Concentration and retention Nine Out of Ten Agree

Ask any ten people what they consider to be their biggest problem in reading and nine out of the ten will answer: concentration. This apparent inability to concentrate is universal and widespread. The second biggest problem, you'll discover, is remembering. Most readers complain that they can't remember what they've read five minutes after they've read it. In a sense they liken themselves to the patient who complained to his psychiatrist, "I have a terrible problem, doctor; I just can't remember a thing. It's awful." The doctor's comment was, "That's really too bad. How long have you had this problem?" To which the patient replied, "What problem?" Although we joke about it, these two skills, concentrating and remembering, are lacking among students and adults alike. And, although we speak of two problems, they are really just opposite sides of the same coin, as we'll see later. For the time being let's consider each separately.