Never Read Anything More Than Once

Reading more than once means you are not reading effectively.

Do you often read a paragraph and not know what happened? Subsequently, you had to read it again to understand what you just read. A friend of mine strongly objected to my previous post that compared reading speed with listening speed in terms of efficient learning. According to him, full comprehension often requires him to re-read material more than once. I concede, my previous comparison rests upon the assumption that you will be able to have equivalent comprehension of both methods of learning.

But if you are reading anything more than once, the chances are you are not in the right mindset. When you read, you should be speeding up and slowing down and creating comments in your head as you go; there should be a type of mental clarity and active learning. If you are not feeling this, then stop and take a break (either nap or go eat). If that doesn't work, you can try what I did for the LSAT for every single reading comprehension passage:

1. Close your eyes
2. Inhale slowly for 3 seconds
3. Hold your breath for 1 second
4. Exhale slowly for 3 seconds
5. Hold your breath for 1 second
6. Repeat steps 2 to 5, two more times
7. Open your eyes and immediately start reading (do not do anything else)

This sounds a little far-fetched, but try it out. It works because it primes your brain to focus on the reading, and once you have enough practice with it, you'll never have to read anything more than once ever again.