Speed Reading With the Right Brain: Learn to Read Ideas Instead of Just Words

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Whether you're hitting the textbooks in philosophy class or reading the morning paper, reading can feel deadening. Train yourself to speed read to get through these tasks much faster. Reading faster does lead to less agreement, only with practice you tin can overcome some of this result.

1. 1

   Stop talking to yourself. Almost every reader "subvocalizes," or moves their throat as they imagine speaking the words.^[1] This may help the reader remember concepts, but information technology'southward also a major barrier to speed.^[2] Hither are a few means to go on this habit to a minimum:

   • Chew mucilage or hum while you lot read. This occupies muscles used to subvocalize.
   • If you movement your lips as yous read, concord a finger against them.

2. two

   Cover words you've already read. When reading, your optics often move back to earlier words. Most of the time, these are short movements that probably don't improve understanding.^[3] Utilise an index carte du jour to comprehend words right after you read them, grooming yourself non to overuse this habit.

   • These "regressions" as well happen when you've failed to understand something. If your eyes jump several words or lines back, that'due south a sign that you may demand to wearisome down.

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3. iii

   Sympathise center movements. While reading, your optics movement jerkily, stopping on some words and skipping others. Yous can only read while your eyes are stopped. If you lot learn to make fewer movements per line, you'll read a lot faster. But be conscientious – inquiry reveals limits to how much English readers can come across at once:^[4]

   • Y'all can read eight letters to the correct of your eye position, but only iv to the left. This is roughly two or three words at a time.
   • You notice letters 9–fifteen spaces to the right, but tin't read them clearly.
   • Normal readers don't process words on other lines. Preparation yourself to skip lines and withal understand them would be very difficult.

4. 4

   Railroad train your optics to make fewer movements. Your encephalon commonly decides where to motion your eyes based on how long or familiar the next words look.^[v] You can read faster if you train your optics to move to specific places on the folio instead. Attempt this exercise:

   • Place an index card over a line of text.
   • Write an X on the card, over the get-go word.
   • Write another X on the same line. Place it three words further for good understanding, five words for easy texts, or seven words to skim the main points.
   • Write more Xs at the same spacing, until you reach the stop of the line.
   • Read chop-chop as you move the index card downwardly, trying to only focus your optics just below each X.

5. 5

   Set a pace faster than you can understand. Many programs claim to increase your reading speed by training your reflexes commencement, then practicing until your brain can take hold of up. This has not been thoroughly studied. It certainly increases the speed you lot movement through the text, but you may sympathize trivial or zip. Try this if you want to aim for extreme speed reading, and yous might empathise more afterward a few days of practice. Here'due south how:

   • Move a pencil along the text. Time this and so yous tin say "one i grand" at a at-home footstep and finish just equally you accomplish the finish of a line.
   • Spend two minutes trying to read at the pace of the pencil. Even if y'all can't understand annihilation, stay focused on the text and go along your eyes moving for the entire two minutes.
   • Rest for a minute, so go even faster. Spend 3 minutes trying to read at the pace of a pen that moves across two lines every time you say "one one m".

6. 

   6

   Try RSVP software. If you lot can't reach your goals with the techniques higher up, try RSVP, or Reading Rapid Series Visual Presentation. In this approach, the phone app or computer software flashes text a single word at a time. This lets you cull any reading speed you similar. Raise information technology too high, though, and you won't exist able to retrieve a large percentage of the words.^[6] This may exist useful to become a rapid summary of a news commodity, but non when studying or reading for fun.

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1. ane

   Know when to skim. Skimming can be used to proceeds a shallow understanding of a text. Information technology tin be used to scan a newspaper for interesting material, or to get the important concepts out of a textbook in preparation for a exam. It's non a good replacement for thorough reading.

2. 2

   Read titles and department headings. Begin by but reading the chapter titles and any subheadings at the showtime of large sections. Read the headlines of each newspaper article, or the table of contents in a magazine.^[7]

3. 3

   Read the outset and stop of a department. Textbooks usually contain introductions and summaries of each chapter. For other texts, just read the first and last paragraph of a affiliate or article.

   • Y'all tin can read quickly if yous're familiar with the bailiwick, only don't try to speed read as fast as possible. Y'all're saving time by skipping most of the section, but you lot practice need to understand what yous're reading.

4. four

   Circle important words throughout the text. If you nevertheless wish to acquire more, brush your eyes quickly across the page rather than reading normally. Now that y'all know the gist of the section, you lot can pick out cardinal words that mark important areas. Stop and circle the following words:^[8]

   • Words that are repeated several times
   • The master ideas – often including words from the title or section header
   • Proper nouns
   • Italics, bold text, or underline
   • Words you don't recognize

5. 5

   Examine pictures and diagrams. These often present a lot of information without much reading required. Take a minute or two to make sure you fully empathise each diagram.

6. vi

   Read the first sentence of each paragraph, if dislocated. If you've lost track of the subject, read the starting time of each paragraph. The first one or two sentences volition teach y'all the main points.^[ix]

7. vii

   Report using your annotations. Become back and look over the words you've circled. Can you "read" these and get a general sense of what the text is about? If y'all get confused at a sure word, attempt reading a few sentences around that discussion to remind yourself of the topic. Circle additional words as y'all do this.

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1. 1

   Time your reading speed. Track your progress by timing yourself daily, or each time you attempt these exercises. Trying to shell your best speed tin provide great motivation. Hither's how to time your reading in words per infinitesimal (wpm):^[10]

   • Count the number of words on a page, or count the number in 1 line and multiply by the number of lines on the folio.
   • Set a timer for x minutes and run into how much you can read in that fourth dimension.
   • Multiply the number of pages you read by the number of words per page. Split up by ten to get your words per minute.
   • You lot can employ an online "speed reading test," but you will probably read at a dissimilar pace on a screen than on a printed page.^[xi]

2. ii

   Set yourself goals. Your reading speed should improve if yous echo ane or more of these exercises daily. Many people can double their reading speed after several weeks. Prepare yourself milestones to motivate yourself to keep practicing:

   • 200–250 words per minute is the expected reading speed for someone age 12 or older.
   • 300 wpm is the reading speed of the average college educatee.
   • At 450 wpm, you're reading equally fast as a college student skimming for the principal points. Ideally, y'all can do this with almost total comprehension.
   • At 600–700 wpm, y'all're reading equally fast as a college student scanning to observe a word. Virtually people can larn to read at this speed with about 75% of their normal comprehension.^[12]
   • At 1,000 wpm and higher up, you're reaching the level of competitive speed readers. This usually requires extreme techniques that skip over most of the text. Most people can't remember much at this speed.

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Add New Question

• Question

  How do I train my eyes to make fewer movements when I read?

  

  Read from further abroad. Then yous won't demand to brand that many movements, and yous can also take in sentences and even paragraphs at a fourth dimension.

• Question

  Can I train my brain to read more than than 17,000 wpm?

  

  Probably not. Claiming to be able to read that fast is extremely rare. In the movie, "Rain Man," the title graphic symbol could read up to 20,000 words a infinitesimal. His left eye read the left folio, right eye read the correct page, merely that is something very rare. It is not associated with neurotypical people.

• Question

  What can cause someone to no longer be able to ameliorate their reading ability?

  

  When a person has little or no desire or patience, the willingness to read and better their reading wanes. If you lot want to better, you can.

• Question

  Tin I acquire to speed read to meliorate my online reading and comprehension?

  

  Yes, it works still. However, remembering and understanding each word you read should be top priority as a reader. Make certain that you're reading at your footstep, and practicing it deliberately will help yous.

• Question

  Tin I acquire speed reading if English is my 2nd language?

  

  Most likely, yes. I can read 376 wpm and English is my 2nd language every bit well.

• Question

  Volition improving my usage and knowledge of the language in which I want to read aid with my reading speed?

  

  In my opinion it will. The more familiar you lot are with the linguistic communication, the faster y'all can read and understand the content; still, it's not only near the language - you tin can comprehend the material faster if yous are familiar with the subject of the text as well.

• Question

  Will playing music in the background aid me speed read?

  

  Playing background music will not help in this scenario. Music with lyrics will distract your brain and make it work harder. Your brain will automatically attempt to carve up the words that you are reading from those that you are listening to. The same tin be said for instrumental music, where the brain will be working to carve up the melodies from the words yous're reading. It has been scientifically proven that white dissonance aids in speeding up the performance of the brain.

• Question

  How tin can I improve my ability to empathize what I read?

  

  Just keep in mind the important phrases, and so analyze them. You lot will virtually likely brand a summary.

• Question

  Could the fact that I clothing spectacles cause me to be a irksome reader?

  

  No, equally long as you tin see, your eyesight won't impact your reading speed.

• Question

  I want to read 300 words per minute. What tin can I practice to attain my goal?

  

  If you quickly scan 50 words per 2d, 300 words a minute will be no problem. The central is to focus one-half on understanding and the other is to read whole lines at a time.

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• Take a break every 30–sixty minutes. This will keep y'all focused and reduce eye strain.

• Practice in a quiet, well-lit surround. Apply earplugs if necessary.

• Analysing and irresolute your reading can become hard because you outset focusing on your reading techniques rather than agreement the text. Make sure you're not reading too fast and you properly sympathize what you take read.

• Read important texts when you're alarm and well-rested. Some people function well in the morning, while others think meliorate in the afternoon.

• Holding the page further away volition probably not speed up reading. Most people automatically adjust to the distance that allows maximum speed.

• If you lot tin can't improve your reading speed, have your vision checked.

• "Zig zag" exercises that try to become your eye to move left-to-right-to-left probably don't work. Nearly people who railroad train this way still move their eyes left-to-right, line by line.^[13]

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• Beware of expensive speed reading products. Many of them offering like advice and exercises, or exercises non backed up by research.

• Afterward a point, reading faster will always take a trade-off in less comprehension or worse memory of the text.

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Things Yous'll Need

• Reading fabric
• Earplugs (if in a noisy area)
• Stopwatch
• Index card

Almost This Article

Article Summary X

If you lot desire to learn speed reading, train yourself non to move your throat or your lips as you lot read, since this tin can irksome you downwardly. Yous tin can besides use an alphabetize carte to embrace words you've already read so yous don't keep reading the same affair over and over. To start speed reading even faster, try reading the text more quickly than yous tin actually understand them, which may somewhen train your brain to process the words more quickly. Read on to learn tips for efficiently skimming through large portions of text!

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