Speed reading how does it work

Speed reading can be a great skill to have, but it comes with some tradeoffs, too. While speed reading is definitely more efficient in terms of how much time you spend reader, you might be sacrificing comprehension for speed. Like we said earlier, speed reading is a good technique to use if you only need a general idea of what a text is about.

But if you need to be able to answer specific questions about a text, speed reading may actually make things more difficult. Many speed readers are trying to consume as much information as they can in a limited amount of time. But reading can also be a hobby. Speed reading takes a lot of mental effort.

First, you have to train yourself how to speed read , which can be labor intensive. Like any new skill, it takes practice and repetition to learn the techniques well enough to use them on a regular basis. But speed reading itself can be pretty tiring , too. Our 4-step guide will put you on the right path so you can achieve your speed reading goals!

The first step involves thinking about what you want to use speed reading for. Do you plan to use speed reading for reading printed texts or eBooks and online articles? Do you learn best through apps, guided courses, or workbooks?

And how quickly do you need to develop your speed reading skills? Luckily, there are a wide variety of speed reading resources available that will fit your specific needs. There are apps, websites, online programs, workbooks, and even in-person classes you can take to develop your speed reading chops. Regardless of what type of program you choose, completing a course or training guide will introduce you to the specific techniques that are involved in speed reading.

Becoming familiar with the speed reading techniques involved in the approach you choose is the first step to learning how to speed read!

Choosing the right type of practice texts can help you develop your speed reading skills even more quickly.

Alternatively, if you want to speed read novels for school, then pick out some novels to use instead! If learning to speed read is your goal, there are some habits that speed reading experts consider to be counterproductive to successfully speed reading. In order to achieve maximum reading speed, experts suggest unlearning the following habits:.

Reading word by word. Instead, practice focusing your vision on blocks of words at one time. Saying the words internally as you read them.

We already mentioned how subvocalization can slow down your reading. Reading linearly. Train your eye to look for visual cues in the text that indicate important info, like headings, bolded text, or even the first sentence of each paragraph, where the main idea is often stated.

Unlearning these reading habits will probably feel pretty hard at first, but training yourself to look at texts differently is a key step in learning how to speed read. The next step to learning how to speed read is to practice Since earning how to speed read involves training your eyes and brain to process written texts in new ways, the best way to become comfortable with these new habits is by practicing them.

The big thing to remember with speed reading is that it really is a new skill. And like any new skill, practice makes perfect. Now that you know all about speed reading, it's time to start practicing!

Our resource guide can help you choose a learning method that fits your needs and your budget. Like we mentioned earlier, picking the right speed reading program is the first step on your journey to speed reading success. The point is to decrease distraction and focus on the specific words to increase your reading speed. Tim Ferriss has developed a speed reading technique that riffs on this idea and trains your focus more than anything else.

As you get used to the system, you speed up how fast the display shows you words. Sure, speed reading is a nice idea, and the ability to see 1, words a minute is technically possible.

As he explained in our interview:. To understand text you need to move your eyes to put the fovea on the part of the text you want to focus. When it comes to eliminating subvocalization with techniques like meta guiding, Rayner pointed out you quickly lose comprehension:. Most speed reading methods involve getting rid of subvocalization. Research shows that when you do that and the text is difficult, comprehension goes to pieces. What we know about the physiology of the retina is against the notion that you can take in two lines of text at the same time.

And finally, the digital system, RSVP, has a serious problem with working memory :. Then with RSVP, words come pretty fast, but working memory gets overloaded and words come in faster than you can deal with them. Studies —including this research by Rayner and his colleagues—show that as reading speed increases, comprehension drops. Of course, counter arguments exist.

This is hardly surprising given that they are selling an app to train people to speed read. Spritz claims that since their system allows your eyes to rest on a single point, you can read faster. In fact, in our hunt for studies backing up speed reading claims, we found most research was conducted by the companies who sell various speed reading methods. When personal computers became common, it was sold as a reading improvement tool; now there are apps.

The text is delivered at a spot on the screen, like a series of flash cards. Readers are liberated from having to decide how much time to spend on each word because that is set in advance, and saccades, regressive eye movements, line sweeps, and page turning have been eliminated.

The text is presented at about words per minute, within the skilled reading range, yet requires extra effort to understand. Every word, whether door or morrow, is displayed for the same amount of time. The reader loses control over the rate of transmission and, with it, the ability to allocate reading time intelligently. The experience feels like stalking the text rather than reading it.

In laboratory studies, college students could read with RSVP at up to words per minute with good comprehension, about triple their normal speeds. Alas, the experiments also found that subjects could only sustain reading at high speeds with good comprehension for short bursts. With longer texts, the RSVP reading experience is monotonous and exhausting. Not at all. The serious way to improve reading—how well we comprehend a text and, yes, speed and efficiency—is this apologies, Michael Pollan :.

Reading skill depends on knowledge acquired from reading. Skilled readers know more about language, including many words and structures that occur in print but not in speech. We acquire this information in the act of reading itself—not by training our eyes to rotate in opposite directions, playing brain exercise games, or breathing diaphragmatically. Just reading. As much as possible. Every time we read we update our knowledge of language.

At a conscious level we read a text for its content: because it is a story or a textbook or a joke. At a subconscious level our brains automatically register information about the structure of language; the next chapter is all about this. Developing this elaborate linguistic network requires exposure to a large sample of texts. Mostly new stuff. Knowledge of language expands through exposure to structures we do not already know.

That may mean encountering unfamiliar words or familiar words used in novel ways. It may mean reading P.