Have you ever seen a commercial or watched a demonstration of speed reading and wondered if it could actually help you? For students, class reading speed is extremely important to keep up with your teachers. It is no surprise that an increased reading speed can help you get through homework assignments more quickly

Breakthrough reading speed is a skill that many people would like to possess. The newspaper can be read more quickly as well as magazines. If you can read really fast, you can get more of your books read in a shorter period of time.

Speed reading is defined as the ability to read faster than the “normal” reading speed, but is not defined in terms of how many words per minute or second. Most adults read two words per second or 120 words per minute. There have been a few speed readers who say their breakthrough reading speed is over 10,000 words per minute and even higher, but this is not documented.

All of us actually practice a technique of speed reading at times. This is called “skimming”. Skimming is the process of quickly glancing over a document scanning for keywords, phrases, or words which catch your attention. You then get a sense of what the text content is about without a whole lot of detail and of course, a low degree of comprehension. Some speed reading methods are structured around skimming techniques but with emphasis placed on the reader trying to increase comprehension at the same time.

Another speed reading technique teaches the reader to view the text in segments instead of word-by-word, which teaches their brain to process bigger “bites” of text at a time. For example, one of the exercises performed is working to see larger portions of text at a single glance, reminiscent of early military studies that used tachistoscopes for reading. This machine used a screen that flashes text at the subjects, researchers would study how much they could speed up the flash rate without losing the amount of information retained by the subject.

Additionally, breaking bad reading habits can greatly improve your reading speed. A common habit is “subvocalization”, where people silently say each word being read. This slows down reading speed greatly. When first learning to read as a child, this approach typically helps the reader by sounding out new words letter by letter, and then syllable by syllable. Later however, this approach can become a hindrance to speed reading. By training you can eliminate subvocalization and improve your reading speed.

Internal dialogue is another bad habit that slows reading. Instead of subvocalizing, the reader actually reads aloud in their head, slowing down the reading. Participants in this course are trained to turn off this internal commentary and concentrate on the whole section, then going over it. Another important thing to avoid is regression, which is the re-reading of a passage. Following these methods can be a means of speeding up reading, either in a course setting, or in a book about reading, or in software applications for the purpose.

Being able to read at speed is important for students as well as for every day life. Students must be able to read at the Class Reading Speed to keep up with the teacher. You may need to practice some speed reading techniques to develop your Course Reading Speed. Techniques such as skim reading for words or phrases that attract attention can help. Reading whole segments rather than words can help your speed, as can breaking any bad habits you’ve developed. There are techniques that help you achieve a Breakthrough Reading Speed of many hundreds of words per minute.

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