Increase Your Reading Speed in 5 Simple Steps
To develop your speed of reading takes practice! That said, you do not even have an idea how much you will save time by expanding your reading speed. So here are 5 simple steps to allow you to increase your reading speed.
- Step 1: Rate your current speed
Beforehand, you must determine your current reading speed in order to be able to follow your improvement. To do this, there are several tests online. You only have to search ”Calculate my reading speed” or something like that to have access to a variety of free tests. Once you have determined your reading speed, you will be able to practice in order to increase your speed. It is important to follow the steps. Do not undertake a new step until you are finished or are completely comfortable with the previous one.
- Step 2: Eliminate any distractions
Reading quickly is an art! You have to make sure to avoid any form of distraction, such as music, noise, or whatever might disturb your concentration. Be sure to be in an environment free of distractions.
- Step 3: Help yourself with a pen
Usually, the majority of people make two big mistakes that slow down their reading speed. The first is to pronounce what you are reading in your head. Now, the pronunciation of each word slows down you enormously and is absolutely not necessary. The second is to re-read some passages that you may not have understood during the first reading. In order to overcome these two mistakes, help yourself with a pen. By flying over each word, this will gradually allow you to stop pronunciation in your head, but also to keep the thread and avoid re-reading certain passages. At first, it may be a bit more difficult and you will probably feel that your understanding is affected. That said, with practice, you gain speed without affecting your understanding. The goal here is to browse each line faster and faster with practice, to optimally, only spend one second per line.
- Step 4: Develop your peripheral vision
When you master the previous step, it’s time to develop your peripheral vision. Interestingly, experienced readers hardly move their eyes. Indeed, failing to browse each word included on a line, they read rather by block by omitting words that are not necessary. A good way to develop your peripheral vision is to hold your page at some distance from your eyes. This way you will have access to more words. You can also target the most important and essential words to the story and try to read by group of words and not word by word. This is commonly referred to as diagonal reading. Obviously, to get there it takes practice. That said, by practicing, your brain will get used to gleaning and targeting the most important parts of a text. You will even be able to evaluate whether a paragraph is essential to your understanding and completely eliminate it if not. This method will save you a lot of time.
- Step 5: Re-evaluate your reading speed
Finally, after a few weeks of practice, you should have considerably increased your reading speed, without your understanding being affected! In order to make sure, do the same test that you already do at the beginning and you will quickly have an idea of your evolution.
Here are 5 simple steps to improve your reading speed. If you have any questions regarding Miramichi Adult Learning programs, please contact us by phone at 1-506-778-6998, or by e-mail at info.mali.aami@gmail.com.