Power Reading: The Best, Fastest, Easiest, Most Effective Course on Speedreading and Comprehension Ever Developed

by Rick Ostrov

Power Reading is the best, fastest, easiest, most effective speedreading and comprehension course ever developed! Most people see amazing results in the first few days of the 30-day Power Reading course. Included in this unique speedreading course are the most effective techniques for comprehension improvement, study, note taking, test taking and retention in school, work or pleasure materials. Rick Ostrov has spent years teaching, working with and researching the top speedreading programs from around the world. Throughout his more than 30 years of instructing and research, personally teaching thousands of professionals, students, educators and families, he has distilled the most effective techniques into his Power Reading course. Power Reading is totally different than any other program because it teaches you in your own material while you actually study or read for school, work or for your own enjoyment! The Power Reading course focuses on increasing comprehension and study and technical reading skills, as well as teaching people how to read faster. Emphasis is placed on understanding and being able to use information as well as speedreading. Included are the most up to date and effective techniques for study, note taking, test taking, presentation and retention. Power Reading, as thousands of successful students have discovered, is the most effective speedreading and comprehension course ever developed! "The Power Reading course is also available in a book and CD package edition (ISBN 0960170642) - please check "All Editions."

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Education

240 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2001

Reviews

[Aditya Mookerjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The greatest thing about this book, is that after one week, I can remember what I want to remember when I read. I need to write ten pieces for my Political Science course as assignments, and I have finished reading for seven pieces in three days. This is a great achievement for me, because I usually am not a great academic reader. My main problem was comprehension. I tried too hard, to understand exactly what the academic writer wanted to convey. Obviously, the reader can only convey to himself/herself, what is understood personally. Speed was never really a problem, as I am a natural reader, because of my reading habit. I can read, as fast as I need to, but I have really been helped in comprehension, while reading rapidly. I have finished the first part of this book, consisting of sixty pages. The book is about 260 pages long. I see myself become a great help to me, by improving my reading skills.

[Silas Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was definitely worth the time. I made the choice not to dedicate time to learning all of the skills he taught, but it definitely helped me to overcome some reading habits that were slowing me down significantly.

[Sara J. (kefuwa) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, you guessed it... borrowed this via my Overdrive account. Huhu.

Hmm. This is similar to speed/power reading books I have read in the past. Basically tracking with your eyes and honing your focus drills. As always practice makes perfect. Everytime I start one of these books it always reaches the stage where my brain gets too lazy to keep track of the words I am reading at breakneck speed and the comprehension train just derails off its merry tracks (wheee-!). Lol. I suppose going at it incrementally is the way. I should probably do the more advanced drills I guess.

Also gone are the days when I could read 1000-page doorstopper paperbacks in a day. Oy vey. I just don't have the stamina anymore. So I guess more realistic expectations are in order.

[Vivacious · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I've come upon and easiest to use! Second place so far is PHOTOREADING by Paul Scheele. I like the way this guy suggests improving comprehension, and the fact that you test yourself on your own books.
This was the first book I picked up when I started to learn to speed read (in preparation for college).

[Haroun Melgani]

one of the best books on speed reading, highly practical, trully recommend it.

[David Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book I read to research this post was Power Reading by Rick Ostrov which is one of the best books I have ever read & which I bought from Amazon. This book not only teaches you to speed read but also teaches you how to handle lots of letters, memos and emails that may need answering in possibly a business environment. The simplest way is to rapid read each message for the schema or ghist and put them in 2 piles. Pile 1 for those that can be answered easily with a brief message which are answered first. Then pile 2 for those that require research for relevant information or require a substantially long reply and these are answered afterwards. With Power Reading you ask yourself how much time am I prepared to spend reading and learning this book or document. There are various tricks like reading the beginning and end of a book prior to reading the rest to get the schema of it. The schema is like the structure of the book and things like key characters. I personally think it spoils any fiction book. Other techniques are trying to read several words at once which requires practise. When we are taught to read we are told to read one word at a time which is unnatural. Also if you practise reading words for several minutes a day at a pace which is twice as fast as your normal reading speed and you look at the words rather than read them, it increases your reading speed. Some people find they can still read the words as they try this exercise and the goal is to get a faster and faster reading speed. I read the 1st edition of this book a long time ago and found it a great help and I think this book the 3rd edition is even

[Marc94 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't become as fast at reading as I wanted to, but it did help my comprehension, which this book emphasizes is the main point of reading. If all one does is skim through pages and isn't taking in what is being said, then one is not reading at all. I also only had a week to do this course, so my results are from a week's work so far, and not the whole recommended time frame of a month. Nevertheless, I so far have gone from roughly 260 words per minute to almost 350 words per minute, which was a roughly a 33% increase in reading speed. I hope to one day hit at least 500 words per minute. I will continue to do these exercises that were in the book.

[J Crossley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a wealth of information to help increase your reading speed. The lessons are broken down into a four-week period, with multiple lessons presented each week. There is a pre-test to determine your current reading speed, a mid-test to see how you are progressing, and a final test to find out how much you have improved. There are many ways to speed your reading, and the author emphasizes comprehension.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a little wordy, but good tips!

[Jenny Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Stan Butt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful. It increased my reading speed by almost 100% in 2.5 weeks.