How To Improve Reading Speed With #1 Effective Methods?
Are you the one who loves reading but don’t have quite enough time to read a lot? Is there any deadline haunting you and forcing you to read faster? Or do you want to know how to increase reading speed and comprehension?
Then you have come across the right place. In this article, you would know about how to improve reading speed without compromising on information.
The average reading speed at which a human can read and also comprehend is at the rate of 200-300 words per minute. However, to your astonishment you can double this rate by mastering the skill of speed reading.
It is an effective and time-saving skill which involves the process of recognizing the whole document all at once without reading each word individually.
How To Improve Reading Speed?
Speed reading is necessary when you have to go through any information quickly.
In common there are two speed reading techniques, which can help you in learning how to improve reading speed. They are –
- Skimming and scanning
- Meta guiding
Skimming And Scanning
Time is precious! Isn’t it?
You can save laborious hours on reading using this simple speed reading technique of skimming and scanning.
The method of focusing on the main ideas of a text and getting the general overview is called skimming.
You just have to move your eyes rapidly thorough the lines instead of reading every word. Skimming, which is also known as bird’s eye view, would be of great help when you have to preview or review a very long content.
The major drawback is that when you skim a text you may miss upon the important points or wouldn’t be able to understand the exact meaning portrayed in the text.
Scanning is a procedure of going through the text quickly based on the keywords to find specific information.
It is considered as a part of skimming. So, when you are looking out for some particular facts in a material, first you need to skim it to make sure whether it contains the required facts or not.
The next step is to scan for the required word or sentence and to carefully read the text surrounding it. Sometimes, you would get tired of scanning lengthy documents and not getting the needed information.
Meta Guiding
Yet another easy to use speed reading technique is Meta guiding or the pointer method.
In this method, you have to make use of your finger or a pen as pointer and move it along the line of the text as you read.
You have to move the pointer a little faster and focus speed reading to catch up with it, instead of moving it slowly as you read. However, you can slow down the pointer when you can’t find the comprehension of the text.
Speed Reading Comprehension
It is crucial for a person to strike the right balance between speed reading and comprehension. If you just keep reading fast without understanding the context, then it would be of no use.
One cannot sacrifice on comprehension while speed reading. This is why speed reading and comprehension must go together. Gaining more knowledge is key for success. So next time when you are speed reading a document do concentrate on the comprehension too.
Speed Reading Tips And Tricks
Don’t know how to improve reading speed? Not to worry, for your rescue here are some of the speed reading tips and tricks.
Avoid Sub Vocalization
The process of speaking up each word in mind that we read is called sub vocalization.
It is the biggest obstacle that reduces your reading speed as you can go only as fast as you speak and hence it’s better to avoid it.
Listening to music or chewing on gum could help you to keep this distraction at bay.
Read Multiple Words Together
It is possible for a person to read several words at a time. So, when you are working on how to improve reading speed? Group words and read them together rather than reading them individually.
Practice makes a man perfect: Practice speed reading more and more to train yourself and one day you would be astonished to notice that your reading speed has been increased.
Take Up Reading Speed Test
You could find your average reading speed by tracking down the number of words you could read in a minute. Keep challenging yourself to improve your speed.
However, there are various websites that offer reading speed test that you could take up regularly to track your progress.
Improve Vocabulary
When you are reading, and you come across a word unknown to you, then you can’t just skip the word, you have to look for its meaning.
This slows down your speed and stands as an obstacle when you’re on your journey to practice speed reading. Therefore, improving vocabulary would be of great help in learning how to read English fast.
Every coin has two sides. Likewise, though speed reading is of great use but also comes along with some drawbacks too. Now let us have a look at the advantages and disadvantages of speed reading.
Advantages Of Speed Reading
The most important benefit of speed reading is that, you could save a lot of your precious time. Especially when you have a pile of work and the clock keeps ticking; it could be your lifesaver.
Since you save time by speed reading you would be able to increase your reading capacity. Here is a speed reading example, normally if your average reading speed pages per hour is 7 then you could gradually increase it to 9 or 10 by reading it faster.
By this way, you could complete more and more books.
As you read more you gain more knowledge which would be beneficial for you in all aspects of life.
Through skimming, you get an overall idea of the text which in turn helps you to decide whether it is worth reading. Hence, it is very much useful in research purposes.
Disadvantages Of Speed Reading
While reading, it is crucial to understand what you read.
Sometimes because of speed reading you may find it difficult to comprehend the text, and you may even misunderstand the meaning of the text. Thus, this stands as a major drawback.
Speed reading is not for you, if you read for pleasure or to enjoy what you read. Since it requires a lot of effort and concentration, it could be exhausting.
There are high chances that you may miss the fundamental details while trying to read faster.
One can learn the skill of speed reading by practicing these few speed reading exercises.
- Have a control on eye movements: To increase reading speed, you have to practice moving your eyes faster through the lines and to reduce eye fixations on a single word.
- Focus more to reduce rereading: enhance your concentration skills and try to avoid rereading words on the document as it could reduce your speed. Meta guiding method has proven to be beneficial to serve the purpose.
- Set up goals: at present, if you are reading at the speed of 200 words per minute, then set your goal to read 300 words per minute and gradually increase it as you achieve. This keeps you motivated to practice more.
Speed reading can help in becoming more productive, but it’s a tough task to master this skill.
Only through constant practice a person can increase their reading speed. This article on how to improve reading speed would definitely help you, not only to read faster but also to understand better while speed reading.
If you wish to know more about any of such topics, let us know below. Good day 🙂
💯💯
Thank You