Speed Up Your Audio Learning

I was just reading Steve Pavlina's Blog on Personal Development for Smart People. I just happened to bump into it when I was looking for fancy things I can do with phone texting. While I was there I read his posting, Overclock Your Audio Learning. He was talking about how you can absorb and understand audio material at rates faster than the regular speaking rate. He said that he was able to understand and remember material that was played at 4x the regular rate. This means that he could listen to a 6 hour recording of a book in only an hour and a half. What a great savings of time.

I have experienced this with my iPod. I have listened to audio books at a faster rate. The iPod allows you to increase the rate by 25%. That means that you can listen to 1 hour 15 minute podcast in 1 hour. Not as fast as what Steve Pavilina advocates, but it's faster. Pavilina says that it he can get the turbo speeds using Windows Media Player, but I couldn't find it on my Mac version. Must just be the Windows version. If you're interested, the instructions are included in his posting that I linked up above.

This is a way to compress your learning. I wonder how it would work if you were driving while listening to this. Pavilina says that he learns even better using this method. I believe that the increased speed REQUIRES you to pay more attention. Wonder how it would work with a podcast.

I would be interested in your take on this. Those of you who are listening to podcasts for school or your own interest might try this method. Please comment on how it works for you.