The Exercises - More Detail

The exercises are designed to train you to easily locate word groups in text on the written page. The RocketReader exercises use smart shadows that turn into words to develop your ability to read large chunks of text directly from the written page. You can choose text from any of the 100 built-in readings for the exercises. You can also use your own text files.

When you enter the Exercises window you will see a series of shadows on the screen. When you press the down arrow on the keyboard you will see these shadows turn into text. You can adjust the size of the shadows by dragging the slider left (smaller) or right (longer) at the bottom of the Exercises screen. You should choose a shadow size that is large enough that you are pushing yourself to read the words behind each shadow with a SINGLE glance of the eyes.

The following screen illustrates shadows of medium length. When you press the down arrow, the next shadow disappears to reveal the word or words behind it. The wider the shadow, the harder it is.

The following window illustrates another text with wider shadows. Note that each shadow is a half of a line in length. This trains you to read half of a line in a single glance. The RocketReader exercises can use shadow sizes ranging from a single word to an entire line. RocketReader trains you to read with larger shadow sizes. This improves your reading efficiency as you take in more information with each glance of the eye. And you can set the level of difficulty at any time by dragging the slider at the bottom of the screen. Even half way through a reading!

The "Font" menu allows you to increase or decrease the size of the font used in the exercises. When you change the font size, the size of the shadows also change to match.

The "Scrolling" menu allows you to set the smoothness of the scrolling from one line to the next in the exercises.

When you hold down the down-arrow key on the keyboard, the shadows automatically reveal themselves one by one at a constant rate. The "Speed" menu allows you to set this speed. You can set a very challenging speed that only the fastest readers are able to manage, right through to more modest speeds.

The "View" menu allows you to select a new text file for the exercises. You can use the built in text files, or specify your own text file for the exercises.


Reading Tips: ‘…It is not immediately clear - especially if you are just skimming the text - that: The first two statements are ambiguous.…’  read article