“Every reading is an act of resistance. A well-conducted reading saves you from everything, including yourself.” — Daniel Pennac
The amount of information a student has to memorize today is immense. Many students lose interest in their school readings because they feel they're stagnating and not progressing fast enough. The result? They either don't read at all or simply rely on summaries found online due to lack of time! What a shame, when solutions like the Boclet method, particularly speed reading, can be of great help. This technique is a powerful ally, a considerable asset in a student's life, and an extraordinary performance booster.
The school system has created this paradox: students are taught to read slowly, while being asked to memorize an increasingly large flow of information.
Speed reading, my hero!
Imagine your exams are fast approaching, but the sheer volume of information to retain seems overwhelming. Reading faster while simultaneously increasing your comprehension would be like magic! Reading more words per minute while gaining a deeper understanding of what you read—that's what speed reading makes possible.
This technique will allow you to integrate automatic mechanisms into your brain, thus accelerating not only your reading speed, but also your memory and your understanding of texts.
Indeed, many students believe that the best way to memorize is to reread several times. However, this method is ineffective and useless. At school, we are taught to read slowly, concentrating on each word one by one, retaining only a tiny portion of the text. This is called foveal vision.
Reading slowly encourages the brain to wander and think about other things. Fast reading, on the other hand, prevents this by allowing the reader to focus on groups of words rather than isolated words, thanks to peripheral vision.
The techniques used by the world's best universities
The world's best universities consider speed reading a revolutionary technique for their students.
For example, the majority of Saudi universities offer speed reading courses (knowing that several of them are among the best universities in the world).
These establishments have understood that this technique is so rich and valuable that it would be a shame to miss out and neglect an opportunity offered on a silver platter.
The time saved is considerable, allowing for rapid assimilation and learning more in a limited time!
In France, this approach is starting to gain traction. At the University of Paris, three-day speed-reading training courses are offered to doctoral students. Attitudes are gradually changing, and mistrust is diminishing. Speed reading is becoming a valuable tool, especially for doctoral students facing heavy workloads and complex, lengthy concepts to grasp.
The multiple benefits of speed reading
In addition to accelerating information absorption, speed reading offers many other advantages! It stimulates the brain and reduces stress, which is beneficial for exams. It also enriches vocabulary, useful for essays and projects, and it improves memory. How can we talk about speed reading without mentioning memorization?
Speed reading enhances analytical skills, enabling you to produce higher-quality work. It improves attention span, engages the brain's visual and cognitive memory, and facilitates the understanding of sometimes unclear concepts.
Faced with the constant flow of information we encounter, adopting speed reading not only saves time but also develops essential skills such as concentration, memory, and analysis. The benefits are numerous, so why not take advantage of them?
