Speed Reading The Net

• What is Speed Reading
• What Speed Reading is Not
• Speed Reading Basics
• Vocabulary is the key to Speed Reading

What is Speed Reading?

The first time I heard the term Speed Reading I wasn't quite sure what to think. I was really dumbfounded when I heard people were able to read at 2000 to 3000 words per minute.

Was it real? I wanted to find out. What follows is what I have learned from my own experience.

The first thing I learned was that speed reading has been around for quite awhile. In fact some people are speed readers and do not even realize it. Research lead to the following key points.

• Slow readers read one word at a time.
• Speed readers read groups of words with every eye fixation.
• Speed readers tend to have higher comprehension because the mind is focused almost entirely on reading.

The concepts are pretty basic. In fact if you think about it reading one word at a time slows you down to about what you can vocalize (say outloud). This is about 250 words per minute (max). The great thing about speed reading is that everyone has the ability to become a speed reader. In fact a great demonstration can be found at www.ReadFaster.com. The exercise is called the Horizontal Span Exercise and it shows that you can read more than you can say outloud in a given period of time. For example just about everyone can read 3 words at 300 words per minute. However we are unable to say them while they are still being displayed on the screen.

This exercise unequivecally proves we all have the capability to become speed readers. From then on it is learning how to pace yourself so that you maintain your reading rate.

I found a great program, it is the one I used to learn speed reading. The Reader's Edge, that gave me all of the exercises I needed to read at 700 words per minute. I have tried other programs and this is the best I have seen.