Causes of poor concentration

1.       Vocabulary difficulties

Efficient and concentrated speed reading relies upon a smooth flow of information with few interruptions in understanding. Pauses to look up words or to ponder will break your concentration and slow your understanding of the whole. If you come across a word that you don’t understand when reading, rather than looking it up straight away. Underline it and      review it afterwards.

2.       Conceptual  difficulties

If you don’t really understand the concepts you are reading about, you will have difficulty concentrating. To get past this obstacle, choose one of the guiding techniques outlined and use skimming and scanning as ways of multiple reading the material until it becomes familiar to you.

3.       Inappropriate reading speed

Many people believe (because that is what they were thought) that reading things slowly and carefully will help understanding and comprehension. This approach I actually counter-productive and, far from aiding your brain, reading slowly will actually slow it down. To check this out, try reading the following statement exactly as it is laid out. Read it ‘slowly and carefully’.