reading.
- Be careful of seizures. :(

Train to minimalize that voice in your head:
- Hearing voices?
- Count numbers or hum as you read.
- The minor disturbance will cause the mind to minimalize vocals.
- In common terms, it's too loud and your mind will drone the voices out.
- Common words will retain meaning, but will feel flat and numb.
- Key words will pop out and be loud.
- Be careful of voices in your head. :(

Look for important targets:
- questions (read them first, and know what to look for)
- main ideas (title, headings, sub-headings)
- names (people, places)
- numbers (dates, stats, data)
- new words (new vocabulary, abbreviations)

Fast Way to Read a Book

These are some of the methods that can help you to read books quickly.

For books with facts, try this method:

Mental Mindset:

- You're a detective. You're finding clues and extracting information. You need to use your mind as a weapon.

- You're not hunting for every word, but ideas. 

- Every book has one or several ideas, and a lot of filler material.

- Ignore the fluff and get to the meat (or for vegans, ignore the meat and get to the tofu and vegetables) 

Focus:

Know what you're looking for first before you start.

Questions: 

- Read them first.

The 5 W's and How 

- Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How

- The basis of every question. 

Key Areas and Locations:

The Back Cover: 

- Gives a taste of what the book is about.

Table of Contents: 

- It's the bare skeleton of the entire book. 

- Read this to know what topics the book covers. 

- If you find the main idea, read this chapter first if possible

First Chapter:

-It'll tell you what the book is about

-Sometimes summarizes all the other chapters in the book.

First and Last Paragraph of Every Chapter: 

- You'll get a snippet of what the entire Chapter generally talks about. 

Skimming each Chapter:

Speed: 

- Use a pen or finger to trace quickly through the text. 

- The eye can latch onto the speed of it and quickly keep moving.

Key Words: 

- For each sentence and paragraph, pick out the important words, not every word. 

"The girl ate delicious hard candy," would be "girl ate candy."

People, Dates, and Places:

- Remember these are important.

- Give yourself more time to remember these.

Get the Idea:

- After every page or few pages, recall what you remember. 

- Go back and poke at the Key Words in the chapter if you need to.

For books with stories, try this method:

Mental Mindset:

You are either a part of the play of characters, or watching as the audience. Use your eyes to look into their world, and visualize it. Usually you have to read stories from start to finish since they contain a chain of events.

Focus:
- The Timeline, World, and Characters.
- Character beliefs and attitudes.
- Challenges.
- Lessons.

Speed:
- Trace the book as you read, so your eyes can follow the movement.
- The language and ways of writing are usually more elaborate and creative.
- Slow down for comprehension (or if you really like the writing).
- Speed up for easier text (or skim through uninteresting parts, take the idea, and keep going).

Listening:
- Audiobooks and Text-to-Speech programs are good for this.
- More attention and less distraction.
- Go faster than normal speed.
- Keeps you going so you're less likely to back track.