We have long ago discovered anecdotal evidence that our methodology REALLY helps he people who have learning disabilities. Some of our students suffered dyslexia and using mental markers jumped from 20wpm to 1200wpm. Other students had trouble focusing on the text and were “cured” by the joyful gamification of speedreading. Even the students with brain damage [car accidents, cancer] have experience new cognitive abilities by using new ways to do things. Below is a brief discussion from our udemy course.
Jeremy De Mello: Is creating mental markers *really* worth it?
Having a lot of time justifying creating mental markers. I need proof that this is a better way to learn. Can you guys reply with success stories? They’d be great motivation.
Kevin Chin
In my experience, there is a steep learning curve, layered on top of that fact that growing up in the social media age, it’s almost frustrating to hold on to these markers. As the prof here told me my “mental bandwidth” is not capable to use them efficiently. If you’re on Twitter or reading infinite scrolling news feeds, I recommend to put them off for now and retrain the way your brain consumes information.
There’s a bodybuilder I follow on YouTube who recently posted on his Facebook saying he JUST got a smartphone, and he’s mentioned that his thoughts are now “sliding” ever since he got the phone. I know it’s anecdotal and just one person, but seeing how a person who just recently put himself into the world of smartphones, saying that the first thing he experiences his thoughts sliding, it just shows how difficult this course is if your thoughts are sliding on ice all the time. You have to keep practicing. I’m nowhere near finished (have taken some time off), but I believe this course has helped me with my “ADD” (I’m still speculating its existence, especially after trying this course. I’m beginning to think it’s just that the education system hasn’t taught us how to use our brains to its fullest potential). Before, I would get bored with texts that I especially did not like to read. But now I try to truly engage my brain when I read, and it’s given me the ability to at least sit down and not fidget when I read, just because the act of reading has become more engaging. I still can’t retain markers, but I try to create them as I go along.
I recommend that you approach this like a professional athlete would do with sports. Sleep well, eat really healthy, and train your ass off. I came in expecting this course to be a quick fix, but that’s not what it is. Make a commitment to work on this.
I think if you were to weigh what’s important to work on, it’s really the marker building skill. I think you should be spending 2 weeks to a month on just that portion alone.
Kevin Chin : Is this course possibly a cure to ADD?
I’m in the middle of just thinking about this course, thought I would share some of my thoughts.
I’ve put in in total about 10 hours worth of training in to this course in the month I have had this course. Although I have put in small amounts of time here and there, I’m slowly starting to believe my focus is improving. I’m noticing whenever I don’t “understand” text, it’s because I’m too lazy to sit down and really understand the word, resulting in not visualizing a marker. And it’s making me speculate that this “ADD” society we live in is mostly bs, and that it’s just we are not harnessing the power of the mind. The same people who say they are ADD can sit down and focus playing video games for hours on end, and if you think about it, the rich, visual details of video games are like the markers laid out on the screen.
Text or just personal experiences that I have created a marker for, I can remember very clearly. I still remember from a month ago, when my friend was driving across the farm fields, the visual marker I made for the haystacks I saw, because I visualized them transforming into plump, white, steamed dumplings and buns. I can repeat almost all the most intense markers I have made over the past month.
Just this observation with myself motivates me to try harder and put an honest effort into this course.
I think to push this course to the next level would be adding some kind of calendar structure to it so training becomes like training for a sport. Like a Monday, Wednesday, Friday split, with rest days, almost as if you’re training in the gym.
MS Chernik
I wonder the same. When I was a kid, they had the term hyperactive and told you to knuckle down or settle down or go to your room…and no one got kids on pills. Now its ADD, ADHD and children are on harmful medications. Stuff that if I took would probably give me a heart attack.
Dr. Lev Gold
It definitely helps. I have overfocus, Jonathan is hyperactive and Anna has dyslexia, yet we all are highly successful in what we do.
MS Chernik
I will advise this…don’t come home from work tired, and take the course with a beer–you will miss so much and do lousy on the the quizzes—-have a beer or take the course—it is a good reminder how unalert we are when we drink and drive-which is a given, well study and drinking don’t mix either—
I live by the beach and there are girls in bikinis==should I close the blinds when I study—I think they are the cause of my ADD 🙂
I’m just beginning the course and I have a hard time remembering the visual markers I make, it almost seems like it slows down my reading cause I am trying to think of visual markers for what I read. However that is the beauty of it! I love when I am presented with a challenge and to see how far I can push myself to learn something. I cant wait to see where I am from a month or two from now. Which is a concept I like to use, Instead of people saying where do you see yourself in 5 years or so. I usually say where do i see myself next month or in a few months from now depending on what I am trying to accomplish at that time.