A variety of learning methods are used for neural networks. Among them, the backpropagation algorithm is most widely used in such image processing, speech recognition, and pattern recognition. Despite its popularity for these application, its main problem is associated with the running time, namely, too much time is spent for the learning. This paper suggests a method which maximize the convergence speed of the learning. Such reduction in e learning time of the backpropagation algorithm is possible through an adaptive adjusting of the slope of the activation function depending on total errors, which is named as the variable slope algorithm. Moreover experimental results using this variable slope algorithm is compared against conventional backpropagation algorithm and other variations; which shows an improvement in the performance over pervious algorithms.