1. Underline, circle, make margin notes.

Not highlighting the whole page like some students do! Usually you will not mark more than two or three items per page, and many pages will have no markings. Marking pages increases recall — do you have a marked-up Bible? If you do, you can almost “see” the page in your head when recalling it. Marking helps. (Highlighting may help — your own markings, however, are probably superior).

2. Dog-ear important pages.

In a 250 page book there will probably be 25 pages worth dog-earing. Turn down the page to return later. The bigger the dog-ear the more important the page. Most books have only four or five half-page-dog ears.

3. Transfer key notes to front of book.

Got a great point here? The central message? The quote which essentially represents the whole book? Write it down in the front of the book. Why? Generally speaking when it comes to new information you either “Use it or lose it in 20 minutes.” When you discover it, flip the book open to the front and scribble it down; it will cement the notion into your mind. Better yet, link it to something you already know and write that down too. Linked information can be recalled far better than isolated information.

4. When finished, re-read dog-eared pages.

Just run back through and re-read the gold. Here is the essence of the book (if you made judgements right going through).

5. Now write an “abstract” in the back or front.

You are finished! Go for a pizza… but not just yet. Take a few more minutes and write an “abstract” up front in your own words. When the writer submitted the proposal for this book, he or she probably actually had a single paragraph or page, outlining what this book was all about. To summarize the book, simply “reverse engineer” the book back to the author’s abstract or thesis.

6. Consider drawing a “MindMap” of the contents.

If you are going to be tested on this book, get someone to teach you how to use Tony Buzan’s “Mind Map” to remember the entire book on a single page. Remember, the mind mostly recalls ideas and pictures, not words.

A Mind Map will enable you to “picture” the whole book and you’ll look like you posses a photographic” (which you really don’t need, if you simply follow the advice in this article).

7. But if you borrowed the book, and can’t mark it, dog-ear it, or otherwise “use” this took — then use 3M stickers instead of dog-ears, and write your comments on half-sheets of paper as you go.

Finally, remember this:

speed-reading is not some magical secret you can pick up in ten minutes and Presto! You now can read 1000 words per minute.

True, you can learn to read faster; perhaps double your present speed in two weeks. But to become a life-long rapid reader (like becoming a proficient race car driver) takes time, concentration and practice. This short article can get you started, but to really become expert you’ll need to practice plenty.

Here's an audio by Stuart Tan on rapid learning which all of you would like to download. He has more or less touch on the details as discussed in this reading skills series.