SuperLearning

Rating:
Summary: Left Overs of Soviet Propaganda
Review: After reading the review from Caveat Emptor I decided to see for myself if this is true. I started to read this book hoping to take a few skills with me as I plan my return to college. I remembered this book back when I was in high school being recommend by my teachers. The authors labeled everything with an -ology and -pedia like hypnosopedia -hypnosis an sleep. There were so many words you had to take notes. Story after story after story of how great this system is and only one chapter (7) that "showed" anything related to learning. I needed a score card to keep track of all the people. The key is to relax and use rhytum with yoga techniques to better absorb the facts. I walk away with unverifyible stories and wild claims. Its Great! Its Amazing! WHAT IS!?!? What do I need to do exactly to learn a language in 2 weeks FLUENTLY?? OK, they wrote this in 1979 so I went to their website ...and got more of the same. If you must read this book read chapter 7 and toss the rest. The rest of the book went into ESP, dreams telpathy etc. I recommend "Mastering the Information Age : A Course in Working Smarter, Thinking Better, and Learning Faster" by Michael J. McCarthy. It teaches you everything grokking, speed reading, meditation, communication without fluff, nutrition etc. It's out of print but a library should have it. A PBS "Nova" episode featured James Randi (randi.org) who went to Russia to investigate claims of "Charged water" and paranormal stuff funded by the government there. Each one he proved a fraud or a scam. I think this is tre in this case. I did try some of the shorter exercise in ch 7 with so-so success (really a little worst since I study with no distractions TV etc. What convinced me that this maybe snake oil was on page 23 when Dr. Georgi Lozanov did a sleep learning experiment and pull the speaker plugs on some of the students' material as they slept. The results: high scores. They anticipated the benefits they would receive and did very well. That's how good the system is. But they must have had the knowledge already to pass. Also Dr. Lozanov was too busy to use his own course!!!(Pg 37) They plug this as a positive because the system was so popular he had to give appearances. They would have fitted in well as Art Bell's guest!! I believe there is no limits to human potential. That's why I read the book. I just don't believe they have the right method and KNOW IT. SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!!

Rating:
Summary: You are being taken for a ride.
Review: Before reading this review I will give you some idea of my background so you can judge my review on the basis of my experience. I am a multilingual language teacher and writer with a keen interest in accelerated learning techniques, and have been such for several years. I first became interested in Superlearning several years ago as a possible method for increaing both my own language learning rate, which is considerable, and that of my students. Superleaning looked like something really new and innovative, and, having read the original Superlearning book, I decided to buy several Superlearning products from their website, including the audio course, special learning cassettes and a language course produced by the authors and based on the exact procedures laid out in their books. I wanted to be sure I was doing it properly. I also wish to point out that the products are not cheap by any means, well, not in price anyway. In terms of quality of the materials, recording and presentatiom, I have never encountered anything so cheap and shoddy!

Five years later, and after even more extensive research and experimentation with the system, both personally and in my classes, I can only say that almost all of this system is a sham. It doesn't work. I used a language course produce by them, and found no benefit whatsoever in it. The only benefit I got was to use the course, which I would also like to point out is nothing more than 3 tapes and a very thin and cheaply produced pamphlet of words and phrases and, on occasion the recording did not match the transcript, was to use the tapes without the highly distracting breathing exercises and do it the old-fashioned way. I made my own tapes too, as per the instructiosn in the course, which was a vastly time-consuming process, and had the same lack of result as the "professionally" produced languages tapes by the authors themselves!

There is no doubt that proper relaxation, relaxed breathing, positive suggestions and classical music can have varying degrees of benefit on the students, but the method you will find in ALL the books and programmes produced by Superlearning leaves a great deal to be desired!

I was interested by another reviewer's reference to a researcher from Monash univerity and her work into Lozanov and Superlearning. As I don't think a text link is allowed ina review, you might like to do a web search for "The personal website of Uschi Felix" at Monash University for a lot more information about Superleaning and the validity of some of the claims made before you are tempted to part with your hard earned and get a disappointment.

Having tried to contact Superlearning with questions and complaints, I can only attribute the lack of service and, indeed, acknowledgement I encountered to the fact that they must get a lot of commenst from some very dissatisfied people! I urge you not to buy into this scam. You are being taken for a ride.

To those reviewers who are getting so excited by the promises in the Superlearning products, all I can say is try it and see. Remember - I was just like you a few years ago!

Rating:
Summary: Caveat Emptor
Review: Frankly, there is some good stuff in this. It is a pity that all Ostrander and schroeders stuff is just ripped off from other authors! At the heart of Superlearning is a technique that claims that people can learn 1000 foreign language words in a day with almost 100% recall. Yeah right! In fact, a researcher at Monash university shows how Ostrander and Schroeder's claims are just wild distautions of Georgi Lozanov's book! In 1979 when the original book came out you could sort of forgive the authors for being duped by a so called supertechnique for learning from Communist Europe. But come on girls! You're still plugging the same old stuff. They are releasing more and more tapes and books built around this fraud! How do I know it's a fraud? Try it and see! can S and O "superlearn" 1000 words and remember them? If they can, I'll take this back, but I want to see it firsthand! Also, have you, the readre, ever heard of something called a computer? Of course you have! They have them in almost every school in the States! That is because they work! How many of you have heard of Superlearning? Do you really think that if this really worked then the State Department wouldn't have set it up in every school in the land? Hey! It gets better! In the 1979 original, S and O claim that people could even learn 3000 words in a day! The game's up girls! This is just a money-spinner!

Rating:
Summary: Inspired Dizzy Nonsense
Review: I first read superlearning in 1984 and have had a look at this recent publication. As a teenager, it did inspire me to wonder about my own mind's potential. It also gave me some good excuses not to study so much, and some great excuses for why I didn't do so well in exams etc.

The one thing I kind of like about it, is that it talks about many different tricks. It is an exploration of methods, and really doesn't give enough away about any particular method. I have read other similar books that give detailed steps that seem tailored to leading you off an examination cliff.

The way it is written is unbelievable, and since maturing and learning about real learning strategies, I realize this book is mostly harmless.

If you want something more workable, go for Kenneth Higbee instead.

Browse through it at a library somewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't seem complete.
Review: I tried and tried the techniques in this book and the newer 2000 and just didn't see tangible results in my learning. Going over the material in such detail to record the tapes in preparation, seems to offer the only benefit - the actual listening to music part does next to nothing, in my opinion and experience, in its presented form. Great concept, needs something more.

Rating:
Summary: ... this book is one big waffle ...
Review: I'm trying not to be cynical, but this book is one long waffle. Words and explanations that look impressive but do nothing. Except perhaps giving the gullible a certain confidence to learn. I reckon Meneer Tolsma could have done just as well studying his thousand words without Ostrander.

Rating:
Summary: Almost really excellent - Super ideas that could work
Review: It is not that this book does not stretch your limits of thinking. It is not that this book does not have some great ideas.
You will have to have an open mind and the methods here slap against the face of conventional wisdom, which I really liked. I will try these methods one day as they make sense. Yet I felt as if something was missing from this book and I could not quite put my finger on it.
Its doubtful its simplicity will ever be incorporated into the US educational system, which means of course that test scores in the US will continue to decline

Rating:
Summary: Great!!!
Review: It was great!!! It taugt you many things that you can use in life. The exercises were a bit hard to do. It would be confusing to 0-15 year olds.

Rating:
Summary: The old fashioned schoolsystem wil fade........
Review: My name is Martin Tolsma and I come from Holland. Superlearning has been translated in dutch and as available for years already in Holland. The first time I read this book is propably 12 years ago. At age 15 I looked for "hot" books in the library and found this stunning book. The basic techniques of relaxing in a pleasant way are easy to learn for EVERYBODY! The very first time I did a session I learned AND could remember more than a thousand words I had never seen before. Even a year after this session I remembered more than 50% of the words. This way of learning and making use of YOUR 90% untouched mental capacity should be number ONE in the schoolsystem, each schoolsystem. Using the principles mentioned in this book WILL give you a photographical memory and better control of your health and personal succes. I praise the work of Dr. Lozanov and the authors of this worldchanging book.

M. Tolsma

Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: someone that reviewed it said that it doesnt work, thats why its not used. that is not true, not everything that works is used. as an example, i will talk about something that is not in this book:

there are time tested methods of memorizing, which have been used for millenia. one such method is the method that was used by roman orators to remember speaches. this has been time tested, and nobody disputes their effectiveness; basically, it is a sort of advanced mnemonic, that is easy to use. read "the memory book" by harry lorayne. the system used in that book is the complete opposite of superlearning, and it works, but why isnt it used? i have no idea. that system surely works; you can name ten items, and i can resite them back to you forward and backward. surely, that is a handy skill? why doesnt the american school system use it?

they are afraid of change.

it is well know that grading does not help the educational process, and impedes it, yet most schools use them.

the system described in superlearning is brilliant, and works better than the system described by harry lorayne (which is nothing at all similar to that of superlearning, they are almost opposite, but i still would recommend harry lorayne). i have used a modified form of superlearning (that i devised myself), which is based on the same principles, minus the music, and the specially prepared tapes. i basically adhere to the breathing/relaxation system, and the 8 beat learning method, and i have had unbelievable results; i remember the word the first time, every time.

i think the reason that the method didnt work for most of the people was because they werent doing it right; its all about relaxing, and breathing, and they were all talking about taking notes and keeping track of the stories. the stories were just to convince you, not to be studied! they missed the point, and are they were being superficial.