A reading list that seems a mile long for each class, and a semester to get it all done: What's a student to do?

Aaron Hall '99 did this: He signed up for the Harvard Course in Reading and Study Strategies, a seminar offered by the Bureau of Study Counsel that teaches students how to improve their reading and comprehension skills.

Hall took the course in the fall of his freshman year, and the following fall he was asked to assist the instructor.

"I took the course for reading comprehension," explained Hall, a Mather House resident and psychology concentrator from Dunlap, Calif. "The amount of reading for a single class at Harvard is a lot more than anyone is used to at high school."

The course, which started in the 1940s, was the precursor to the Evelyn Woods speed reading course, according to Bureau Director Charles Ducey.

The 14-day program, which draws about 200 to 300 students a year, introduces new ways of reading, such as deciding what needs to be read, reading with a question in mind, discerning the implicit structure of expository text, and teaching oneself to keep eyes moving forward, not back, over a text.

This is done, in part, through the use of new, upgraded teaching tools such as a computer-based videodisk text that mimics the experience of reading at varying speeds, from 180 words to more than 600 words per minute. The new technology will be debuting this fall.

The course, which is taught by the Bureau staff five times a year and is subsidized for students, can be frustrating, and some students become discouraged in their efforts to keep up with the films.

"Around day ten is the frustration point," Hall said. "It's very fast. There is a daily quiz, and my scores didn't go up -- but my speed did. What they expect you to get out of the course is a different mindset about how to approach your work."

This fall, the Harvard Course in Reading and Study Strategies will be offered Oct. 6-24, from 8 to 9 a.m., and Oct. 20-Nov. 6, from 4 to 5 p.m. Please contact the Bureau of Study Counsel at 495-2581 for more information.