How to increase the popularity of reading. Determination of initial speed. At the speed reading course from “Shaleniy Ravlik” you

Each of us reads differently. Someone is taking their time, prolonging the pleasure, pronouncing the words to themselves. Some people are voracious, insatiable, practically “swallowing” books and constantly updating their library. A person’s reading speed is determined by many factors - from the activity of mental processes and character to the characteristics of thinking.

But not everyone knows that this speed can be increased by 2-3 times.

We'll tell you how to do it.

How to determine initial reading speed - test

Most often used to determine reading speed with the following formula:

Q (number of characters in the text, without spaces) divided by T (number of minutes spent reading) and multiplied by K (comprehension coefficient, that is, assimilation of the text read) = V (characters/min).

Reading time is, of course, measured using a stopwatch.

As for the meaningfulness of reading, this coefficient is determined through an analysis of the answers received to 10 questions about the text. For all 10 correct answers, K is equal to 1, for 8 correct answers, K = 0, etc.

For example , you spent 4 minutes reading a text of 3000 characters, but only gave 6 correct answers. In this case, your reading speed will be calculated according to the following formula:

V = (3000: 4)x0.6 = 450 zn/min. Or about 75 words/min., considering that the average number of letters in a word is 6.

Speed ​​standards:

1. Less than 900 cpm: Low speed.
2. 1500 cpm: average speed.
3. 3300 cpm: high speed.
4. More than 3300 cpm: very high.

According to research, the highest speed that allows you to fully comprehend a text is 6000 characters/min.

Higher speed is possible, but only when reading – “scanning”, without understanding and assimilating what you read.

What's an even easier way to test your book-swallowing speed?

Let's do without formulas! We copy the text of any selected article, highlight that part of it that consists of 500 words, turn on the stopwatch and... let's go! True, we do not read “racing,” but thoughtfully and as usual.

Have you read it? Now look at the stopwatch and We study the indicators:

• Less than 200 wpm: low speed. Most likely, you accompany your reading by mentally pronouncing each word. And you probably don't even notice how your lips move. There is nothing scary about this. Except you spend a lot of time reading.
• 200-300 words/min: average speed.
• 300-450 w/min: high speed. You read quickly (and probably a lot), without mentally speaking the words, and even having time to think about what you read. Excellent result.
• More than 450 words/min: your indicator is "adjusted". That is, when reading, you consciously (or maybe unconsciously) use techniques or techniques to increase your reading speed.

Preparing for exercises to increase reading speed - what will you need?

By improving your reading speed using certain techniques, you will not only improve your reading efficiency, but also improve your memory performance.

And before moving directly to the study of technology, you should prepare as thoroughly as possible to the exercises.

1. Prepare pen, stopwatch and any book with a number of pages of more than 200.
2. Take care so you don't get distracted within 20 minutes of training.
3. Take care of book holders.

7 exercises to increase your reading speed

A human life is not enough to master all the masterpieces of world literature. But is it possible to try?

Attention all book devourers who don't have enough time in the day - the best exercises to improve your reading technique!

Method 1. Hands are your helpers!

Physical participation in the reading process, oddly enough, also helps increase speed.

How and why?

The human brain is programmed to record movements. By using your hand or even a regular index card when reading, you create movement on the book page and automatically increase concentration.

1. Pointer finger. With this “pointer” you easily and naturally, exclusively vertically, move along the book page at a speed slightly faster than the movement of your eyes. The pace of the pointer cannot be changed - it must be constant and stable, without returning the finger to the already read text and without stopping. Where exactly to point with the “pointer” does not really matter. Either in the center of the text, or along the side margin.
2. Divider card. Or a blank piece of paper, folded in half for convenience. Size - about 7.5x13 cm. The main thing is that the sheet is monochromatic, and it is convenient for you to hold and move it with one hand. Place the card above the line you are reading. It is from above, not from below! In this way, you increase attentiveness, eliminating the possibility of returning to the lines you read.

Method 2. Developing peripheral vision

Your main tool (or one of) in speed reading is your peripheral vision. With its help, instead of just a few letters, you can read a word or even a whole line. Side vision training is carried out by working with the well-known Schulte table.

What is it and how to train?

Table is a field of 25 squares, each of which contains a number. All numbers (approx. - from 1 to 25) are arranged in random order.

Task: looking only at the central square, find all these numbers in descending order (or in ascending order).

How to train? You can print the table for yourself on paper and use a timer. Or you can train on the Internet (this is much easier) - there are enough similar services on the Internet.

Having mastered the “5 by 5” diachrome table, move on to more complicated versions with colored fields and beyond.

Method 3. Unlearning subvocalization

This is one of the key principles of speed reading. “Subvocalization” refers to lip/tongue movements and mental pronunciation of words while reading.

Why does it interfere with reading?

The average number of words pronounced by a person per minute is 180. As reading speed increases, pronunciation of words becomes difficult, and subvocalization becomes an obstacle to learning a new skill.

How to stop saying words to yourself?

To do this, while reading...

• We clamp the tip of a pencil (or other object) with our teeth.
• We press our tongue to the roof of our mouth.
• Place the finger of your free hand on your lips.
• We count to ourselves from 0 to 10.
• We mentally recite poems or tongue twisters.
• We put quiet music in the background and tap out a melody with a pencil.

Method 4. There is no turning back!

Returning to an already read text (note: regression) and rereading lines already completed increases the time it takes to read the text by 30 percent.

This can happen involuntarily, automatically - for example, if you are distracted by an extraneous sound and you do not have time to learn a few words. Or to re-read a too informative phrase that you did not understand (or did not have time to understand due to the high reading speed).

How to unlearn regressions?

• Use the card, blocking access to the material you read.
• Use appropriate programs on the Internet (for example, Best Reader).
• Use a pointer finger.
• Train your willpower and remember more often that below in the text you will most likely fill in all the information gaps you made earlier.

Method 5. Let's concentrate

It is clear that at high speeds the quality of material assimilation noticeably decreases. But, firstly, this is only at first, until you have mastered the technique of speed reading, and secondly, you can pick up speed at first without losing the quality of reading.

Special exercises will help with this:

1. Using multi-colored markers, write the names of the colors on a piece of paper in a chaotic order. Write the word “red” in yellow, “green” in black, etc. Put the sheet away on the table for a day. Then take it out and, stopping your finger on one word or another, quickly name the color of the ink.
2. Take a sheet and paper. We focus on some subject. For example, on that ficus in the pot. And don’t be distracted by extraneous thoughts for at least 3-4 minutes. That is, we only think about this ficus! If an extraneous thought nevertheless creeps in, we put a “notch” on the sheet and again focus on the ficus. We train until you are left with a blank slate after the exercise.
3. We count while reading. How? Just. While reading, we count every word in the text. Of course, only mentally and without various “helpers” in the form of tapping your foot, bending your fingers, etc. The exercise takes 3-4 minutes. After finishing it, be sure to check yourself - just count the words without trying to read them.

Practice until the number of words obtained in the reading process is equal to what you actually have.

Method 6. Learning to recognize “key” words and discard unnecessary ones

When looking at a painting, you don’t ask yourself what the artist was trying to say. You just look and understand everything. Moreover, your gaze covers the whole picture at once, and not individual details.

A similar “scheme” is used here. You must learn to snatch signal, keywords from a line and cut off all unnecessary ones. Every word that does not carry a special meaning, used “for beauty” or a bunch of phrases in the text, is cut off, skipped, ignored.

Focus on keywords , carrying the main information load.

Method 7. Determining paragraph topics

How to train?

Take any book, read one of the paragraphs and try to quickly determine the topic. Next, take 5 minutes and determine the topics of the maximum number of paragraphs in this short period. The minimum number of identified topics per minute is 5.

And a couple more tips for the road:

• Reduce the length of time you pause on each line.
• Train skills individually. Don't try to cover all the techniques at once.
• Stop running your eyes along the line - take in the entire line at once.

Is the reading speed test already ideal, or do you need to train more?

You have been working on yourself for a week (or even a month). It's time to check whether you have achieved the speed you expected, or whether you need to train further.

Set the timer for 1 minute and start reading at the maximum speed that is now possible without losing the quality of information assimilation. We write down the result and compare it with the very first one.

If you didn’t “fiddle” with your training, the result will surprise you.

There certainly is. But the main thing remains the quality of the acquired information. What's the point of devouring books if, after reading, nothing remains in your memory except the numbers from the stopwatch.

For further training, you can use both already learned techniques and new ones. Fortunately, there is no shortage of them today. Just look into the search engine and enter the appropriate query.

Practice on different types of text:

• On torn and rotating texts.
• On texts that lack vowels.
• Reading from bottom to top and backwards.
• On deconcentration and expansion of the angle of vision.
• When reading, first the second word, then the first. Then the fourth, then the third.
• On reading "diagonally". Only the most persistent can master this technique.
• On reading the first word in its natural form, and the second - vice versa.
• On reading only the 2nd half of the words in a line, completely ignoring the 1st and determining this boundary by eye.
• On reading “noisy” texts. That is, texts that are difficult to read due to the presence of drawings, intersecting letters, lines, shading, etc.
• On reading texts turned upside down.
• On reading “through the word.” That is, skipping over one word.
• On reading words that remain visible when some kind of stencil is applied to the page. For example, pyramids or Christmas trees. Having read everything that the pyramid could not hide, you should re-read the text and find out whether you understood the meaning correctly.
• On reading only those 2-3 words that are in the middle of the line. We read the remaining words (right and left) with peripheral vision.

Practice daily. Even 15 minutes of practice a day will help you significantly increase your reading speed.

True, then you will have to learn to slow down this pace when you want to quietly rustle the pages of your favorite book while lying in a hammock.
But this is a completely different story...

Have you used exercises to improve your reading speed? Was the ability to read quickly useful in later life? Share your experience in the comments below!

Many parents do not understand why reading technique should be tested in elementary school. A child in first grade reads – already doing well! And then there's the speed test. And the further you go (to the fifth grade), the more stringent the requirements become.

As you know, reading technique is tested twice during the school year: in the first and second half of the year. If a student does not meet the established standards for reading speed, the grade when checking this indicator is reduced. As a result, the student gets upset, parents worry, and for good reason: a child with a low reading speed learns the educational material more slowly, while he is reading the terms of the problem, his classmates are already starting to solve the task. Therefore, reading speed is a very important aspect of academic performance, and the task of parents is to help their child learn to read quickly.

Reading technique

Yes, reading is not easy for some children, since memory, imagination, visual and auditory perception are involved in this process. And, nevertheless, you need to strive to teach your child to read quickly.

And, by the way, when testing reading technique, not only speed is taken into account. During this “procedure” the teacher finds out how much the child understood what he read; were there any mistakes; Was the text read with expression? In addition, among the criteria for checking reading technique there is such an indicator as reading method: that is, the child read syllables or the entire word; how smoothly he managed to do it.

Therefore, parents of first-graders (who are not given grades in the first half of the year) should not “get hung up” on reading speed. Read more with your child, broaden his horizons, introduce him to new words, expand his vocabulary, and the results will come.

Reading speed

And yet, since reading speed affects academic performance in general and not only in primary school, appropriate standards have been developed that determine how many words per minute a primary school student should read. Namely:

• in first grade - from 25 words per minute;
• in the second - from 50 words;
• in third grade – from 75;
• in the fourth – from 95.

Upon completion of primary school, a child should ideally be able to read at a speed of 120-150 words per minute. This is just very close to the speed of speech.

However, dear parents, pay attention to an important aspect: a child will not read faster than he speaks if he is slow in life and thinks for a long time before answering a question. In this case, he, of course, will read slower. But there's nothing wrong with that. The main thing is that your child reads consciously.

Why does a child read slowly?

There are other reasons, besides the innate pace of activity, as a result of which a child’s reading technique is “lame”. The most common of them are:

• the child fails to concentrate (by the end of the sentence he forgets what happened at the beginning);
• insufficient size of the operational field of vision (concentrates on 2-3 letters, which he reads without seeing the whole word);
• weak vocabulary;
• problems with the articulatory system and diction;
• lack of interest in reading;
• visual regression (returns with the eyes to words that have already been read);
• difficult text (not for age).

Read together

To increase your child’s reading speed, you can and should practice, and do it systematically. And parents here will have to make some efforts, show persistence, perhaps overcome their own laziness, because they need to study every day, but the noble goal - the further development of the child - is worth it. Do everything with love and your activities will not push your child away from reading, but, on the contrary, will interest him.

Be creative, come up with various tricks so that your child loves to read and does not do it “under pressure.” For example, write him notes asking him to respond in writing. If there are younger children in the family, let your student read to them - both communication and training. When reading your favorite story at night, invite your child to read part of the text independently. Praise him, even if the reading is so-so. Ask your child to retell what he read and answer questions. This is also a kind of activity that your child doesn’t even know about and therefore won’t be stubborn.

Let you have children's literature, colorful magazines, books, and any printed materials that may be of interest to your young explorer in an accessible place. A children's encyclopedia can be very useful. As a rule, there are bright pictures, the text is presented in an accessible manner and is divided into small blocks. You can play with your child by asking questions on various topics from this book, thus attracting him to read.

“It’s hard to learn, it’s easy to fight”

Is it possible to teach a child to read faster? Quite. For this purpose, various techniques have been developed, including educational games. You can get acquainted with them on the IQClub Internet service. But to achieve results, you need to be patient. Mom and dad will have to put aside some of their business for a while and devote their free time to developing the child’s reading speed. But at the same time, you should not scold him if the words are read incorrectly; there is no need to punish your child by reading: “you won’t go for a walk if you don’t read 60 words per minute”...; Don’t threaten your student with a “belt.” Instead, focus your energy on instilling a love of reading in your little child prodigy.

Exercise 15-30 minutes a day. Try to make the lesson interesting so that the child does not get tired, but reads with pleasure. If you see that the child is not in the mood, he is nervous, worried, it is better to reschedule the lesson.

Exercises at home

“
In the words of Joseph Addison, “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” Continuing this thought, we can say that exercises to increase reading speed are no less important.

First of all, parents need to find out what actually affects their child’s reading speed, and then begin “training” to eliminate the problem.

And since every workout begins with a warm-up, this rule applies here too.

Start your home lesson by pronouncing vowels, consonants, and their combinations.

• For example: Aouyie, aueioy, oaueey; w-s-z-sh, b-p-d-t, w-g-k-sh; va-va, lu-lu, ma-mya;
• Read any tongue twisters you know: a Greek was driving across the river...; Sasha was walking along the highway...

When performing these exercises, make sure that your child pronounces letters and words clearly. Warm-up will help prepare your speech apparatus for reading.

There is also articulatory gymnastics, which involves the tongue and lips. It is performed in front of a mirror.

• It is useful to read at different paces: sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly (the main thing is clearly).
• Try to read with extraneous sounds (this will teach you to concentrate).
• Practice reading “through the grid” (to develop the ability to guess the meaning, in this case there is no need to read the word to the end - anticipation).

• Alternate familiar/unfamiliar text (after reading a familiar text several times, the reading speed increases and is transferred, in part, to the unfamiliar text).
• Develop visual memory.

• When testing reading speed at home, give your child a text that is unfamiliar but understandable to him - not instructions for a washing machine or food processor.
• Keep your sentences simple, without a lot of punctuation. This is especially important for first-graders.
• Don’t worry if your child shows different results: “yesterday he read better than today” - reading technique can be checked several times, at different times of the day.

Contact IQClub for help

IQClub will help develop reading skills, memory, and attention in a child. This is a new Internet service that will delight both children and parents. A team of professionals has prepared entertaining educational games for children. The best designers, psychologists and teachers worked on the development.

How to use the service?

• Register in the system (you can use social networks).
• Give your child an interesting test.
• After assessing your child's strengths and weaknesses, an individual educational program will be created for him.

Training results can be tracked online. This way you will quickly learn about your child’s achievements and receive the necessary recommendations for further development.

In the modern world, when we are surrounded by various electronic gadgets, the problem of children's reading is becoming increasingly urgent: unfortunately, fewer and fewer children are reading books lately. Therefore, adults should show by personal example that reading is actually a very exciting process. And besides, as F. Zhanlis said: “People who read books will always control those who watch TV.”

Speed ​​reading is possible without performing a number of special exercises, if you already have the skills of high concentration, high-quality perception and assimilation of what you read, and have excellent memory.

Exercises for mastering speed reading techniques will be most useful to those who are dissatisfied with their speed of understanding and memorizing information when reading texts of various types and levels of complexity.

At what age can you practice speed reading?

For an adult, it is extremely important not only to be able to demonstrate the ability to read a piece of text “on a stopwatch” as quickly as possible, but what is really necessary is the ability to save time thanks to speed reading. Therefore, when reading a text on a particular topic, an adult simply must be able to “skip by” unnecessary, uninformative parts of the text, while looking for key words that reflect the author’s main idea.

The most common recommendation for children is that you should not teach your child speed reading before the age of 14. We agree that superficial reading “diagonally” is not the best option for schoolchildren, who first of all need to thoroughly master the curriculum and learn to enjoy works of fiction.

Of course, each child and his abilities are unique, so it would be wise to focus on the key points of children’s readiness to master speed reading techniques. So, if your child already knows how to read aloud, easily reads a page in a couple of minutes and understands the meaning of what he read (can retell the essence in his own words), you can set the task of increasing reading speed using a set of speed reading exercises.

5 Key Skills for High Reading Speed

When learning to speed read, it is important to constantly train the following skills:

• concentration;
• suppression of articulation (the habit of pronouncing text);
• improved visual skill - wide field of peripheral vision;
• the ability to quickly highlight valuable, useful information in the text and not waste attention on “water”;
• good memory - assimilation of valuable information from the material read;
• increasing the speed of thinking.

The secret to mastering speed reading techniques is regular exercise in developing memory, attention and mastering other speed reading skills.

What exercises to improve reading speed will be useful at any age?

The greatest benefit comes from those exercises that eliminate the cause of low speed of perception and processing of visual information.

The main errors that create a barrier to reading speed in both children and adults are considered to be involuntary recurrent eye movements (regression) and unnecessary articulation, which we learned in childhood.

The main disadvantages that hinder the effective and rapid perception of information:

• problems with concentration;
• a small angle (field) of visual coverage of text information.

Thus, exercises for speed reading in 1st grade should be aimed primarily at developing the ability to concentrate attention and expanding the scope of information coverage. “A small field of vision” is perhaps the most important reason why children are taught to read first by letters, by syllables, then by whole words, phrases and sentences with an expression confirming the reader’s understanding of the meaning of what is written.

Not every adult can boast of the ability to perceive long phrases and entire sentences “at a glance.” This is where the development of visual reading skills stops for most people.

Expanding the field of view

“Development of peripheral vision according to Schulte tables”

Regular training with the help of Schulte tables will not only allow your child to have an interesting time, but will also help to increase concentration, expand peripheral vision and develop memory.

“Defocused look”. The main goal of the training is to use an unfocused gaze to perceive a larger area of ​​the page or screen. The exercise can be performed in various ways, for example, to search for identical elements using distracted vision or to remember a larger number of elements that were able to be covered without moving the gaze from the central object of attention.

Improving concentration

“Activation of both hemispheres”. Take a text on a topic that is familiar to you and read the paragraphs alternately with your right and left eyes. Thanks to this simple technique, you activate both hemispheres of the brain in turn.

“Highlighting the main thing”. Many prominent personalities have used this technique. Just take a marker or pencil and highlight the 2-3 most important ideas from the page. It’s even better to improve this exercise and not just highlight the main thing, but mark your critical comments with signs: very important information - “!” or “NB”, if you agree, put “+”, if you disagree, put “-”, etc.

“Name the color”. Say out loud the colors of the words as you read the following colored text. It is the colors, not what is written.

Red . Green. Blue. Yellow. Violet. Orange. Brown. Blue .

Red . Blue. Green. Violet. Yellow. Brown. Blue. Green. Blue.

Don't rush to do it at incredible speed. It’s good if after training you basically managed to complete the exercise without errors.

“Find the word”. Exercise options:

1. Search a page for all words starting with a specific letter.
2. Search a page for all instances of a specific word or phrase.

Guessing riddles- a simple and very effective way to train concentration skills at any age. It's best if it's or.

Getting rid of regression

“Cut half a line”. When reading the text, cover half the line (the top part) with a sheet of paper. In this way, you will force your brain to guess what has been written and at the same time, in such a situation, you will naturally want to see the next line even before you “cut off” part of it. This exercise will teach you to run ahead when reading and at the same time not to return to what you read.

"Pointer". To break the habit of looking back at what you have already read, let your gaze constantly follow the pen, pencil or finger, which will always lead you forward.

“Speed ​​reading”. Let's remember the reading speed test in elementary school. We take a timer and measure our current result by reading one page, chapter or article.

Suppressing articulation

“Alternate text”. In parallel with reading, we say something unrelated to the subject of attention. For example, we hum the tune of a song (“la-la-la, tru-lal-la”) or pronounce another text in our minds, for example, proverbs, tongue twisters, or count in order, regardless of the number of words or lines read. The main thing is not to lose concentration.

“With your mouth closed!” If your lips move or your tongue moves while reading, you need to keep them occupied with something. This error is often present in children after constant reading aloud in the early grades. Try chewing a pencil or crackers or chewing gum at the same time.

“Drum roll”. We tap some rhythm on the table with our fingers, the more complex it is, the better. If your fingers are busy, the speech center of the brain will be at least partially blocked.

“Reading with distracting music”. A great way to suppress the desire to pronounce the text you are reading is listening to music that does not have a constant rhythm. Jazz is best suited for this purpose.

Developing memory

“Non-standard reading”. Reading text rotated away from you by 90 degrees, 180, 45, etc. Example of an exercise: turn the page upside down and set the task of reading the text backwards (i.e. from right to left). This training is especially useful for children in order to form in their memory standards of complete letters, regardless of how they are located.

“Recover the missing letters.” An excellent exercise for developing verbal and logical memory. While reading a text with missing letters, stopping to “guess” the next word forces you to remember the words and meaning of what you read earlier. Good training not only for memory, but also for eliminating such interferences in fast reading as recurrent eye movements and articulation.

Development of thinking speed

One of the main reasons why it is possible to significantly improve the reading speed of any person is the redundancy of information at all levels of texts (especially those posted on the Internet), ranging from headlines and introductory structures intended to attract attention, to individual words with weak or completely absent semantic meaning. load.

Regular solving of logical problems develops the ability to separate the important from the secondary, develops the skill of “turning on blindness” in relation to redundant information and “instant” perception of important thoughts. This is achieved, first of all, through regular exercises in quickly perceiving the conditions of the task and understanding the essence of the question being asked. Conscious analysis of the structure of tasks develops the skill of dividing tasks into conditions and groups of conditions, identifying one or more issues, understanding the optimal order of solving subtasks, and searching for solution options.

Completing tasks from LogicLike will help at any age:

• improve concentration;
• develop speed of thinking;
• and as a result, significantly increase your reading speed.

Faktrum publishes an overview of the principles of the PX Project technique - a three-hour educational experiment that allows you to increase your reading speed by an average of 386%.

It was conducted with native speakers of five languages, and even dyslexics were able to read at speed more than 3000 words per minute, or 10 pages per minute. Or one page in six seconds. By comparison, the average reading speed in the United States is 200–300 words per minute (half a page to a page per minute), and only 1% of the population reads more than 400 words per minute.

If you understand a few basic principles of how the human visual system works, you can eliminate inefficiencies and increase your reading speed while also improving your memory.

To perform the exercises below and see the results you will need: a book (more than 200 pages) that should remain open, a pen and a timer (a stopwatch with a signal or a kitchen timer will also work). You should complete 20 minutes of exercise at a time.

But first, a few notes regarding the specifics of the reading process:

A) Minimize the number and duration of stops on the line to increase speed.

You do not read in whole lines, but rather in spasmodic movements (jumps). Each of these jumps ends with a stop or temporary "snapshot" of the text in the area you are focused on (approximately 20 cm² of the page's surface).

Each pause for a beginner lasts from ¼ to ½ second. To feel this, close one eye, press the eyelid with your fingertip, and then read the line with the other eye - you will clearly feel these jumps and stops.

B) Eliminate backtracking and unconscious jumping back

For a beginner, returning (conscious rereading) and jumping back (unconscious rereading with shifting stops) takes up to 30% of the total reading time.

C) Do concentration exercises to increase your peripheral vision and the number of words you can see in one stop.

When reading, a beginner uses central vision rather than peripheral vision, missing up to 50% of words in one stop, that is, the number of words that can be perceived and read in one jump and “captured” in one stop.

Now you can go directly to the exercises. You will learn the technique of speed reading itself, how to use this technique to increase speed, and then you will be able to test yourself by reading for understanding.

To get used to the sequence of exercises, perform them separately. Don't worry about understanding the text if you're learning to increase speed, for example. The sequence of exercises is as follows: for technique, for technique with increasing speed, test for understanding the text.

As a general rule, you need to practice your technique at three times the reading speed you want to achieve. So, if you currently read 300 words per minute and want to read 900 words per minute, you need to train your technique at 1,800 words per minute, or six pages per minute (10 seconds per page).

1. Determination of initial speed

To determine your current reading speed, take your practice book (which should be lying on the table without closing) and count the number of words in five lines. Divide this number by five and you get the average number of words per line. Example: 62 words / 5 lines = 12.4, which you round up to 12 words per line.

Then count the number of lines on five pages and divide by five to determine the average number of lines per page. Multiply this number by the average number of words per line and you get the average number of words per page. Example: 154 lines / 5 pages = 30.8, rounded to 31 lines per page. 31x12 words per line = 372 words per page.

Mark your first line and read with a timer for exactly one minute, while reading, paying attention to the meaning of the text, and no faster than usual. After one minute of reading, multiply the number of lines read by the average number of words per line to determine your reading speed.

2. Reference and pace

Returns, jumps and length of stops can be minimized if you use a landmark. Did you use a pen or finger when counting the number of words or lines in previous calculations? If so, you had a visual aid, a guide for efficient and accurate calculations. In speed reading, more than anywhere else, a reference point is of great importance for increasing speed.

Use the pen to achieve your goal. Hold it in your dominant hand and underline each line (with the cap closed), keeping an eye on what is above the tip of the pen. This will not only serve as a guide, but also set the pace to maintain a constant speed and reduce the length of stops.

Exercise 1: technique (two minutes)

Practice using the pen as a guide and using it to set the pace. Emphasize each line by focusing your gaze over the tip of the pen. Don't worry about understanding the text. Read each line for no longer than one second, increase the speed on each subsequent page. Nothing should keep you on one line for more than one second.

Exercise 2: Speed ​​(three minutes)

Repeat the previous exercise, but stay on each line for no longer than half a second (two lines per second). There is a high chance that you will not understand the meaning of the text, but now the main thing is to maintain speed and technique - this is how you train your perceptual reflexes. Focus your gaze over the tip of the pen and concentrate on technique and speed. Concentrate on the exercise and don't get distracted.

3. Third - expansion of perception

If your gaze is focused on the computer screen, you can still perceive the sides of the screen. By training your peripheral vision to be more efficient, you can increase your reading speed by more than 300%. Untrained readers devote up to half of their peripheral vision to the fields, moving from the first word to the last and spending 25–50% of their time “reading” empty fields.

For example, let's take the line “Once upon a time there were students who enjoyed reading for four hours a day.” If you are able to start your reading with the word "were" and end the line with the word "four", you have perceived four out of ten words in your peripheral vision, increasing your reading speed.

Exercise 1: technique (one minute)

Use the pen as a guide and set the tempo with it at a constant speed of one line per second. Start with the first word in the line and end with the last. Don't worry about understanding the text. Read each line for no longer than one second, increase the speed on each subsequent page.

Exercise 2: technique (one minute)

Use the pen as a guide and set the tempo with it at a constant speed of one line per second. Start with the second word in the line and end with the second word from the end of the line.

Exercise 3: Speed ​​(three minutes)

Start with at least the third word from the beginning of the line and end with the third word from the end of the line. Repeat the technique exercise, staying on each line for no more than half a second.

4. Calculate your new reading speed

Mark the first line and read for exactly one minute, while reading as fast as you can. Multiply the number of lines read by the average number of words per line to get your new reading speed.

Congratulations, you've completed a short course on a technique that can speed up your cognitive abilities.

Last recommendations: if you use this technique for studying, it is better not to read three different texts in the time it would take you to read one. It is better to read one text, but three times, to improve perception and memorization, depending on the type of testing.

Happy reading!

The faster you read, the more time you have for other important goals and tasks. Considering the pace of modern life, the ability to quickly master certain materials is a very valuable ability. How to increase your average reading speed?

1. Stop subvocalizing

As you read this text, you probably hear a voice in your head repeating every word you read. And that's okay. Such mental recitation of a text is called subvocalization. Think back to your childhood and the methods by which you were taught to read. As you read, you slowly said each word you read out loud, as this is one of the most effective learning techniques. However, even when you stopped reading out loud, the habit didn't go away. It's just that now you pronounce the words mentally, and this process significantly slows down the pace of your reading. People with the fastest reading speeds do not focus on each individual word, but perceive the text as a whole.

Stopping subvocalization can be very difficult, especially when you've been practicing the habit for decades. Here is a useful tip that can help you. Instead of subvocalizing, try mentally counting from 1 to 10 as you read, or replacing that inner voice with a mental buzz. At the same time, continue to glide your eyes over the words in the text in front of you. Practice this exercise as often as possible, and if you notice that you are returning to subvocalization, start counting or buzzing again. If you keep putting in the effort, you can turn off the voice in your head and increase your reading speed several times over.

2. Preview complex texts

Finding ways to speed up your reading pace is a definite . Especially when it comes to complex technical or highly specialized materials, texts that are quite problematic to simply skim with your eyes. Instead of spending hours reading such materials, re-reading long sentences over and over again, spend some time previewing such complex texts. To understand their general meaning, as you turn the pages, note factors such as the length of the text, the main themes and concepts, the number of chapters, and how they are divided.

How is preview useful? Scanning material in this way is a very effective strategy for increasing your reading speed. By skimming the text, you will be able to identify sections and chapters that deserve close attention, as well as parts that can be given much less time.

3. Don't be afraid to skip words

When we learn to read, we are taught to pay attention to every word written on the page. However, ours has one. He is quite capable of filling any gaps. It is enough to select only a few of the most important words in each sentence to understand the overall meaning of the text. As a result, you don’t have to process literally every word, which saves a huge amount of time and has a positive effect on your reading pace. However, be careful when using this method. It is great for easy texts, but understanding technical or academic materials with its help will be incredibly difficult.

4. Group words

Another effective strategy for developing reading speed. It consists in the perception not of individual words, but of their groups. This method is quite complex and requires practice, so it’s better to start with easy texts. Clustering is the concentration of attention on 2-3 words of text at once. If you are able to comprehend several words at the same time, this has a tremendous effect on your reading speed.

5. Make a plan

Chances are, making an outline isn't where you usually start reading. You simply set a goal for yourself - to reach the last page of this or that material. However, if you're looking for maximum efficiency, a well-designed strategy can help you improve your reading speed. It was already mentioned in the paragraph about previewing that this approach will help you determine the parts of the text that you should focus on and which you can completely skip.

What exactly should a reading plan look like? This question is quite individual, but it’s worth starting by defining your goals. What knowledge do you want to have after reading the material? You can even write down a few questions that you want to know the answers to at the end of the reading. It is also worth considering the goals pursued by the author of the text. They may be much broader than yours. Therefore, if you concentrate only on parts of the material that are interesting and relevant to you, skipping the rest, you will save time reading other useful texts.