Training timeline in 1-on-1 sessions

The Udemy course is standalone and you can take it to any direction you want, especially if you read this blog and ask questions. However many students choose a more controlled form of 1-on-1 Skype sessions. While we often encourage you to find your own personal style and works for you best, there is a basic outline of the progress that many of our 1-on-1 students take:

Basic course

1. We quantify everything

The first experience of our students is very dramatic. It starts with measuring current speed and retention level. In private sessions it also includes visualization abilities (with a photo), working memory/chunking (remember a sequence of numbers) and marker generation (remember a list of unrelated objects). just getting to measure your brain with numbers has a huge effect on a student. It opens the student to understanding of how to set superlearner goals and monitor progress.

2. Markers and visualization.

Next we teach our students visualization techniques until the students can generate markers and link them into double-linked list almost effortlessly. We alternate visualization methods, memorization of long lists and almost per-word retention of the text (in much greater details than I ever though was ever needed).  This stage may take 2-3 weeks of exercise, and we know it works when the student can recreate texts with uncanny accuracy.

3. Subvocalization suppression.

Only when markers come effortlessly we start with subvocalization suppression: reading with a list or counting. The students first feel they do not understand a thing, but within 30-90 min the brain fills in the gaps and subvocalizations subsides. It is very easy to see for a trained teacher like Anna, just by watching the speed with which the student’s eyes move. Notice that at first retention drops to almost zero and it takes 2-3 weeks for retention to get to a good enough level (80%+).

4. Saccades and book reading

Once the subvocalization suppression works effortlessly and the retention is back we start working on eye movement. First we try to enlarge field of view using Shultz tables or other similar exercise, then we try various saccade strategies, until we get the one that works best for the particular student.  At the end we give the student to read a book with high, normal and slower speed and measure reading speed and retention. We are happy if the reading speed is above 800wpm and retention above 75%. Usually we give our students a month to practice alone and then measure 1000wpm at 80%.

 

Advanced course

1. Specific needs

We identify specific areas that require work: like memory to faces or numbers, creativity  etc and generate series of specific mental workouts to improve them.  We monitor the progress throughout the course to see that the requirements are met, and modify the “workout” if the progress is not sufficient.

2. Information handling

The core of the advanced course is the ability to control information intake and analyse pattern. This implies several skills, that are learnt one after another. Just the ability to evaluate/make a paretto/mark with a marker the amount of information intake is hard for most students and requires 1 week training.

3. Controlling reading speed

We read different materials at varying speed, filtering out the information we need to retain. At this stage the control of reading speed is difficult, since the brain is wired to 800wpm @80% and we rewire it for multiple speeds. It takes 2-3 weeks till the results are visible and the average(!) speed gets 1500wpm @70% understanding.

4. Associations and data structures

We practice then various ways to organize the information in the brain during the short breaks within cascades or between paragraphs and sections. The students are encouraged to confront their own content, including most complex and technical material they can think of – and we generate the mental structures and reading strategies adapted for that specific material. Again it may take 2-3 weeks to cover the material.

By the end of the course the student is capable of learning a new subject within his domain with uncanny speed. It is like 1 day for a skill, 1 week for a whole new skill set…  People who took the advanced course typically become gurus in their knowledge domains and we take great pride from keeping long-term relationships with them.