Recommendations for Helping Students Slow Down When Reading

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Whether you're striking the textbooks in philosophy class or reading the forenoon newspaper, reading can feel deadening. Train yourself to speed read to go through these tasks much faster. Reading faster does lead to less understanding, merely with practice you lot tin can overcome some of this upshot.

1. one

   Stop talking to yourself. Almost every reader "subvocalizes," or moves their pharynx equally they imagine speaking the words.^[1] This may help the reader remember concepts, but it'due south too a major barrier to speed.^[2] Here are a few ways to keep this addiction to a minimum:

   • Chew glue or hum while you read. This occupies muscles used to subvocalize.
   • If you motility your lips equally you lot read, hold a finger confronting them.

2. 2

   Cover words you've already read. When reading, your eyes often move back to earlier words. Most of the time, these are short movements that probably don't meliorate understanding.^[3] Use an index carte to cover words correct afterward you read them, grooming yourself not to overuse this habit.

   • These "regressions" besides happen when y'all've failed to understand something. If your eyes jump several words or lines back, that's a sign that you may demand to slow downwards.

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3. three

   Understand eye movements. While reading, your optics move jerkily, stopping on some words and skipping others. You can but read while your eyes are stopped. If you larn to make fewer movements per line, you'll read a lot faster. Only exist careful – research reveals limits to how much English language readers can see at once:^[iv]

   • You lot tin read eight letters to the right of your eye position, only just four to the left. This is roughly ii or 3 words at a time.
   • You find messages 9–15 spaces to the right, merely can't read them clearly.
   • Normal readers don't process words on other lines. Grooming yourself to skip lines and nonetheless sympathize them would be very hard.

4. 4

   Train your eyes to make fewer movements. Your brain normally decides where to move your eyes based on how long or familiar the next words look.^[v] You tin can read faster if yous train your eyes to motion to specific places on the page instead. Try this exercise:

   • Place an index card over a line of text.
   • Write an X on the card, over the first discussion.
   • Write some other X on the same line. Place it three words further for good understanding, five words for piece of cake texts, or vii words to skim the primary points.
   • Write more Xs at the aforementioned spacing, until you accomplish the cease of the line.
   • Read rapidly every bit you lot move the index card downwards, trying to merely focus your optics just below each Ten.

5. 5

   Prepare a step faster than you can understand. Many programs claim to increment your reading speed by training your reflexes start, then practicing until your brain can catch upward. This has non been thoroughly studied. It certainly increases the speed you move through the text, but you may understand little or goose egg. Endeavor this if you lot want to aim for extreme speed reading, and you might sympathize more than afterward a few days of exercise. Hither's how:

   • Motility a pencil along the text. Time this so you lot tin say "one one thou" at a calm step and stop merely equally you attain the end of a line.
   • Spend 2 minutes trying to read at the pace of the pencil. Even if you can't empathize annihilation, stay focused on the text and keep your optics moving for the unabridged two minutes.
   • Rest for a minute, then become even faster. Spend three minutes trying to read at the pace of a pen that moves beyond ii lines every time you say "one one yard".

6. 

   6

   Try RSVP software. If you lot can't reach your goals with the techniques in a higher place, endeavor RSVP, or Reading Rapid Serial Visual Presentation. In this arroyo, the phone app or computer software flashes text a single word at a fourth dimension. This lets you choose any reading speed y'all like. Raise it too high, though, and you won't be able to recall a large per centum of the words.^[vi] This may be useful to get a rapid summary of a news article, only non when studying or reading for fun.

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1. 1

   Know when to skim. Skimming can be used to proceeds a shallow understanding of a text. It can be used to scan a newspaper for interesting material, or to get the important concepts out of a textbook in preparation for a test. Information technology's not a adept replacement for thorough reading.

2. 2

   Read titles and department headings. Begin by only reading the chapter titles and whatsoever subheadings at the commencement of large sections. Read the headlines of each newspaper article, or the table of contents in a magazine.^[vii]

3. iii

   Read the beginning and terminate of a section. Textbooks commonly contain introductions and summaries of each chapter. For other texts, just read the first and last paragraph of a chapter or commodity.

   • You tin read quickly if you lot're familiar with the subject, but don't effort to speed read as fast every bit possible. You're saving time past skipping nearly of the section, but you exercise need to understand what you're reading.

4. four

   Circumvolve important words throughout the text. If you lot notwithstanding wish to learn more, brush your eyes chop-chop across the page rather than reading normally. Now that you know the gist of the section, you can choice out central words that mark important areas. Stop and circle the post-obit words:^[8]

   • Words that are repeated several times
   • The main ideas – often including words from the title or section header
   • Proper nouns
   • Italics, bold text, or underline
   • Words y'all don't recognize

5. 5

   Examine pictures and diagrams. These often present a lot of information without much reading required. Take a minute or two to make sure you fully understand each diagram.

6. vi

   Read the first sentence of each paragraph, if confused. If yous've lost track of the subject, read the start of each paragraph. The first one or two sentences will teach you the main points.^[nine]

7. 7

   Study using your annotations. Go dorsum and expect over the words you've circled. Can you lot "read" these and get a full general sense of what the text is almost? If you become dislocated at a sure give-and-take, endeavour reading a few sentences around that word to remind yourself of the topic. Circle boosted words as you do this.

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1. i

   Fourth dimension your reading speed. Track your progress by timing yourself daily, or each time you lot try these exercises. Trying to crush your best speed tin provide great motivation. Here's how to fourth dimension your reading in words per infinitesimal (wpm):^[ten]

   • Count the number of words on a page, or count the number in one line and multiply by the number of lines on the page.
   • Prepare a timer for ten minutes and see how much you tin can read in that time.
   • Multiply the number of pages you read by the number of words per page. Split past x to go your words per minute.
   • You can utilise an online "speed reading test," only you volition probably read at a dissimilar pace on a screen than on a printed folio.^[eleven]

2. ii

   Prepare yourself goals. Your reading speed should improve if you repeat one or more than of these exercises daily. Many people can double their reading speed after several weeks. Set yourself milestones to motivate yourself to keep practicing:

   • 200–250 words per minute is the expected reading speed for someone age 12 or older.
   • 300 wpm is the reading speed of the average college educatee.
   • At 450 wpm, you're reading as fast every bit a college student skimming for the main points. Ideally, you can practice this with nearly total comprehension.
   • At 600–700 wpm, you're reading every bit fast as a college educatee scanning to find a word. Almost people tin learn to read at this speed with about 75% of their normal comprehension.^[12]
   • At 1,000 wpm and above, you lot're reaching the level of competitive speed readers. This ordinarily requires farthermost techniques that skip over about of the text. About people tin't remember much at this speed.

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Add New Question

• Question

  How do I train my eyes to make fewer movements when I read?

  

  Read from further away. Then you won't need to brand that many movements, and you tin also have in sentences and fifty-fifty paragraphs at a time.

• Question

  Tin can I train my brain to read more than 17,000 wpm?

  

  Probably not. Claiming to be able to read that fast is extremely rare. In the motion-picture show, "Rain Homo," the championship grapheme could read up to 20,000 words a minute. His left heart read the left page, correct centre read the right folio, but that is something very rare. It is not associated with neurotypical people.

• Question

  What can crusade someone to no longer be able to improve their reading power?

  

  When a person has piddling or no desire or patience, the willingness to read and improve their reading wanes. If you want to improve, y'all can.

• Question

  Can I learn to speed read to improve my online reading and comprehension?

  

  Yep, information technology works all the same. However, remembering and understanding each word you read should be top priority as a reader. Make sure that you're reading at your footstep, and practicing it deliberately will help you.

• Question

  Tin can I learn speed reading if English is my 2nd linguistic communication?

  

  Most likely, yes. I tin can read 376 wpm and English is my second language as well.

• Question

  Will improving my usage and knowledge of the language in which I desire to read help with my reading speed?

  

  In my opinion it volition. The more familiar you are with the language, the faster you tin can read and understand the content; withal, it's not only about the language - y'all can comprehend the material faster if you are familiar with the field of study of the text too.

• Question

  Will playing music in the groundwork help me speed read?

  

  Playing background music will not help in this scenario. Music with lyrics volition distract your encephalon and brand it work harder. Your encephalon will automatically attempt to separate the words that y'all are reading from those that you are listening to. The same can be said for instrumental music, where the brain will be working to split the melodies from the words you're reading. It has been scientifically proven that white noise aids in speeding up the functioning of the brain.

• Question

  How can I improve my power to understand what I read?

  

  Simply go along in heed the of import phrases, so analyze them. Yous will virtually likely brand a summary.

• Question

  Could the fact that I wearable glasses cause me to be a slow reader?

  

  No, every bit long as you tin can see, your eyesight won't affect your reading speed.

• Question

  I want to read 300 words per minute. What tin I practise to accomplish my goal?

  

  If you quickly scan 50 words per second, 300 words a minute will be no problem. The primal is to focus one-half on understanding and the other is to read whole lines at a time.

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• Accept a break every thirty–60 minutes. This will keep y'all focused and reduce eye strain.

• Practice in a quiet, well-lit surroundings. Use earplugs if necessary.

• Analysing and changing your reading can become hard because you lot start focusing on your reading techniques rather than understanding the text. Make sure you're non reading too fast and you properly empathise what you have read.

• Read important texts when y'all're alert and well-rested. Some people function well in the morn, while others think amend in the afternoon.

• Holding the page further away will probably not speed upwardly reading. Nigh people automatically arrange to the distance that allows maximum speed.

• If you tin can't improve your reading speed, have your vision checked.

• "Zig zag" exercises that try to become your eye to move left-to-correct-to-left probably don't work. Most people who train this way even so movement their eyes left-to-right, line by line.^[13]

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• Beware of expensive speed reading products. Many of them offer similar communication and exercises, or exercises not backed up by research.

• Later on a point, reading faster volition always accept a trade-off in less comprehension or worse memory of the text.

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Things You'll Need

• Reading material
• Earplugs (if in a noisy area)
• Stopwatch
• Index card

About This Commodity

Article Summary X

If yous want to learn speed reading, train yourself non to motility your throat or your lips as you read, since this can ho-hum you downwardly. You lot can also utilize an index card to cover words you've already read so you don't keep reading the aforementioned matter over and over. To offset speed reading fifty-fifty faster, try reading the text more than quickly than you tin really sympathize them, which may eventually train your brain to procedure the words more apace. Read on to larn tips for efficiently skimming through big portions of text!

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Recommendations for Helping Students Slow Down When Reading

Source: https://www.wikihow.com/Learn-Speed-Reading

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