Can Speed Reading Get You Through Law School?

Posted By: Contributor November 23, 2008

As every law student knows (except maybe Dany), there’s a lot of reading in law school.

wikiHow has an entry on speed reading that might be useful.  They start off with these tips:

  1. Have your eyes checked.
  2. Time your current reading speed.
  3. Get rid of distractions.
  4. Adjust reading speed depending on the material.
  5. Train yourself not to reread.
  6. Stop reading to yourself.
  7. Read with your hand.
  8. Practice reading blocks of words.
  9. Practice and push yourself.
  10. Time yourself regularly.

There are a number of other resources on the site, including this video:


More Life 101 videos at 5min.com

Then there are self-help strategies for anxiety relief.

All the tips there are highly relevant for over-stressed law students, especially soon after OCIs.

There’s even a nifty chart on Cognitive Distortions that Lead to Anxiety and Worry:
All-or-nothing thinking Looking at things in black-or-white categories, with no middle ground (“If I fall short of perfection, I’m a total failure.”)
Overgeneralization Generalizing from a single negative experience, expecting it to hold true forever (“I didn’t get hired for the job. I’ll never get any job.”)
The mental filter Focusing on the negatives while filtering out all the positives. Noticing the one thing that went wrong, rather than all the things that went right.
Diminishing the positive Coming up with reasons why positive events don’t count (“I did well on the presentation, but that was just dumb luck.”)
Jumping to conclusions Making negative interpretations without actual evidence. You act like a mind reader (“I can tell she secretly hates me.”) or a fortune teller (“I just know something terrible is going to happen.”)
коли под наемCatastrophizing Expecting the worst-case scenario to happen (“The pilot said we’re in for some turbulence. The plane’s going to crash!”)
Emotional reasoning Believing that the way you feel reflects reality (“I feel frightened right now. That must mean I’m in real physical danger.”)
‘Shoulds’ and ‘should-nots’ Holding yourself to a strict list of what you should and shouldn’t do–and beating yourself up if you break any of the rules
Labeling Labeling yourself based on mistakes and perceived shortcomings (“I’m a failure; an idiot; a loser.”)
Personalization Assuming responsibility for things that are outside your control (“It’s my fault my son got in an accident. I should have

h/t Rick Telfer of the Canadian Federation of Students.

5 Comments on "Can Speed Reading Get You Through Law School?"

  1. Ahsan Mirza | November 23, 2008 at 6:00 pm |

    Another tip: Try to read each paragraph diagonally instead of line-by-line.

  2. Jenn | November 23, 2008 at 7:35 pm |

    I have experienced every single one of those Cognitive Distortions.

  3. Devin Johnston | November 24, 2008 at 4:57 am |

    I gave that exercise a try, and mainly ended up accidentally reading everything aloud. It’s harder than it looks. I guess it takes practice.

  4. blaw | November 27, 2008 at 3:38 pm |

    More important is to prioritize readings and have a strategy of what you will read and how much of it.

    Ask whether spending the time reading will advance understanding of the particular issue.

    For example, for a lot of cases, the head note is just fine. Understanding facts for all cases takes too long and won’t help when it comes to the exam anyway.

    Speed reading won’t gain you much in terms of adding knowledge, unless the strategy is to apply it to low priority readings so you get the gist of it and can move on.

    Work smart, not hard, I say.

  5. Stop Anxiety | November 13, 2009 at 1:59 pm |

    Seems really difficult to do right away, but I bet with practice this technique works really well. To read fast and comprehend it all is very difficult to do. I hope this helps.. Looking forward to learning more.

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