Problem and Solution statement

BrainRead® – Problem and Solution statement

Everyone has the ability to learn how to read more effectively

Being able to read is becoming more and more important in today’s knowledge society. About 50% of all jobs required reading and writing skills in the 1950s. Today, that figure stands at more than 90%.

OECD studies such as PIAAC and PISA can be seen in that context. These studies show that not everybody is actually able to read after finishing school. According to these studies, people in Scandinavia (like Sweden) boast the best reading comprehension records. Spain and Italy can be found at the bottom of the table.

These results clearly show that leaving school does not mean that one may stop learning how to read and write. On the contrary, students at universities and vocational schools will have to master new challenges during their professional careers. In the modern society, reading comprehension is a necessary prerequisite for social responsibility and decision-making. It is a vital skill for enhancing your career!

BrainRead training develops your reading abilities further

Good readers employ different reading strategies, depending on the situation. They can adapt their reading strategy to the respective reading requirements, i.e. to the text that must be read and the goal they are trying to achieve. Reading strategies are therefore embedded in a certain situation. Moreover, good readers employ their reading strategies to supervise their own reading comprehension. The more skills they have, the more automated are the necessary processes.

Any improvement in your reading skills is an investment that also pays in the long term.

In the BrainRead® courses you will learn to apply new reading techniques that are taught and practiced in a way that secures the sustainability of your newly acquired reading skills for the long term. The benefits are better concentration, enhanced comprehension and better long term retention. You will also learn strategies for skimming and scanning large bodies of text for valuable information.

How does BrainRead work?

Humans think at a speed of 1000-1200 words per minute. However, the method for reading we learned in school as children, only allows for a reading speed of approximately 160 to 220 words per minute, which means that the human brain is not fully utilized while reading. The consequence is that the mind wanders and our thoughts drift – we think about other stuff and realize we haven’t understood what we just read. So we need to read again which wastes a lot of valuable time. This is also the reason why people tend to complain about a lack of concentration and bad comprehension.

Even though it sounds absurd: a higher reading speed also increases the concentration and memory retention!

In elementary school you learned to read as it was appropriate for your age. But as adults we are capable of more. We do not read to reduce ourselves to read word-by-word or speak our minds voice while reading (subvocalizing). Since our brain can process so much more information per minute, we can raise our reading speed significantly. The brain is capable of “seeing” whole groups of words (or “chunks”) at once, and without subvocalizing we also understand!

Develop your speedreading skills

1. Reduce reading faults:

• Eye fixation on single words (reading word-by-word)
• Speaking your minds voice (Subvocalizing)
• Regression (voluntary and involuntary)

2. Enhance reading efficiency

Inefficient readers are struggling to cope what sentences actually are meaning. Their comprehension suffers due to the fact that they still read with a skillset we learned in elementary school. Efficient readers utilize the brains capacity to chunk a text by fixating on groups of meaningful words (chunks). Less fixations means higher reading speed and comprehension. As you chunk, your brain overcomes the limitations of your short-term memory; you are able to hold as many larger chunks of meaningful words just as well as smaller units of single words. The effect thereof is astounding; your comprehension actually gets better when you read faster!

3. Develop a flexible reading strategy

Efficient readers are also capable of sifting through large bodies of text at even higher speeds by skimming or scanning. Not every text or any text passage is equally important. Therefore, one must learn to evaluate texts through a multi-stage process according to their relevance. This leads to a better understanding and better memory retention.

• Skimming means you chunk even faster but focus more on the relevant information you need to draw out of a text.
• Scanning is the process of quickly look for keywords you visualize beforehand, assuming such keywords will help you to find interesting passages in the text you then can chunk or skim around.