My parents signed me up for the Evelyn Wood speed reading course the summer before college. They thought that it might give me an edge over other students.

Speed reading took away all the joy of reading for me. Thought my comprehension was way lower but they give you tests afterward and I scored highly. But studying the tests revealed they were super simple.

The whole idea was to build your confidence and convince you it worked so you'd bring them more customers. There was no way it was going to help me in the real world classroom.

But my parents meant well, Evelyn Wood's marketing was really well done. Just found out the courses are still on the market.