Speed Reading training

'How to slice through your reading pile without loss of comprehension'

'Double your reading speed, guaranteed'

How many of your people are under pressure to get through tons of reading that just keeps pouring in?

Speed Reading is proven and can be learned in one day.  We guarantee we'll double everyone's reading rate.  80% of participants increase by 3 times or more without loss of comprehension, as measured.

Click Play to listen to an intro from Brainpower Training Director Nina Sunday <Part 1 - 1:16 Min>

Click Play to listen to an intro from Brainpower Training Director Nina Sunday <Part 2 -2:26 Min>

Award-winning

The Brainpower one-day workshop is an award-winning training program for individuals and teams who want to capture information faster and easier.

You'll learn practical strategies you can use immediately to slice through your reading pile. Click here for more info.

'Maximise your productivity and
boost your knowledge'

If you want to get up to speed . . . this is what you'll learn in the Brainpower  one-day workshop:

Program content

• How to measure your current reading rate and comprehension
• Simple techniques to instantly double your reading rate without loss of comprehension and accuracy
• Four poor reading habits that hold back your reading rate and how to overcome them
• Fast input eye-brain exercises that boost your reading speed on the spot
• E-reading, or how to adapt your new-found skills to reading on computer
• Macroreading ® technique to filter out the non-essential and zoom in on the essential
• 6 ways to read vertically (for newspapers, magazines)
• How to model the sightlines and eye paths of natural speed readers
• How to remain a faster reader for life
• How to read more in the next 90 days than in the last 9 years!

By understanding and mastering these skills, you can easily double your reading rate. Click here to contact us.

For a pdf of our company brochure, click here

 

Read an article by Nina Sunday . . .

Speed Reading: How to prevent eyestrain and read faster onscreen.

 
If you ever suffer from eyestrain after a day in front of the computer, then read on …

Research shows reading onscreen can be 25%-40% slower than reading paper-based publications. Find out how to make reading onscreen as easy
and quick as possible.

Choose your window background colour

Consider which colour lies halfway along the spectrum of visible light. Listing the colours of the rainbow - red – orange – yellow – green – blue – indigo – violet – notice that green lies half-way.

The window background colour that's better for your eyes is light green. We recommend changing your display to a green window, with black or deep purple text.

Here's how to do it on a PC running XP:

Go to: Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Appearance > Item > Window > Colour > Other > select the green you want > OK > OK.

Here's how to do it on a PC running Vista:

Go to: Start > Control panel > Personalization > Window colour and appearance > Show colour mixer > select the green you want > OK


Mac: I wonder if a Mac user can let me know the path on a Mac please, and I will add it to this article.  You can e-mail me at: ninasunday@gmail.com

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Optimise your refresh rate or flicker control

Are you still using a CRT monitor (that's the one with a deep body, not the new flat screens)? If so, does peripheral flicker annoy you, or did just get 'used to it'?

The entire image area of most CRT monitors is refreshed approximately 60 times per second.
 
But a higher refresh rate means less flickering of the display. Less flickering reduces eye strain and fatigue. The standard refresh rate for eliminating flicker is 75 Hz or above.

Microsoft Windows lets you reset the refresh rate or flicker control higher than the factory default of 60 Hz. 75 Hz (or higher) is better for your eyes than factory default of 60 Hz.

While reducing peripheral flicker is good for your eyes, I must warn you, it may shorten the life of your monitor. To avoid hardware damage, be careful to tick the option offering only refresh rates 'optimum for the performance
of your system'.


It's your choice whether you are willing to purchase a replacement monitor sooner rather than later because of a higher refresh rate.  Working at your computer with less flicker is better for your eyes. (Perhaps also compare the cost of upgrading your glasses each year.)

Here's the path to change the refresh rate on a PC running Windows XP.

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Appearance and Themes > Display > Settings > Advanced > Monitor > Screen Refresh Rate >
Tick 'Hide modes this monitor cannot display' then select the option you want > OK > OK.

If you are using a different system try Control Panel Help and search for 'flicker' or 'screen refresh rate'.

Mac or Vista: I wonder if a Windows Vista or Mac user can let me know the path on Vista or Mac please, and I will add it to this article.  You can e-mail me at: ninasunday@gmail.com

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Choose the most readable fonts for your medium

Arial may be winning the popularity game as the preferred font for documents, but is it the easiest to read?

Most documents are set in either 'serif' or 'sans serif' fonts. The letters of serif fonts – like Times New Roman, Courier or Garamond – feature little 'feet' at the end of the strokes in the letters.

Contrast this with a 'sans serif' font such as Arial or Verdana. You will notice these feet are absent, they are 'sans' or 'without' serif.

On Paper

Serif fonts are universally easier to read in paper-based documents at small point sizes.  Times New Roman, which was designed in the 1930s as a font with good legibility and economy of space, is one of the most popular. You'll be surprised how many publications use Times New Roman as their body type.

On screen

Sans serif fonts, however, win the readability contest on computer screens. While Arial is okay, many website designers prefer Verdana, which has been specifically designed for good onscreen readability.

Be reader-focused

With computers, we now have great freedom to choose our font style and point size.  It is good practice to be reader-focused when we write,so pick the best format for the medium you're working with. In summary, the medium determines the font.  It's Verdana or Arial for e-mails and onscreen; for print it's got to have feet.

 

Copyright Nina Sunday 2009.  All rights reserved.  Published in Sydney, Australia.

 

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Does Brainpower offer public workshops for individuals to attend?

We do not schedule external workshops for individuals to attend.

Brainpower Training works inside companies and organisations with groups of their staff, usually in a workshop of around 10-16 people at a time.

Instead perhaps consider our training DVDs . . . more info

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The Brainpower difference: How we present

We use brain-based, multi-sensory, Adult Learning methods to keep the workshop interactive, engaging and fun.  

Appealing to all learning styles, there'll be:    

• flipcharts created and coloured pens to use for Visual learners
• background music in the breaks for Auditory learners
• for Kinesthetic learners, as well as plasticene and pipe cleaners, brain-shaped squeeze balls with Brainpower logo to take-away.

Our facilitator adapts and
customises the presentation to suit the
specific needs of your team

All participants are invited to bring along a selection of their own books, either fiction or non-fiction, to use in workshop exercises.

This ensures that reading material is relevant and automatically tailors the course to your individual needs.

'Does the training include
any additional materials?'

Yes. All workshop participants receive a reader-friendly, illustrated, colour-printed Workbook to refer to during and after the course.

They'll also be presented with a Certificate of Achievement for successfully completing the course.

Who can benefit from this training?

• Anyone with mountains of reading to get through - managers, executives, students, etc.
• Anyone studying
• Anyone pressured to keep up with the rate of change in their industry

'OK, but how much can I really expect
my reading speed to improve?'

The average person reads between 200 - 300 words per minute. After attending our workshop, everyone at least doubles their reading rate without loss of comprehension or accuracy.

Many people increase by 300 to 400 percent with better understanding and memory, and around 10% of participants increase by 6 to 10 times.

These results may seem amazing (and they are) but using the techniques covered in the course you'll be surprised how easy it is to become a 'speed reader' yourself.

'But how is it possible to read so much
faster and still understand what I'm reading?'

Most readers are handicapped by poor reading habits that force them to read at 'speaking speed' rather than 'thinking speed'. These poor habits include:

• 'Sub-vocalisation' - the habit of 'speaking' words in your mind as you read
• 'Fixation' - reading just one word at a time with a narrow focus
• 'Regression' - when your eye unconsciously flits back to reread part of a word. Eye movement research reveals the average person regresses as many as 50 - 60 times per page.

The combined effect of these habits compels you to read so slowly that your mind wanders and loses concentration.

Brainpower training teaches you techniques to overcome these poor reading habits. This allows your reading rate to automatically increase by 3 or 4 times with better comprehension, concentration and memory.

Program outcomes

On completion of the program participants will be able to:

• Read 2-10 times faster than beginning speed with improved comprehension and memory
• Calculate reading rate in any book and self-evaluate comprehension and memory
• Use strategies to overcome poor reading habits
• Apply the visual pacer technique to eliminate regression and boost reading rate
• Expand focus to eliminate fixating on one word at a time.
• Use a range of sightlines - horizontal, diagonal and vertical - similar to those used by natural speed readers
• Feel comfortable varying reading rates depending on purpose and degree of difficulty of reading material
• Use Macroreading ® to read for overview to gain working knowledge of a document or to search read for target information
• Swiftly read material formatted into columns – newspapers, magazines – using a vertical sightline
• Apply rapid reading strategies to onscreen computer reading
• Improve readability of documents by using best fonts for faster onscreen reading
• Become familiar with occupational health and safety issues around preserving good vision and preventing eye-strain when computer reading
• Create the best Control Panel setup for vision preservation
• Perform fast input eye exercises any time they want to boost reading rate yet again
• Apply the 80/20 rule or Pareto Principle to reading and time management
• Perform a Comparison Read to compare their original rate of reading with their new reading rate, for an ‘Ah-ha!’ experience

  Hear what participants are saying:

'Superb! Brilliant to know a course such as this exists - quick wins.'

Kelly Humphreys, Consultant, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

'This is the best course I have ever attended. I will recommend it to staff and students.'

Dennis Foletta, Secondary School Teacher and Sports Coach

'But is it really worth it? How do I know this is a wise investment?'

Using the techniques you learn in the Brainpower course, everyone at least doubles their reading rate easily and immediately. Guaranteed.

A manager earning $60K per year might spend 30% of their work time reading. When they double reading their rate, the improvement in personal productivity is 15%, equivalent to a saving of $9,000 per year.

Wouldn't you agree this a good return on investment?

‘Compare how long it takes to read a 6,000 word report'

Think of all the time you and your team will save once you complete this course!

No Risk Guarantee

You have peace of mind knowing you are not only getting great value for money, but also results that positively impact performance.

Our guarantee is simply this:

If you are not 100% happy and delighted with your workshop, we will either refund the difference between what you paid to what you think it was worth or we'll continue to work with you for free until you achieve the outcomes you reasonably expected.

To read an article by Nina Sunday, click on this link: Speed Reading: 'How to read faster onscreen and reduce eye strain.' 

Any Questions?

You'll find the answers to most of your questions on the Frequently Asked Questions page.

If you can't find what you're looking for, please contact us and our Support Team will respond to your enquiry with priority.

 Your best-match Facilitators

Sydney - Paul Cox or Michael Voon

Melbourne - Diana Claxton

Brisbane - Mark Jones or Darryl Stubberfield

Canberra - Paul Cox

Perth - Darryl Stubberfield