My mom’s a pretty fast reader, but I leave her in the dirt at 364 words per minute. That’s nothing, though. My husband can read 1,100 words a minute at a resting rate, and he speed reads at 6,000 wpm. That is pretty amazing.
Everyone has their own rate at which they read. There’s not one that’s better than the others; no rate is superior. I have friends who take a week to read a book I could read in a day, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Perhaps they retain more.
If you would like to increase your reading speed, however, here are some tips for how to do that.
1. First of all, take a reading test to see just how quick you are. Here’s a link for a free speed reading test. Have fun with it – I know I did.
2. Make sure that you are reading properly. With every generation of children it seems that there has been a new method of teaching reading and we get further and further away from the basics. Did you learn how to sound out words from beginning to end? Were you taught all the sounds of the vowels, and not just the long and short sounds? This can make a big difference in your reading speed.
3. Do you read frequently? The more we do something, the better at it we become. The more you read, the faster you’ll get.
4. You might want to look into some speed reading software. One that I found online (amongst many – you will want to look into this yourself) is TurboRead. This software says that it will not only get your reading speed up, but it will help to map your brain and to improve your comprehension.
5. You can find some great books to help with it as well. This one is called “Speed Reading” by Tony Buzan. Again, there are many out there on the market, and you will want to investigate for yourself.
6. You can take a class or seminar. Don Witmore offers this one for the purpose of helping individuals maximize their time by shortening the length of time they have to spend processing information. You can find a wealth of information by going online and typing in “seminars on speed reading.”
Again, it’s not necessary that we all read a thousand words a minute. But if you feel that you would like to learn how to read a little more quickly, perhaps these tips will be of use to you.
Related Blogs:
Ways You Can Help Spread Literacy