Buzz
Want to enhance your reading speed? Reading faster isn’t about skimming through books or materials without understanding or enjoying the content. Instead, it’s about learning to read more quickly while still fully grasping and engaging with the information in a meaningful way. Start with Step 1 below.
Steps
Improving Reading Progress
Practice daily. Mastering the skills needed to boost your reading speed isn’t easy, so you’ll need to practice these skills every day until they become second nature. Just 15 to 20 minutes of daily practice can make a significant difference in your reading speed.
- Improving reading speed takes time because it’s essentially learning to read in a completely new way. Remember, it took you years to learn to read as a child, so be patient with yourself during this process.
- A great way to track your progress is by timing yourself regularly. Set a specific time limit and count how many words you can read per minute. The more you practice, the more your words-per-minute count will increase.
Start with simple texts. To begin practicing for increased reading speed, a simple article is an ideal choice – it could be one you enjoy or find meaningful.
- Materials like travel books or celebrity memoirs are great options. Starting with a book packed with complex information, such as a physics textbook, might discourage you.
- As your skills improve and you learn to identify key points in a text, you’ll be better equipped to tackle longer and more complex materials. Over time, you’ll develop techniques that work best for you and learn to extract essential information efficiently.
Use an index card or your finger to set the pace. Using your finger, a pen, or an index card to guide your reading is an excellent strategy. These tools act as pointers, helping you avoid misreading or backtracking, and they offer additional benefits.
- By moving the pointer swiftly across the lines and down the page, you can set your desired reading speed, as your eyes will naturally follow the pointer’s movement.
- Think of your eyes as magnets drawn to the pointer’s motion – wherever the pointer goes, your eyes will follow!
Read for longer periods to improve focus. Your brain needs time to settle into a reading rhythm, especially after engaging in other intense activities. Aim to read for at least 15 minutes at a time to give your brain enough time to adjust and focus.
- You’ll gradually improve your concentration through consistent practice.
- Take breaks when necessary to avoid mental fatigue.
Shift your mindset about reading. Beyond applying specific techniques to increase reading speed, it’s equally important to reflect on your attitude toward reading.
- Instead of viewing reading as a chore or obligation, see it as an opportunity – for entertainment, learning, and broadening your perspective.
- The subject matter doesn’t matter – whether it’s a book on probability or the history of mining in Colorado – approaching it with an open mind and a willingness to learn will make the process of improving your reading speed more enjoyable and effective.
Know when to slow down. While reading quickly has its benefits, it’s equally important to recognize when to slow down and read carefully to fully understand the material.
- Skimming is counterproductive if it prevents you from comprehending and retaining useful information. One of the most crucial skills to develop is knowing when to read at a slower pace.
- Additionally, certain types of texts should never be skimmed or read too quickly. Examples include fiction, classic literature, poetry, and plays. These works are artistic and creative, with every word chosen deliberately. Reading them too quickly would cause you to miss much of their value.
Changing Bad Habits
Reduce subvocalization. When reading, some people tend to pronounce words – either by silently mouthing them or feeling the sound of the words in their heads. This phenomenon, known as subvocalization, is one of the major factors affecting your reading speed.
- While pronouncing each word aloud is an effective way to teach children to read, it’s counterproductive for increasing reading speed. Subvocalization limits your reading speed to the pace at which you can pronounce words, which is relatively slow.
- By eliminating subvocalization, you can read two to three times faster than before. You can reduce this habit by keeping your mouth busy, such as chewing gum, humming, or engaging in any activity that distracts your mouth from forming words. Eliminating internal subvocalization is slightly more challenging, but it can be achieved through focus, practice, and mindfulness techniques.
Avoid reading word by word. Another habit that significantly slows your reading speed is focusing on individual words. Instead, try to read in groups or chunks of words.
- For example, inexperienced readers might read the phrase “the horse is in the barn” as “the” + “horse” + “is” + “in” + “the” + “barn,” processing each word separately. However, our brains have an incredible ability to fill in gaps, so if you train your brain to process the phrase “the horse is in the barn” as a single piece of information with two key elements – “horse” and “barn” – your brain will fill in the rest. This allows you to understand the full meaning of a passage with just 50% of the words, significantly boosting your reading speed.
Overcome inefficient eye movements. When children learn to read, they are often taught to look at each word before moving to the next. However, our eyes can see four to five words at once, so focusing on individual words makes reading less efficient.
- Try to relax your facial muscles and gaze while reading – this will help you see multiple words at once. Aim to read groups of at least four to five words before moving to the next group.
- Additionally, use your peripheral vision while reading. Peripheral vision allows you to read entire sentences without shifting your gaze, saving you time.
Minimize regression. Regression is the habit of rereading a sentence two or three times, whether intentionally or not. This not only wastes time but also doesn’t improve your understanding of the material.
- Some readers regress because they lose track of where they are, so they return to the beginning of a paragraph or page to find their place. You can avoid this by using a pointer, such as your finger, a pen, or a bookmark, to guide your reading.
- Others regress because they feel they didn’t grasp the meaning of a passage on the first read. To prevent this, ensure you are fully focused during the initial read – treat reading as an active rather than passive activity. Stay engaged from the start to avoid the need for rereading.
- Additionally, determine which information truly requires rereading – if you’ve grasped the main idea of a sentence or paragraph (even if you don’t understand every word), rereading is a waste of time.
Minimize distractions. Many people read slowly simply because the environment they choose for reading is unsuitable. To read faster while still absorbing the material, you need to eliminate distractions from both your surroundings and yourself.
- Avoid reading in noisy places, such as where people are talking, or the TV or radio is on. This will distract you and may cause you to reread certain passages or subvocalize to make reading easier. Instead, read in quiet spaces, focus solely on reading, and avoid multitasking.
- Internal distractions, like thinking about work issues or what to have for dinner, also need to be addressed. Quieting your inner monologue can be challenging – it requires genuine focus – but if you can achieve it, your reading speed will improve significantly.
Changing How You Read
Preview the material. One of the most effective ways to increase reading speed is to skim through the material before diving in. This gives you an initial sense of the content and helps you determine whether you need to read every word.
- Preview by reading the first and last paragraphs of the text, as well as the first sentence of each paragraph.
- Pay attention to headings, bullet points, and keywords. While these don’t provide complete information, they help identify the most important sections to focus on and which parts you can skip.
- This technique is particularly useful when tackling long, complex, or unfamiliar texts.
Identify the most important words. Another strategy is to skim the text and pick out key terms. This allows you to grasp the main points without wasting time on minor details.
- For example, in the sentence “the fearsome lion is stealthily hunting its prey – the antelope – which remains unaware,” you don’t need to read every word to understand the core idea. By skimming, you’ll notice phrases like “lion – hunting – antelope,” which convey the full meaning. This approach saves half the time required to read the entire sentence while still capturing most of the information. It works best for short, simple texts like newspaper or magazine articles.
Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph. If you’re reading a book, article, or report solely for informational purposes, focusing on the first and last sentences of each paragraph can be highly effective, especially if you’re already familiar with some of the content.
- Many non-fiction works tend to repeat themselves or include lengthy explanations of simple concepts. If you already understand the concept, there’s no need to read every line in the paragraph.
- This method also applies to journalistic works – if your goal is to get a general overview, you’ll find that reading the first and last sentences provides a significant amount of information.
Skip sections you already know. If you’re aiming to improve your reading speed, get comfortable with skipping over information you’re already familiar with, as reading these parts only adds marginally to what you already know.
- You can identify worthwhile sections by skimming for keywords or reading the first sentence of each paragraph. These methods provide an overview of the content and help you decide whether to invest time in it.
- This approach works even for texts you’re not particularly interested in. For instance, when reading memoirs or historical documents, you can skip sections that don’t engage you. While this might go against a reader’s natural instincts, it saves time and keeps you interested in the material.
- Don’t feel guilty about abandoning a book you don’t enjoy or find unhelpful. Many books are poorly written and fail to explain complex concepts effectively. Try reading 10% of a book, and if it doesn’t resonate with you, move on to another. This saves time and benefits you in the long run.
Memorize the most important information. One challenge readers face when starting to read faster is difficulty absorbing and retaining what they’ve read. Beyond reading efficiently and staying focused, there are specific techniques you can try.
- Connect concepts in the book to what you already know. Linking complex ideas to your personal experiences, memories, or emotions makes information easier to grasp. For example, associating the French word “heureux” (meaning happy) with a cherished memory helps you remember it.
- Highlight key information and write summaries. Use a highlighter (or fold page corners) to mark important concepts or ideas. After finishing, review the highlighted sections and summarize the book in 200 to 300 words based on these key points. This creates a reference for later use and reinforces your memory of the ideas.
Tips
- Children often make mistakes when learning to read, so they need to read slowly and steadily. Don’t rush this process, as it lays the foundation for strong reading skills. If you want to teach a child to read faster, do so gradually. If it becomes a chore, they may lose their love for reading altogether. Once your child has a solid vocabulary and enjoys reading, you can consider helping them improve their reading speed using the methods mentioned above.
