How to Practice Speed Reading

Tired of reading your philosophy textbook or your morning newspaper? You can practice speed reading to get this done much faster. Speed reading can make you understand the text less, but with practice you will overcome this problem.

Table of Contents

Speed Reading Practice

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Do not read silently. When reading texts, most people “read silently” or move their throats because they imagine they are saying what they are reading. ^{[1] X Research Sources} This can help with memory retention but is also a major barrier to increasing reading speed. ^{[2] X Research Sources}^{[3] X Trusted Source Science Direct Go to Source} Here are a few ways to help reduce this habit:

Chew gum or hum while reading. You have to use your muscles for these things so you won’t be reading silently.
If your lips move while reading, hold it back with your fingers.

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Cover what you just read. When reading, your eyes often return to the word in front. Most of those brief glances don’t help you understand more of the content. ^{[4] X Research Sources} You should use the table of contents tags to cover up what you just read, but don’t allow yourself to abuse this habit.

Reading “backward” also happens when you don’t understand something. If your eyes wander a few words or a few lines ahead, it’s a sign that you need to slow down your reading speed.

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Understand eye movements. As you read, your eyes move in a shy fashion, stopping at some words and skipping some. You can only read when your eyes stop. If you learn to stop less at each line, you will read much faster. But beware – research has put a limit on how much a person can read at a time when reading English texts: ^{[5] X Research Source}

You can read eight letters to the right from where the eye stops, but only four to the left, which means you can only read about two or three words at a time.
You see the letters with 9 – 15 spaces to the right but can’t read them clearly.
Ordinary readers do not guess the contents of the lines surrounding the location they are reading. It is very difficult to train yourself to read skipping some lines but still understand their content.

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Train your eyes to stop less often. Your brain usually decides where to stop based on the length and familiarity of the next words. ^{[6] X Research Sources} Instead, you can read faster by training your eyes to stop at certain places on the page you’re reading. Try this exercise: ^{[7] X Research Sources}

Place the table of contents tag above a line of text.
Write an X on the card, above the first word.
Write another X on the same line. Place this mark three words from the first if you want to understand the text completely, five words for simple text, or seven words if you want to skim the text to get the main idea.
Add additional Xs at the same distance to the end of the line.
Read the text quickly as you move the table of contents down, trying to focus only on the word under each X.

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Set a goal to read faster than you can understand the text. Many training programs increase your reading speed by first training your reflex, then continuing to practice until your brain can catch up with this reflex. This has not been thoroughly studied. It may help you finish reading the text faster, but you may understand little or nothing. Try this if you want to get super fast reading speed, and you can understand the text better after a few days of practice. Here’s how to practice:

Drag the pencil along the text. Time this by saying “one in one thousand” slowly and finish when you reach the end of the line with the pencil.
Take two minutes to practice reading at pencil speed. Even if you can’t understand anything, keep focusing on the text and practice eye movement for two minutes.
You can rest for a minute, then practice moving your eyes even faster. Take three minutes to practice reading at the speed of a pencil and move your eyes over two lines after saying “one in a thousand” each time.

Try using RSVP software. If you don’t hit the target with the tips above, try RSVP or Reading Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (It quickly shows words on the screen and helps you read faster). In this way, the phone app or computer software illuminates the text one word at a time. It allows you to choose to read at any speed you want. However, if you set the speed too high, you won’t be able to remember most of the words. ^{[8] X Research Sources} This can be useful when you want to quickly read a newsletter, but not when you are reading text for research or entertainment.

Skim the text

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Know when to skim. You can skim when you want to get a glimpse of the text. You can use this reading when you skim a newspaper for interesting information or want to grasp important concepts in a textbook to prepare for an exam. However, you should not always skim, in many cases you need to read carefully.

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Read the title and title of each section. Start by reading only chapter titles and subtitles at the beginning of major sections. Read the title of each bulletin or the table of contents of a journal. ^{[9] X Research Source}

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Read the opening and closing paragraphs of each section. Textbooks usually have an introduction and summary at each chapter. For other texts, you only need to read the first and last paragraphs of each chapter or article.

You can read quickly if you encounter familiar topics, but don’t try to read as fast as possible. You can save time by skimming most sections, but you really need to understand what you’re reading.

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Circle the important words from beginning to end of the text. If you want to read even faster, scan the text quickly instead of reading normally. Once you know the gist of that section, you can highlight the key word that contains the important content. Stop and circle the words below: ^{[10] X Research Sources}

Repeated words
Main ideas – often contain words in titles or section titles
Proper noun
Words in italics, bold or underlined
Words you don’t understand

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Study pictures and charts. You can get a lot of information with pictures and charts without having to read much. Take a minute or two to make sure you understand each chart.

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Read the first sentence of each paragraph if you are confused about the content of the text. If you don’t know the topic of the text, read the opening sentence in each paragraph. An opening sentence or two will show you the main ideas. ^{[11] X Research Source}

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Learn with annotations. Go back and quickly check the words you just circled. Can you “read” these words and have a general idea of what the text is about? If you are confused with certain words, try reading a few sentences around the word to recall the content. Circle a few more words you think are needed.

Read Speed Measurement

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Measure your reading speed. Track your progress by measuring your reading speed daily or every time you practice. Trying to get past your current best speed can be a huge motivator to try harder. Here’s how to measure your reading speed in words per minute (wpm): ^{[12] X Research Source}

Count words on a page or count words on a line and multiply by the number of lines on a page.
Set the timer for ten minutes and see how many words you can read in that time.
Multiply the number of pages you read by the number of words on each page. Divide that result by ten to get the number of words you read in one minute.
You can take the “speed reading test” online, but remember that your reading speed may be different for text on your computer screen and printed text. ^{[13] X Trusted Source PubMed Central Go to Source}

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Set goals. Your reading speed may improve if you repeat one or more of the above exercises daily. Many people can double their reading speed after a few weeks. Set yourself a milestone to motivate yourself to practice regularly:

200 – 250 words per minute is a typical reading speed for people 12 years of age and older. ^{[14] X Research Source}
300 words per minute is the average reading speed of a college student.
At 450 words per minute, you’re reading as fast as a college student skimming text for main ideas. In theory you could read at this speed and still understand most of the text.
At 600 – 700 words per minute you are reading at the speed of a college student skimming for words. Most people can practice reading at this rate and can understand about 75% of the content compared to normal reading. ^{[15] X Research Source}
At 1,000 words per minute or more, you read so fast you could take the speed reading test. This requires skilled technique that can skim through most text. Most people don’t remember much when reading at this speed.

Advice

Take a break after 30 to 60 minutes of continuous reading. This will help you stay focused and help reduce eye strain.
Read in a quiet and well-lit place. Use earplugs if necessary.
Analyzing and changing your reading can be harder when you start focusing on reading techniques rather than reading comprehension of the text. Make sure you don’t read too fast and can understand what you just read.
If you can’t improve your reading speed, check your vision again.
Read important texts when you are awake and relaxed. Some people work well in the morning while some are wiser in the afternoon. ^{[16] X Research Source}
You may not be able to read quickly if the text is too far away. Most people automatically adjust to the distance they can read fastest. ^{[17] X Research Source}
The exercises “zig zag” to train the eye to move from left to right, from right to left may not be effective. Most people who have done this exercise still move their eyes from left to right, line by line. ^{[18] X Research Sources}

Warning

There is always a trade-off, you may read faster but in return you will understand or remember less text.
Beware of expensive speed reading products. Most of these products offer similar advice and exercises, or have not been proven effective by research.

Things you need

Reading material
Earplugs (if you’re in a noisy place)
Stopwatch
Table of Contents Card

Steps