33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
You are being taken for a ride., January 18, 2004
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!
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Left Overs of Soviet Propaganda, June 18, 2001
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!!!!
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Inspired Dizzy Nonsense, November 2, 2004
This review is from: Super-Learning (Mass Market Paperback)
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.
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