Some of the questions we have received so far are included here - we'll add progressively to this area whenever the pagebuilding schedule allows.

Answers to the questions can be found further down this page. If you have a question that isn't dealt with here, why not e-mail me - michael2007 (at) happychild.org.uk - and I'll see if I can help. Please note, however, that with an exceptionally busy schedule it isn't possible to reply to everyone who writes :)

1. I am reading the Speed Reading Book by Tony Buzan and I am unsure about the Meta-Guiding Technique. Can you explain it?

2. I can't be bothered to go through a book on speed reading, what tips can you give me that I can apply now?

ANSWERS to above questions:

1. Many people do find that their first stumbling block is the Meta-Guiding Technique(MGT) particularly if they have grasped the earlier information quickly. The Technique has many uses and I would suggest that at this stage of your speed reading career (I assume that this is the first time that you have tried improving your reading speed) you should use it to improve your "basic" reading speed. (By "basic" I mean grouping words together on each line for each eye fixation.)

What do I mean?

Well, if you get in a car and drive at 30 mph, you will quickly get accustomed to that speed. If you then spend a 10 minutes driving at 70 mph, you will become accustomed to that speed. If you then try and slow down to 30 mph again (without looking at the speedometer) you will probably find that you will only slow down to 50 mph because you have got used to the faster speed. When you eventually do get down to 30 mph you can't believe how incredibly slow it seems even though only a few minutes earlier it seemed a reasonable speed to travel at.

Using the MGT has the same effect while you are training your basic technique. If your eyes get used to a much greater rate of word and information flow while you apply the MGT (even if you don't appear to comprehend it) you will find that when you try to read as described in the earlier chapters, your speed will have increased. My suggestion to you is to pick some separate reading material and practice all of the MGTs until you find the one(s) that you are most comfortable with. Then with your favourite MGT technique read for 5 minutes and then try the "basic" technique on SELF TEST 4. You should find that your reading speed has increased.

The MGT is a great way to skim and scan material as you will find later on in the book, but it is also a great way to read. The higher reading speeds available using the technique will come with practice. The first thing to do is to get used to the higher speeds and then you will find that eventually your comprehension will improve. It will take time to do this but the more you practice, the better you will become at reading. The MGT also has the benefits of training your peripheral vision.

Once you have read the book and tried the techniques for a few weeks, re-read the book and try the exercises and tests again because you will find that with a bit of speed reading experience behind you, some of the more obscure guidance will make more sense second time round.

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2. Before jumping in to develop advanced speed reading skills, I would first eliminate some of your bad habits that prevent you from taking in as much information as you are truly capable of. I will deal with just two here. Instead of reading a single word at a time, take in 3 or even 4 in one go. Your eyes will still see the words (but the brain reads them) because your horizontal field of vision (ie how wide you can see) is large enough to take in much much more than just one word (or even 3 or 4). Our eyes only take in data when they are fixed on something and so with every fixation if you take in 3 words where you were only taking in 1 word before, your reading speed has trebled providing your fixation time remains constant. The other major problem that most people have is that their eyes wander over a page or go back to look at a word or sentence again. This of course wastes time and makes for inefficient reading. To overcome this problem use a guide such as a pen (or yes even your finger) to help you read. Try it. It works.

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