Speed reading software has been around since computers became popular. One of the older and more famous programs is "EyeQ". It's big, expensive, it takes a long time to become effective, but it works. The question is, how does it compare with the "Speed Reading Manual"? For someone who really wants to learn how to speed read, is EyeQ worth the extra time and money?
The EyeQ speed reading program comes in two versions: the Personal, and the Deluxe. It seems the only difference is that the Deluxe can accommodate up to 10 different users. What this means is that each person will be able to track their progress a little more easily, by looking at their personal charts and graphs that the program periodically creates for them.
"Wow the deluxe edition sure seems great!" you might say. But when you find out that it costs $100 more just to enable some extra charts, you may want to retract your statement.
"$100 more than what?" you might ask. Well, $100 more than $250 (actually $249.95, but whatever). So, for the Standard it costs you a quarter-grand, and for the Deluxe full-topping pizza it costs you $349.95. Needless to say, I decided against buying either version, and stuck with the demo. I don't have that kind of budget right now. I have seen the full program working, but I have not done enough of a thorough examination (and I don't have the full program with me), so I will use the demo as a basis for the rest of this review. The demo of the program has most of the features enabled, so it should be accurate as a review of the full program as well.
The EyeQ solution to speed reading works in two steps:
The first step is training the eye's movement to facilitate quickly moving around a page later. As these exercises are running, objects appear around the screen, and you must follow them with your eyes. As your eye-movement skills advance, you'll be able to move your eyes faster and faster around the screen. There is also a peripheral vision exercise, where you are told to stare at the centre of the screen as different shapes expand and contract around the centre. These eye exercises are effective in accelerating several necessary areas in reading - eye movement, symbol recognition, and peripheral vision enhancement.
The second step is practicing reading "blocks" of words. The program has several passages for you to read. To help you progress to reading entire pages at a time, the program shows you only a certain number of words at a time from the page. Depending on the speed you select, the program will only show those words for a certain amount of time before moving on to the next "block" of words. As you progress, the number of words shown at a time increases, and so does your reading speed.
That all sounds very professional and effective - and indeed it is. As far as I know, the program works exceedingly well.
However, the program isn't actually necessary to learn how to speed read.
You don't need graphs, or training, or blocks of words flashing on a screen. Those exercises will train you to speed read without telling you how to speed read.
In other words, if you were told in detail what the program was trying to do, then you could train yourself without even touching the program.
If you were to compare the "EyeQ" ($250-$350) to the "Speed Reading Manual" ($12), the real differences are in two areas. The first area is (of course) price. EyeQ costs up to $338 more than the Speed Reading Manual. The second area is time saved. The whole point of speed reading is to save you time... all of the other benefits really stem from saving time. EyeQ asks you to train nearly every day, and the training will usually take an hour, but that depends on how much you do. The Speed Reading Manual needs to be read a few times before you understand everything. But once you understand the material, you can start speed reading right away. And you'll be reading only things that you want to read. You won't have to spend hours and hours reading "The Wizard of Oz", and the rest of those EyeQ training texts.
EyeQ is a waste of time and money when compared to the Speed Reading Manual.
Click this link and learn how to speed read quickly, easily, and for just $12.
This author does most of his reading at about 600 words per minute. As he needs to read a lot every day, this fast reading saves him hours and hours a day. Speed reading has become not just a hobby, but a necessity to keep up his productivity level. Go to http://www.speedreadingisreal.com to learn more about how you can start speed reading while maintaining a high level of comprehension.
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