When I was in 7 th grade, I had a lot of trouble reading. My mother used to sit by my side, and explain each paragraph of each school reading assignment to me because I didn’t understand what I was reading. She would have to read each paragraph to me, and then after each paragraph, she summarized what we just read. In class, I tried to hide the fact that I couldn’t read. My teachers gave us the last 10 minutes of class to start our reading homework, and I would sit there for the last ten minutes of class staring at the page, pretending I was reading it — I remember a terrible feeling of not wanting to get in trouble for not being able to comprehend. I had to wait until I got home so my mother could explain it to me. How did I ever get into Cornell University? By eighth grade I started understanding a little on my own, but I was reading at an incredibly slow rate. In eighth grade, I got hold of all the speed reading books I could get my hands on. I read them all very slowly at the time. I even went out and took a course on speed reading. Then I developed my own system which was easier and produced quicker results. I started practicing these techniques every day, and as I started to read faster, my understanding increased. I found that I stopped daydreaming and thinking about other things while I was reading, and started getting the larger meaning. I was reading faster and comprehending better. I found that when you read slowly, word by word, you get lost in the words, lose the bigger picture, and your comprehension drops. When you read faster, your concentration actually increases and your comprehension goes up because instead of getting lost in the words, you see the overall picture.