There are basically two ways to learn new material or to read a book. The first way is the old-fashioned way: you begin or you read the material from cover to cover one time and you try to remember as much as you can. The other way is to use OPIR.
Before explaining OPIR , I would like to tell you what the huge benefit of OPIR is?
When you use this technique, you increase you capacity to remember by 500%. Why do I say that? Well, when you use the traditional technique I cited above, it is proved that you remember only 30% of the material. With this techiques and with other accelerated learning techniques, you are able to remember more than 80%.
O.P.I.R stands for Overview, Preview, Inview and Review.
1. Overview
The Overview concentrates on getting a feel for the content. For example trace diagrams or charts with your finger or a pointer of some sort. This will not only give you a visual memory of the diagram but also a physical memory of the material. Again, this is an important step to go through. Have you ever read a book only to find that the last 20 pages contained a summary of the entire book which was all you needed to read in the first place. That's what the overview step enables you to discover: you don't need to read all the material, but only what is important to you at the moment.
2. Preview
After the Overview, the next stage is the preview. Now you are beginning to look at the language structure of the book and your focus should be on the beginning and end of paragraphs, sections and chapters. You would also look for any summary or conclusions. Remember that you do not have to read everything. You can select and reject information that you know you do not need.
3. Inview
Now you can, begin to start filling in the gaps that are left after the Overview and Preview phases by targeting parts of the book even further. Always remember to select what is useful to you and reject what is not. However, you should spend a lot of time at this stage and take a lot of notes, especially in the form of a learning map.
4. Review
This stage MUST be taken into consideration. Reviewing is the last part, but not the least. Actually, this is this one step that will allow you to remember most of the material. Reviewing correctly the material is a fundamental step of the power learning process. Reviewing means reviewing your notes and NOT the entire material.
While working on the material using these powerful methods, don't forget to create learning maps or mind maps.
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