Archive for the ‘How to Read Fast’ Category

How To Improve Speed Reading And Comprehension Skills

Friday, December 11th, 2009

Many people wonder how good their ability to read and comprehend text is and these are the people that are most in need of knowing and perhaps even improving their speed reading and comprehension skills. In fact, if you are able to read text without having to re-read words as well as sentences over and over again you will benefit the most from speed reading.

Back Skipping

According to experts on reading, the phenomenon of back skipping is known as regression and everyone agrees that this is a wasteful activity that affects most people. In fact, it is believed that many people actually waste half of their time in reading sentences and words over and over again and thus would need to improve their speed reading and comprehension skills.

What’s more, the popular conception amongst most people is that regression is a good thing because it helps in reinforcing whatever has been read. In point of fact, this is the exact opposite of the truth of the matter and by improving speed reading and comprehension skills, one can become free of regression and gain valuable time as too improve comprehension and thus benefit from saving time as well as retaining whatever information has been read.

The truth of the fact is that with proper speed reading techniques, anyone can hope to double their speed of reading and not waste time unnecessarily going back to read text that can be comprehended in a single reading. In fact, there are two types of regression that can hamper speed reading and comprehension skills and these are conscious regression as well as subconscious regression.

So, if you are reading a simple sentence and you don’t have the proper speed reading and comprehension skills, you would end re-reading words that a speed reader would never think about doing. In fact, a person with a regression problem would actually waste their time in trying to re-insert their own words into sentences which leads to confusion and consequently lack of proper speed reading and comprehension skills.

To rid you of regression you may first of all need to try and pace yourself quicker through the written matter and you can also use aids such as a pen or even your finger to run through lines of printed matter and thus not rely solely on your eyes. This will stabilize your reading and stop subconscious regression in which the eyes move back in order to re-read words or phrases.

It may also pay to enroll in a speed reading class, especially if you have made a conscious decision to make rapid strides in improving your speed reading and comprehension skills. You will get to learn in a structured fashion how to break free from regression and also eliminate any other negative habits that are hampering your reading skills and in addition, you can even hope to improve your speed reading and comprehension levels by as high as five times as compared to what it once was.

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Speed Reading Books Can Help You Advance In Life

Friday, December 11th, 2009

With each new advance in technology there has also been a burgeoning of fresh information which in turn requires that people remain abreast of all this pile of information and also understand what is going on in the world around them. People who are young students or old age retirees will each need to keep pace with the vast amount of information being churned out today and which is also readily available over the Internet today. Speed reading training is sure to come in very handy for everyone who doesn’t want to get snowed under the mountain of information that can prove to be very beneficial provided you are able to absorb it in great volumes.

Lightning Pace

Even you can take advantage of speed reading training and become adept at reading at a lightning pace and thereby become more effective at work and also at your school or college. In fact, a spin-off to speed reading training is that you will also start to enjoy what you read and whatever new magazine or book that you come across will begin to appeal more to you and it will then help in contributing to greater knowledge and a richer mind.

Speed reading training will also help you comprehend things better and though it may not seem obvious, speed reading training does not in any way help to lower your ability to comprehend as some would obviously think. The experts concur that speed reading is actually the best means of feeding the brain with more information and at a rapid pace and this will help improve the working of the brain and increase your knowledge.

Speed reading training should also be considered an investment that will pay you back several times over and in different ways and the simplest benefit that you will get is enjoy having a brain that is able to absorb and retain as well as comprehend matter easily. This is a much sought after skill that will help you advance in life and perhaps even help you to land a more lucrative job.

Other aspects to speed reading training include learning to relax before reading and not being too tense or too stressed out which will only hamper your progress in being able to read fast, and in fact, only a settled and relaxed mind will allow you to absorb text and understand it. And, it will certainly help you to read faster.

To further improve you speed reading skills, it is also a good idea to try out some of the many speed reading exercises that though they will end up consuming some of your time, will nevertheless help you within a matter of just two weeks.

Practice and persistence as too patience are other essential ingredients to benefiting from speed reading training and by also setting personal goals and making a determined effort to attain them, you will soon become an accomplished speed reader.

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Free Reading Speed Test

Friday, December 11th, 2009

Learning how to speed read is an exhilarating experience. It’s a great skill to learn. Imagine how much you can learn and how much you can read when you can whiz through a book in record time. You may be wondering how to go about learning how to speed read. First of all, you should find a free reading speed test to gauge where your reading skill and comprehension level is now. This will let you know how much you have to learn and where your instructor should start with you. Even if you read slow right now, once you learn the tips and tricks of the experts, you’ll be reading quickly in no time. Then, when you take the free reading speed test again after the course, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you get through whatever text you’re reading.

Where To Find Tests

You can find free reading speed tests online. There’s not much nowadays that you can’t find online. An online reading speed test will gauge how quickly you get through the required text and will give you a score. These free reading speed tests are often accompanied by online courses that you may have to pay for. It’s worth it, though, if you hope to be a speed reader. However, online reading speed tests are only one way to find tests, and courses. You can also buy audio tapes, video tapes, buy books or hire an instructor. All of these means have helped many people become speed readers.

Finding Teachers

One of the best ways to become a speed reader is to work one on one with a certified teacher. Becoming a speed reader involves learning skills, it doesn’t take a genius to become a speed reader. The teacher that you find, no matter how you find him or her, should also issue you a free reading speed test. This will let them know where you stand at the moment, how well you comprehend the text set before you and where they have to take you as an instructor.

What Does Speed Reading Entail?

You may think that speed readers just skim the text set before them and that they really don’t grasp what they’re reading; not completely. That’s not true, however. A speed reader will often grasp the text much more efficiently than someone who reads slowly. That’s because no word is missed, everything is taken into one context and the information is more easily absorbed because it’s taken in so quickly. Take a free reading speed test and see where you stand. When you take that same test in a few weeks or months, you’ll be amazed at how far you’ve come. You’ll then find that you’re a speed reader; even if you thought you’d never, ever be one.

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Speed Reading – More in Less Time

Friday, December 11th, 2009

There is a lot of talk about how speed reading can improve a person’s life and even some claims that speed reading can improve a person’s ability to soak up information at an amazing rate, making them more valuable to employers. While the ability to read faster may be beneficial for some, for others it is more a matter of improving comprehension of what they have read as well as being able to retain the information they have received that will make a difference in their work and personal life.

On average, a person will read at the rate of about two words per second with typical comprehension and for most that will be fast enough. Taking a speed reading course may improve their reading speeds to four or even six words per second without any loss of retention as to the material. Others however, may want to use speed reading for reading 10 or more words per second with better than average comprehension and for them a course in speed reading may be the answer.

Most speed reading courses are designed to help readers decide on the fly what words are worth reading and which ones are not. Being able to look at a word without having to concentrate on each and every letter to visualize the word is already practiced by most readers, but a speed reading course can help them eliminate more words in a sentence increasing their rate of reading.

Gaining Speed Without Losing Quality

One of the biggest challenges in speed reading is what is termed subvocalization. Children in their early years are taught to read to themselves causing them to sound out every word in their head as they are reading. With speed reading, the words are not silently read in their mind while going through the material and only the words that have meaning to the context of the material is retained to become part of the comprehension of the material.

Different instruction techniques are taught for speed reading and they may not all have the same desirable outcome for each person looking to improve their reading speed. Unlike repetitious physical tasks where the same movements performed with practice will enable a person to perform the task quicker, speed reading attempts to train the brain to recognize only the words that are important to the materials being read without the need to hear them in their mind. However, similar to physical tasks, practice in speed reading will increase their reading speed as time goes on.

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