Posted on by Lev Goldentouch, PhD

Proposed training schedule

Almost all of our students on day one want to see the training schedule that will take them to their goal. Previously we tried to control the selection of options to funnel all students through the same resources. Currently, we try to widen the arsenal of the training tools you can use.

Introduction

  1. Take our book. We assume that you have some experience with speedreading and memorization training. What you need now is a more detailed guide with examples of how to solve certain exercises effectively and deal with common issues. If you need further resources, please take a look at our services.
  2. Watch all videos. If you use one of the links in the services to get a video course, please binge-watch all the videos to get some background regarding the topics that will be discussed. Only then start systematic learning. Please notice that we recommend only the products we know to be helpful, but have no creative control over the materials that do not have the keytostudy logo on them.
  3. Define your goals and schedule. How fast do you want to read and how well do you want to retain what you read? The qualifying baseline of 1000 words per minute 80% retention usually requires six weeks of very intense training, which means four sessions per day. With relaxed training, which means one session per day, six months are more realistic. You are expected to have at least 30 minutes of computer or mobile app practice every day. Additionally, you are expected to read at least 60 min per day.
  4. One-on-one training over Skype. After three weeks of independent training, many people choose to take one on one coaching with Anna over Skype. Please read here and here. The sessions are not cheap, and you are expected to have two sessions per month. Contact me [email protected] to discuss the details.
  5. Getting extra-background. Go to our blog section and check the subjects. Read several posts. Try to search this keytostudy blog with different keywords to satisfy your curiosity. It is OK if you will not understand what you read now, some posts are useful later on in the course. We have more than 900 articles that should cover all your questions, and some of the articles are quite long. If you think we should discuss some additional subjects, tell me about that.
  6. Understand what Pomodoro time means. Read this post. You are expected to take ~5 min rest for each ~25 min of training. Make sure your eyes get rest during that time. Other details appear on various posts of this blog.
  7. Start training. By far the most addictive and simple exercise we can offer is visual short-term memory training. Train it daily for 15 min. At each stage of the course, you will get another perspective on this exercise and will use a different strategy.
  8. Apply for beta testing. Our best resources and offers are reserved for our beta testers: people who are courageous enough to try the resources in making. Please contact me to apply for beta testing.
  9. Get the reading apps. This guide is supposed to work online anywhere, so I did not cross-reference the mobile apps if there were alternatives. As new apps are released and old websites die, some links may become unstable. If you see that some of the references are too old and do not work, or find new resources and want my opinion, contact me [email protected]. For speedreading, you will want to use Acceleread on iOS and Speed Reading Trainer on Android.

NOTICE: Once again, for anything you can think of there might be an article on this blog. Use the site search as much as you need, and if you find no relevant articles tell me,

Week 1: Learning the basics

  1. Visualization practice. Try to enjoy the first week of training. You are expected to start working on visualization and memory, but first, you need to get used to training your brain. Do not try to get a very lucid image for abstract notions, instead try to figure out what sort of imagery comes naturally as your visual associations.
  2. Proposed daily training:
    10 min relaxation visualization: visualize a nice and friendly environment. Try to imagine as many details as you can. Alternatively, practice focus visualization.
    10 min create visual markers for abstract stuff
    15 min practice linking markers
    10 min learn more about yourself
  3. Additional training games:
    Spot the difference games improve your concentration and focus.
    Standard memory games are also important.
    Some freestyle training here and here.
    No timing on these games. It is very important to have fun 🙂
  4. Target: You will know you are ready to move on when you can create visual markers with ease and want to practice the skill on real things.

Week 2: Train visualization and memory

  1. Visualize objects. You may continue with more detailed visualizations. One way to improve the visualizations: move to PAO representation. Visualize a person performing an action with an object.
  2. Proposed daily training:
    20 min daily improve your visualization
    20 min daily memorize remember images
    20 min daily memorize words
    These are good exercises. Anna urges to do them all the time. However, after week 2 the students are advised to practice these exercises only 5-10 min per day.
  3. Additional training games:
    This game trains you to remember images using associations
    Habituate using markers for everyday memory items (meeting people, distractions, etc)
    Do practice when you travel
    Try to push your memory limits by multitasking computations
  4. Target: You will know you are ready to move on when you can create visual markers with ease and for abstract ideas. Check out this article to see the level of complexity you will need to handle.
  5. Dictionary: For some words, you will be able to generate quick visualizations, other words will be more complex. Start reusing the visualizations using your personal mnemonic dictionary.

Week 3: Starting working with texts

  1. Learn SQ3R. What you do next is read text paragraph by paragraph: preread, read and summarize from memory until you get almost 100% retention – like the retention you want your lawyer to have when representing you in court.
  2. Proposed daily training:
    Spend a full hour daily to read texts paragraph-by-paragraph and remember as many details as you can.
    You can use reading with card.
    You need to remember all the numbers within the text without mistakes. You will need also to remember all the names without mistakes. And finally, you will need to recite the content with great clarity. You can select words for initial visual markers and then gradually improve the quality of the visual markers.
  3. Additional training ideas:
    Occasionally we suggest annotating the text [no preference for annotation tools, as long as they allow free drawing] and draw your markers near the paragraphs. Do this for 2-3 days, but not afterward
    You can start with Wikipedia texts, but they are much denser than what you encounter in real life. After 2-3 days of Wikipedia reading, it is best to change to something simpler. Typically we suggest reading texts on reddit or come up with our own texts.
    For Wikipedia texts, you will need 1-2 marker per sentence, for a regular text you will need 1-2 markers per paragraph.
    If you need a challenging text, try my old book or my other old book. They will challenge your attention to detail and ability to remember large amounts of information.
  4. Optional training
    Since it takes some time to get 100% retention (hint: more than a week), we add some attention improving games to increase our retention:
    This exercise assigns colors to text, making it easier to find differences. Later you can apply the same technique to the texts you read, like here.
    This exercise starts to prepare you for the things to come.
  5. Target:
    You know that you are ready to move on when you remember 90% of the text you read without any mistakes. Use this tool to verify.

Week 4: Starting speedreading – subvocalization

  1. Suppress vocalization.
    We assume that at this point the student visualizes fast and almost effortlessly and can remember without errors 90% of what he/she reads using visual markers.
    DO NOT PROCEED WITH SUBVOCALIZATION UNTIL YOU REMEMBER 90% OF THE TEXT. Now it is time to speed things up. The practice is straightforward. During the practice, you will lose some retention, and then slowly regain it. If after two weeks of practice your retention does not recover, please do not speed up and consider contacting me.
  2. Proposed daily training:
    If you do not do visual short-term memory training, you should start doing it.
    20 min per day practice reading with subvocalization suppression. Please notice that when you suppress vocalization your retention percentage drops significantly and rises back gradually within the next 2 weeks.
    20 min per day scroll through text with high speed. At this point, you can still control the speed with which you read.
  3. Additional training ideas:
    And you could revisit the old articles on recommended subjects.
    At this point your mental age should start changing, so have fun checking it.
  4. Target:
    You are ready to move on when you sub-vocalize less than 10% of the text.

Week 5: Speedreading – saccades

  1. Assumptions
    At this point you can read the text virtually without subvocalization.
    You should start working on saccades.
    Use this cheatsheet to verify the saccade size.
  2. Proposed daily training:
    The main exercise here is sliding words display. It is a great exercise: simple and addictive. Do it as much as you can.
    Also, you really should use Spreader software for your device. Other good alternatives are Acceleread and Reading Trainer.
    10 min per day try reading running text. You do not control the speed anymore!
    10 min per day do visual angle training using speedreading Shultz tables.
    10 min per day train multicolumn saccades
  3. Target:
    Start working from 3 columns to 1 column. Hint: it takes more than a week.
    You are ready to move on when you text almost effortlessly. Advanced students can read texts 12 words wide and 5 columns high without moving their eyes. It takes approximately four months of training to achieve this.

Week 6:

  1. Book reading.
    You measure how much time it takes to read a page from a chosen book, say X seconds.
    Now you read 5 pages x2 speed, 3 pages at x1.5 speed and 5 pages at x1.2 speed.
    Repeat the process for an hour. Do it daily for a week.
    Also, read this article.
  2. Everyday training
    Now you can start spicing up your training using simple exercises in your everyday routine.
    You should also continue to monitor your reading speed and practice the relevant exercises until you reach 1000wpm with 85% comprehension. Usually, it happens around week 10.
  3. Some simple exercises you can do without a computer
    Do these exercises whenever you want.
  4. Advanced memorization If you did not take section course of the course, please do.
    This exercise may help you with memory palaces.
    This exercise may help with podcasts and conversations.
    This exercise may help you with faces.
    This and this exercise may help you belong to the 2% of humanity that can multitask efficiently. [No promises here: you will need many additional skills]
  5. Consider advanced training
    We offer various kinds of advanced training in our masterclasses. Go back to our services page and consider the options.

 

Next:

You might feel that your training is over, but in fact, it is only beginning. You are ready to start your masterclasses. Start with speedwriting. The recommended order is:

  1. Speedwriting –  for really long term retention
  2. Anchoring – to deal with psychological issues like objections or anxieties
  3. Productivity – to achieve the “flow” state reliably
  4. Memory – advanced memory subjects
  5. Speedreading – advanced speedreading subjects
  6. Research – to assess the reliability of what you read
  7. Investment – to choose the worthy goals and learn patience
  8. Teaching – to learn by teaching others

You may need two years to complete these masterclasses and integrate what you learned in your life.

70 Replies to “Proposed training schedule”

  1. Hi Lev,

    I just bought your book “The Key to Study Skills”, and I was wondering if this training schedule is for the book, or for your Udemy course.

    Best regards,
    FG

    1. Please notice that if you actually write the essays you have a better chance of learning and remembering in the long run. No courses and assignments should be useless in the hands of good teachers and mentors. If you feel that your assignments are useless, this means that your teachers are forced to teach something they do not understand or like.

  4. Hey Lev,
    I would like to ask about if I have scientific paper, I mean the paper has many equations, how can I memorize some these equations and recall them again in future? how can I create markers for each equation, especially, if I have partial differential equations?

  5. Hey Lev,

    Thank you very much for the schedule! I’ve got a question. You’ve written that on week 1 we should do some daily exercises but you also mentioned not to work on more than 4 days a week. My schedule would be something like 90 minutes on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday and 15 minutes Visual Short Memory Training daily.
    Does it make more sense to add the ‘Proposed daily training’ to every day a week? Or only on the 4 brain training days?

    Thank you for answering my question.

    Best wishes,

    Manuel

    1. The “8 week” schedule typically takes ~12 weeks, simply different people need more time for different issues. The progress takes time and it is important that you enjoy the way. Both of your suggestions sound good, choose the one which makes you feel better.

  6. Hello Dr.Lev.

    Although the big question: what are you going to do next? is something i should probably ask 12 weeks later., i have started in earnest and for the sake of completion and since no one raised this question in this thread:
    Is your advanced course available only as a 1:1 with Anna? Are you planning to release an advanced Udemy course/Book soon?

    Would love to hear from you.

  7. What is a realistic goal?

    Can I say I want to increase my reading to 1,600wpm and my retention to 90% in the next 6 weeks?

    Is 1,600wpm / 90% retention even possible?

    If achieving numbers like that is possible, how long would it take to get there? 6 weeks? 52 weeks?

    My reading speed now is under 180wpm and I have no clue what my retention is. But I really wanna work to get my numbers -both wpm and retention percentage- as high as possible. Will following this course for the 6 weeks get me to that goal?

  8. Syllable covers less material and the way it was built follows Jonathan’s personal preference. The schedule is only a guideline and any student is free to interpret it differently.

  9. hi there, so when i look at the syllabus, and the proposed schedule, they follow different timelines, such as proposed schedule says week two do section 7 and then week 3 do section 4, if i look at the syllabus, it goes straight from one section to the next why is that?

    1. Jonathan and myself are different people with different preferences. I prefer to have more options, do more diverse activities. Choose whatever path you like, and proceed with it.

  10. Hello fellow super learners, and Dr Goldentouch, I signed up for this course a while back, I have been working on it on an off but now for this month of sept 2015, I am recommitted to working on this course and completing it.
    I really want to work hard, do all exercises, please advise whats the best way to pursue this course, there is proposed schedule and also the syllabus, lets get this started.!!

  11. Hi, I love this course so far! I just finished section 3 and started looking around this site after working on the linking markers exercise. I’m quite happy I found this schedule as I think it will be really helpful as I continue.

    Would you consider adding this as a word document at the start of the course? I only say this because I wish I had found this schedule sooner!

  13. Thanks Lev for your previous reply.

    One more question:

    Generally, how many hours of practice does it take to get to between 1,000-1,200 wpm with 90% comprehension?

  14. Lev,

    I’ve rededicated myself to this course as I now have a few weeks off this summer. My plan is to commit to 1.5 hrs of training per day ~9hr per week. Two questions:

    1. Is this too much of a work load?
    2. If not, can I expect accelerated results within a 6-8 week time frame?

    My current reading speed is 275 WPM with a 60-75% comprehension.

    1. It takes some time (~10 min) to switch context between activities.
      30 min of training mean only 20 min of effective training, which is barely sufficient. You probably need to make 2 40 min sessions or 3-4 30 min sessions per day.

  16. Hi Dr. Lev,
    I’m a high school student from India and am really excited about taking this course. I have just started it. In the post you mentioned 90 min practice sessions. Would say 30 minutes a day on all weekdays and around 60-90 minutes on weekdays work as well or do we need to practice in 90 min sessions?
    Also is there any way I could integrate my practice with studies?
    Thank You

    1. I would say that 40 min are the bare minimum sessions.
      It usually takes 10 min for the brain to “warm up” and then you have 30 min of work left.
      In such short sessions you do not typically need Pomodoro breaks.

  17. Hi Lev, I would like to start out by saying thanks to you and your wife, and jonathan, for taking the time to compile this course. I am a 26 y/o male and have just started studying again at university after 10 years of any form of institutionalized education. I have just started watching the lectures today, and I am extremely excited to learn the techniques and and see how this course will be of benefit. I’m expecting very big things, thankyou for instilling hope.

    Just a quick question, i am having trouble creating mental markers. I have just finished lecture 12 in section 13..i am finding it hard to visualize markers in relation to the things that i read. For example for the supplementary material it gives a link to a memory game, how would i incorporate markers into remembering multiple items, or is this technique only to be used with reading?

    Any reply would be greatly appreciated
    Luke

    1. I think, you should start with simple visualization first and work your way till you can create markers while reading. The process should take you a week or two.

  18. I’m extending my first week of proposed training to 3 weeks in order to get on my daily schedule.

    Should I make any changes to my usual training.

  19. Hello,

    I am a bit confused, the course syllabus(the small lines after each section) and the Proposed training schedule seems bit different, which one should i follow?

    Thanks in advance

    1. Both are good. If you ask Jonathan – syllabus, if you ask me – proposed schedule. The differences are small and the syllabus is a subset of the proposed schedule.

  20. Hi,
    When I am going for 2 and 3 sections.I got these question.
    1.I am a highschool student.Should I create marker when learning new thing.if it right when thinking about the same imformation with the markers serval weeks later?
    【 For example:I learned the shape of a pen ,it is long so i made a marker of a long rod.When every time i see the word “pen” i thing about the rod?】
    2.Is it right to use a marker you made before or to make a new one?
    【For example: I saw a car in the street and I made a marker.When I see the word”car” in the book should i use the marker i made?(speed up the reading?)Or making a new marker?】
    3.What’s the meaning of “Try to avoid inserting your own imformation”?.Can’t i imagine i am in my mind using something?
    4.What can i do when learning maths?

    Best regards,
    Tang

    1. 1. Markers are visual associations. You do not have to create associations for everything, but as you become more experienced the associations will happen automatically.
      2. You can reuse associations, or you can create the new ones. Whatever comes more natural. There is no single bet strategy, but adaptations for specific situations.
      3. http://www.keytostudy.com/knowledge-support/
      4. I will prepare a series of posts in September. For now see http://www.keytostudy.com/superlearning-math-formulas/.

  21. Shouldn’t it be “Section 7” in Week 2: Train visualization and memory.
    6 is written, and I don’t think I should be speed reading NOW :P!

  22. Does the iPad app just allow for the lectures? I started by going through them, and when I logged into the web page I noticed the quizzes. I promise I’m not rushing, just going through the lectures first per the recommendation.
    Thank you, I’m very happy to have fond the course!
    -matt

    1. I am pretty sure that iPad app should support quizs. I do suggest to restart the device. Then try to find the exact button – google it if you need. If the problem is not solved, please contact udemy support with exact model of the device and iOS version.

  23. This is a clarification question. During week three, when you say read paragraph by paragraph and remember as many details as possible; does this mean review my markers after each paragraph, making sure I remember as much as possible? Do I want to take this step slowly?

  24. In week three you mention annotating the markers. You refer to it as drawing markers. Is that just writing down the word or phrase along with a few brief linking details. Or is their something else going on there?

    1. Occasionally it makes sense to draw markers to make your thinking process more vivid and controllable. You can also share the markers you draw with your peers, e.g. on our Facebook page. Also the attention you invest when building and drawing markers makes better retention (but clearly lowers speed).

  25. Dear Lev

    While I’m reading the text and linking markers I find myself sub vocalizing the words, before transforming them into images. I have the feeling that I might be doing something wrong here. Can you please let me know if I’m doing the right thing.

    1. Usually it will work, however I do suggest to keep at least 2 weekly sessions at 45 min or more… It takes time to focus, also there will be some exercises that will require more setup…

  27. Dr. Lev,

    Question re: week 3 remembering the text paragraph by paragraph –
    Should we recall the information according to comprehension > 90% or actually be memorizing the texts word for word based on visual markers w important words and all numbers & names?

  28. Hi,

    I am practicing the 3rd week and just started working with texts. I find it hard to understand how to read and create the markers simultaneously. Here are a few questions that I have:

    1) Should I stop for 5-10 seconds (the time it takes me to create a good marker) every time I reach a word worth remembering?

    2) Should I create the best marker I can within 2 seconds and move forward?

    3) Should I stop at the end of every paragraph and try to memorize the paragraph by reverse engineering the markers to words?

    Thank you,
    Gal

    1. Dear Gil,

      0. This question comes up very often and has been answered several times in the discussions.
      1. Please stop at the end of each paragraph or section (2-5 paragraphs) based on content density and your working memory capacity and generate markers then.
      2. Yes. You can reiterate on your markers after reading the whole article or chapter, but this practice should be minimized to two markers or less – otherwise it causes confusion…
      3. Yes. Please notice that the beginners may create marker per line and revise per paragraphs, whereas advanced students may prefer to create markers per sections (with more details and sub-markers) and revise at the end or article/chapter.

      Hope this helps 🙂

  30. Shalom Dr. Lev,

    I just found the Udemy course and am going through things here. I am a bit confused as to how many of Jonathan’s lectures I should go through in conjunction with the Learning plan from above? I am worried I will go to fast at Udemy and the exercises here will get lost.

    Thanks,
    Dave

    1. Hi,
      This is a very valid question. For now the recommendation is as following:
      1. Listen through all of Jonathan’s lectures
      2. Start training according to keytostudy schedule
      3. Every time you change your training routine revisit the relevalnt lectures
      Hope this works for you.
      Best,
      Lev.

  32. Hi Lev,I’m a student of high school and I’ve just started taking this fantastic course.I noticed that almost everyone is an adult so I was wondering if this course is useful for me now or I’d better wait.
    Moreover,it’s pretty a mess to understand well what to do,I watched videos until the end of section 3 and this is my first week.So should I stop there for this week practising the week 1 exercise and than continue with the prereading part?Or do you think that it’s more effective watching all lectures before and than started with the six week training?

    1. This course is useful for ages 15-75.
      There are several ways to handle the course schedule and you really need to see what works best for you. Some people watch all the videos to understand the flow, and then re-watch lecture by lecture as they practice.
      Others use Lift applications to guide them step by step.
      Everything you need to know is either on Udemy or on Keytostudy, but not always in the most accessible format.
      People who feel that their progress does not converge sufficiently fast ask for 1:1 with Anna to close the gaps….
      Maybe the right attitude is taking this course as adventure.
      Just see where this journey takes you…

  34. This is unbelievable. I mean it literally.

    I signed up for the course a couple of days ago, and I devoured all the lectures in a single day. I can really identify myself with Jonathan’s passion for learning. I have a to-read list of over 3.000 books on Goodreads. I have the desire to enroll and complete five masters, six PhD’s, two more BSc’s, and hundreds of short courses on Coursera, edX, Oxford Online, Stanford Online, etc. But honestly this sounds all but a dream to me. Or only something I would be able to accomplish when I am 80 years old, if I’m that lucky. I mean, I’m a terribly frustrated slow reader. When I first took the test here, I was at 140wpm with 50% retention. That’s nearly dyslexic, I suppose. Granted english is not my mother tongue, but I can read, speak and write pretty fluently in it. I knew I was a slow reader, but this got me frustrated. Then I checked out this Reading Trainer app, by HeKuIT, that somebody recommended on the comments, and took their test. I was at 170wpm with 75% retention. I felt a little better about myself, but still, I am a very slow reader.

    If you allow me to sound childish, I will sometimes daydream and wish someone developed the Matrix brain uploading machine, or that a UFO blasted me a flash of light and I woke up supersmart like John Travolta in Phenomenon. That’s how sci-fi the notion of superlearning sound to me. Finding out about this course got me out of breath last night. Not joking. When I made the calculations of what it would mean to be able to read 1.200wpm with 85-90% retention, I got so excited that I had an episode of tachycardia and hyperventilation. This is really the stuff of sci-fi. I would be able to accomplish everything I want. So this still sounds all too good to be true.

    Anyways, I’m very skeptical, but very willing to do the exercises. I don’t think I’ll be nearly close to 1.000wpm with 85% in just 10 weeks or so. But that’s ok. One thing that makes me a believer is that the techniques you guys are teaching are not easy. They require a lot of REALLY HARD work, and will take a lot of perseverance, and sucking up frustration to get there. So you’re not offering any magic wand. It’s pretty amazing what you’re offering, but it also seems very hard to achieve. So let’s see what happens.

    I am really glad I found out about this course. I only wish I had found out about it 10 years ago. Now, at 33, I feel I’m already late for my own life, and have lots of catching up to do. If I can get to 500wpm at 70% in like 6 months, I will already feel amazed and rewarded.

    I thank you guys for putting up this amazing course, and sharing those techniques. If I can really become a superlearner applying those, you will sure be getting a lot of donations from me.

    Thank you all, so very much.

    Best regards,
    ML

      1. Thank you, Lev! I will go slowly, focusing on the process, and the practice. I am really excited about the prospects of applying the techniques. That’s what spiked my anxiety the last couple of days.

        I’ll let you know how I’m making progress, here, or on the Facebook group.

        Best regards,
        ML

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