Reading Faster

Being able to read faster is a skill that most people want to be able to learn in their lifetime not only for convenience and efficiency but also because of the extra knowledge and material you are able to absorb by being able to read more quickly. For many people reading is a pleasurable activity and so they have no trouble finding time during the day to sit down and relax with a favorite book but for others they may be required by a job or by school to read and absorb lots of material and that can take up huge amounts of time if you let it. Instead though you can learn to read at a much quicker rate and not only will you be able to work through all that material faster you’ll also be able to retain more of it and have a better sense of comprehension which makes study and getting through various written materials at work a lot easier and more efficient.

Most people read at a rate of about 200 words a minute which is roughly a page or a bit less each minute and the top one percent of the population reads at a rate of about 400 words per minute. If you use certain methods and practice them well many people have had tremendous success with reported rates of being able to read at over 3,000 words per minute which is quite a jump. It has been noted that even people with dyslexia or other learning disabilities can do well with these kinds of methods and that they improve retention and eliminate inefficiencies while reading all by increasing the understanding o the human visual system.

One of the most important aspects that you need to remember is that you need to minimize the number of glances and how long each glance takes per line in order to increase speed. This is because when you read your eyes don’t just move straight across the page, they move in little jumps and fixes and then take in all the text in the surrounding area. Its also very common, when you read, to have a lot of regression, or skipping back which is a form of subconscious rereading when you lose your place or miss bits. It’s also essential that you learn to use your horizontal peripheral vision span because this will increase the number of words you grab in each little “jump” by up to fifty percent - and more words grabbed means faster reading.

By using specific techniques, timing yourself while reading, using a pen or ruler to keep place on your lines, and expanding the amount of words that you have in each glance you’re able to increase your reading time substantially. Little things like this can entirely shift the way that we read and make us much more efficient and productive, allowing us to accomplish much more in the way of written materials which can bring benefits to many parts of our lives.

Learn to read more quickly and you’ll do very well at many other aspects of your life. Good luck!