Matt Oconnor asked:


Speed reading is the ability to not only read text far quicker than you would normally but to be able to absorb the information as well. It’s no good zooming down a page of text and then not being able to recall any of the information.

Speed reading is something that can be of great assistance to you in almost any working environment and particularly one where you have to take in a great deal of information daily – to the point where you feel your head might explode!

One of the most overlooked points about speed reading is that you must first know what you want to get out of the book you’re trying to read. Do you need to know all of the info in in-depth detail or do you just need to get a gist of what it’s about? In which case you can just skim over the outline of the book and that will suffice.

In other words, know what you want to achieve with your reading before you actually do it. This is a seemingly obvious thing to say but one which, nevertheless, is often overlooked and misunderstood. The key is to be able to skim extremely detailed documents but still pick up the required information – that is what speed reading enables you to do.

Think about how you read right now. As a child you merely went from letter to letter as you got older it was word to word. Now, you probably read in sections or groups of words at a time. You may find that you’ll read one block of words, go onto another and then skip back to the previous block of words because you failed to understand or just didn’t take in what you just read. This is a common problem with adults and their reading. Speed reading on the other hand aims to eliminate these issues and make reading a breeze whilst still absorbing the required info.

In short, a good speed reading course will allow you to read more words in each section, it should reduce the amount of time you spend reading each individual section and it should eliminate the number of times you return to each previously read section.

A great tip to reduce the amount of time you spend going back over words you’ve already read is to use a pointer, say a pencil or a pen, to guide your eye as you read the text. As you get better, increase the speed with which you move your pointer across the text, you’ll find this quickly improves the speed of your reading.



Derrick

Robert Kokoska asked:


If you’re interested in pursuing a speed reading program, you’re in good company. Because of the over abundance of information that we all have to deal with on a daily basis, speed reading is looking increasingly attractive to more and more people. In fact, if you can more than double your current reading speed without losing any comprehension, it could benefit you greatly in many ways. It’s no wonder that more and more students and professionals are looking for an effective speed reading program.

In order to take full advantage of a speed reading program, though, it helps to investigate the truth behind all of the claims. This is because some of the claims that speed reading courses make are absolutely incredible and border unbelievable, and might well be too good to be true. Consider the following: When we’re reading in order to learn something for comprehension, that is, most of us naturally read at speeds of around 200 – 400 words per minute (wpm), depending on our natural ability and the difficulty level of the text being read. Sometimes, of course, we naturally speed up as we read for longer periods or if we are re-reading certain text.

If someone is reading an article or book for pleasure, and it’s not totally important to read all of the words, we automatically slip into another type of reading – sometimes called ’skimming’ or ’scanning’. This is just what it sounds like – rather than reading every single word on the page, we skim the information, looking for what we want or what interests us and for certain bits of information. We allow our eyes to travel down the page, and stop on relevant information. This is known as ‘lazy’ reading, in a sense, but comprehension is still fairly good for most people – about 75%. The average speed for this type of reading is somewhat faster – it can range from anywhere between 400 to 700 wpm.

A speed reading program can teach most people to increase their reading speed significantly above and beyond their current speed of ’skimming’ text. The next thing that most people wonder about is how much speed can be increased – and this is where it can get really confusing! Some speed reading programs offer a moderate increase in speed – to about 1000 wpm. This seems reasonable and achievable by most; what these programs are doing is teaching you to skim more efficiently. They do this by using a pacer to keep your eyes moving across the page, or by teaching you to read using your peripheral vision which allows people to see a large chunck of text at a time and memorizing it all.

However, there are many other speed reading programs that exceed these claims quite dramatically – some even claim that they can teach you to read at the truly amazing speed of up to 10,000 wpm, or even more! Needless to say, experts are sceptical of these claims, though many proponents of speed reading swear that they are true.



Francis

Peter Sturo asked:


Have you been thinking of any ways to make yourself stand out of the crowd in a declining economy? If your answer to this question is positive, this article is going to give you some invaluable information. We are going to discuss how speed reading techniques can useful based on your situations, whether you are an employee, a boss, a student, or a student’s parent. What discussed in other sections may give different insight to you though.

If you are an employee

As an employee, have you ever thought of how to make yourself stand out of other colleagues or job competitors, especially during this recession? Can you think of any technique that only minority people have, but will surely be needed in every day work? Can you think of any skill that can be acquired within a month of part-time learning, without affecting your current work? Learning speed reading techniques is a perfect answer to all these questions.

If you are a boss

For a boss, things would be a bit different. Very probably, time is the most valuable thing for you. How much time you can save every day if you can read with doubled or tripled speed? Another major headache you will face is the peer competition. Being able to read the latest market information faster also means being able to do necessary reaction faster, and this can definitely bring you advantage over your competitors. Communication with staff members, vendors, and clients is another key factor to success. This can be of help if you can read faster and understand better for all the proposals, reports, user requirements and many others.

If you are a student or a student’s parent

You are most lucky if you are still a student. You will benefit the most for the rest of your life if you start to learn speed reading techniques right now. Student age is one of the time periods in life that you need to read most. I cannot imagine how much extra time I could have if I had learned speed reading since childhood, and how the extra time can be spent to develop my different interests, leverage my strengths and improve my weaknesses. The same applies to parents, who always want to give help and guidance for their children on study.

In conclusion, learning speed reading techniques is of great benefit for people ranging from students, parents, employees, or bosses, just all who need to read often. In addition, it is always good to acquire the skill early, just like it could have made a big difference in life if you had already learned it ten years before. If you want to start learning, you may want to save your time and money by checking with the program Speed Reader X. We have done a review on it, and found it to be a speed reading program which had been standing in the market for a few years, tweaked for training result, and has been used in some schools and organizations with good user feedbacks.

You can also learn about the development history of Speed Reader X in this article: Speed Reading Program – Facts You Need to Know About Speed Reader X



Nellie

Robert Kokoska asked:


If you are interested in learning the art of speed reading, it will usually mean that you are pressed for time. After all, who isn’t? Students as well as professionals are sometimes overwhelmed by their work load, and it’s easy to see why. Every year, it seems that more and more written information comes our way and also with the overload of information now available freely on the internet.

This accounts for the current growing interest in the need to learn faster, and more specifically, for speed reading software. If you don’t have time to keep up with your reading, you probably don’t have time to take a regular course. Learning from a book can be great, but there are many of us that need something more interactive in order to learn speed reading methods properly. A software based learning method seems to be the solution – it allows you to participate in a virtual course, but at your own speed.

Learning to read faster is not a new idea. In fact, it was popular in the 1960s and 70s, and was invented decades before that. However, the concept of speed reading is evolving. In the past, the speed of about 100 words per minute was considered the maximum speed that the common person could hope to achieve. This is relatively fast – it would allow you to read a 300-page book in about an hour and a half. Nowadays, however, there are new claims – ones that seem incredible.

One individual claims that he read Tolstoy’s War and Peace (a book of about a thousand pages) in fifteen minutes. A teacher claims that he can teach some adults, and virtually all children (who seem to have a greater natural ability) to read up to an astonishing 18,000 words per minute. Most software programs and courses available today may not allow you to reach those dizzying speeds, but it probably will allow you to substantially increase your natural reading time all the same without any loss of comprehending the words.

Treat your speed reading software as you would any course. Set aside a time and place, preferably every day, for working on it. Follow the instructions carefully. One drawback of software based courses as opposed to an actual class is that people are a bit more likely to get discouraged in the early stages.

Speed reading is not necessarily a skill that you can pick up at high speed – more often, it takes some painstaking practice at first, followed by a ‘breakthrough’ of sorts. Because you are working on your own, you aren’t able to observe the progress of others, as in a classroom.

Rest assured, though, that if you are having problems, you aren’t alone. At the early stages, the trick is just to stick with it, doing all the speed reading exercises. In the longrun, chances are excellent that you will successfully decrease your reading time.

Most software programs are also created to be fun with a great deal of interactivity which is much more likely to keep you interested and progressing rather than the standard speed reading courses which can be a bit dull and boring.



Carmen

Phil De Fontenay asked:


Speed Reading For Information Hungry People

This IS the Information Age!

Wouldn’t you love to be able to absorb information faster and retain it?

Learning to speed read in these days isn’t just something nice to do if only I had some extra time. No, no, no. It is absolutely vital. In fact, the people who are going to get ahead in life and do well in their jobs and businesses are those that can absorb information the easiest. And of course be able to apply it.

Just being able to read faster is not the answer. Speed Reading WITH comprehension is a must.

Read and comprehend faster with these tips.

1. Don’t leave behind any words that you don’t know.

Get a good simple dictionary and look up ANY words you don’t know. This may seem to slow you down but as you understand more and more it will get faster than ever, with comprehension.

2. Relax.

If you are not relaxed then it is much more difficult to concentrate. You need to be focused or nothing will sink in. The whole idea of absorbing information is the ability to apply it, right? Yes, of course.

3. Be interested in what you are studying.

Let’s face it. How much of the stuff that you learned at school do you remember? I’ll bet it was only what you were very interested in. Get interested and it will go more smoothly.

4. Take short breaks regularly.

Don’t go on a marathon and try to finish the whole book without blinking. Take a short break every hour or so and focus on something else. Make a coffee or listen to some relaxing music. Then get back into it. You will feel refreshed and ready for another input of info.

5. Practice, practice, practice.

The mind is just like a muscle. If you don’t use it the strength will weaken. You need to build it up by practicing. Don’t strain at it too much though. You don’t want to strain a “mind muscle.”

Set a goal. Find out how fast you can read, then, create a plan to increase your ability.

If you can read 200 words per minute, set a goal to achieve 250 words a minute. After reaching this goal, go for 300 words per minute.

This takes time and practice, but the effort is all worth it.

Speed reading is fun so have fun with it.



Vincent

Robert Kokoska asked:


If you have decided that you would like to dramatically increase the speed and efficiency of your reading in order to work or study more effectively, there are several options open to you nowadays. Taking speed reading classes remains a popular option. Though it may be possible to gain the same knowledge through a book, software or a correspondence course, speed reading classes may well be superior to all of these other options.

The opportunity to measure your progress against that of others in the class, and to have personal instruction as needed, can prove to be invaluable and makes learning much easier plus you have the instructor to help you if you are having any problems. Many students progress much faster after they make the choice to attend speed reading classes.

So what can you expect from attending a speed reading class? Some of us would find the idea quite intimidating – probably because they are afraid that they will be unable to learn to read at speeds of 100 words per minute or more. It is true that, just as natural reading speed varies between individuals, so does one’s capacity to learn speed reading. However, don’t be discouraged if you consider yourself a slow reader by nature. Speed reading classes teach you knew techniques for reading that are different from those you normally use. It is not uncommon for the average person to at least double their current normal reading speed.

Take for example, the Evelyn Wood speed reading method (designed by one of the pioneers of speed reading) involves the use of what’s known as a ‘pacer’ to speed up the movement of your eyes across the page. Evelyn Wood had herself stumbled upon this method, when frustrated by her own inability to read faster. The accidental movement of her own hand across a page showed her how the eye is ‘led’ by a moving object. The result? It has been well proven that people can learn to read much faster than previously thought, with little or no loss of comprehension.

Other speed reading classes teach completely different methods but can achieve similiar if not better results. The object of many of them is to stop people from ‘dwelling on’ or stopping at a certain word, because that slows down the reading process considerably. One method, therefore, calls for using your peripheral vision to read. If you read out the the corner of your eyes, so to speak, the eye seems to be naturally drawn forward.

As you get faster – and some speed reading classes claim an incredible 1000 wpm – opinions vary regarding whether comprehension is lost. According to some skeptics, who have studies speed readers under controlled circumstances, it appears that speed does come at the expense of comprehension. In fact, some experts claim that reading faster than 600 wpm means that comprehension is radically reduces. There is also strong evidence to the contrary, however, and most speed reading experts claim that little or no comprehension is lost, even at incredibly high speeds.



Josephine