At what speed do you read?

[vivaldirules]

Tricks of the trade (or, so I suspect): If you want to encourage people to buy your book or software or take your seminar on speed reading, just convince them that they read too slow. Do this most effectively by testing their reading speed by having them read either poorly written text, text with lots of difficult words, text with lots of numbers or statistics (e.g., the ReadingSoft test), or a speech (e.g, the MindBluff test). For the JFK speech, I could sense my reading speed slow as I could almost hear the Kennedy delivering the speech in my head. What a gimmick! I once took a two-day speed reading course that my employer paid for. The pre-test was to read a portion of The Diary of Anne Franck which was filled with names, dates, and places in an unedited diary entry of a teenager - not the easiest thing to read. After four hours of "training", we took a test to see how much we had improved. The text was a selection from a Jack London novel - no "hard" info, just a lot of feelings of cold, wilderness, isolation, etc. Needless to say, everyone did lousy on the pretest and wonderful on the second. I walked out and never finished the course. I have always wished for a good way to improve my reading speed, but I won't go near most vendors because they all seem too slimy to me.

[BuddyBoy]

The readersoft test gave me 333 wpm @ 100% comprehension, which seems low to me, but may be because it was loaded with numbers and stats. Oh, and the comprehension questions were pretty obvious.

I selected the 200-300 in the poll, but my fiction speed is probably closer to 500-600 - faster on an eBook reader without any annoying page turning.

[Colt]

Vivaldirules: You're exactly right, but I figured if we all take the same junky tests, it might even out a bit.

And that's why I've never attended any kind of speed reading course or anything. Most of the time ANY kind of self-help seminar is geared toward making you feel good. - Colt

[europas_ice]

I took a speed reading class in high school, but I don't think I learned much. (I was already a fairly good reader.) I have to agree with the website though (and I know they are advertising) but I think with software that you could practice with on a regular basis, and easily get times and wpms, it would probably help improve reading speed better than just a class.

[phrodod]

I found a great resource to help people learn speed reading from a book. If you like it, consider going onto the site and contributing to the author. He doesn't charge, but accepts donations. (And no, I'm not affiliated with it, but I did learn useful stuff from it.)

http://www.semanticrestructuring.com/lookma.pdf

After following the advice in it, I found my reading speed to roughly double, while my comprehension stayed about the same. By the end of the book, I was speed reading the book as well.

Despite that, my reading speed is still only around 400 WPM.

Phrodod

[jharker]

I scored 300-400 on both tests, but I noticed that I was carefully reading every word, which is not usually the way I read fiction (or even technical documents). I can only assume that knowing I was being measured was making me read differently.

I also felt that the comprehension test was somewhat bogus. Whether you remember specific figures from a paragraph is not the same thing as understanding the meaning or content of the paragraph. In fact, when reading normally, I usually skim the numbers to get a sense of the argument, but I avoid reading them carefully enough to remember them, since that would slow me down too much.

[reycat]

I did the same thing most of the people here did, I was reading really carefully and went back a couple of times to memorize the numbers. 301 wpm- 100%, not bad as I'm at work right now. I will make the other test at home, in a quieter environment.

Not bad, all things considered, since English is my second language. Anyway, I really envy kovidgoyal... I could read much more books if I read as fast as him.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by reycat

Not bad, all things considered, since English is my second language. Anyway, I really envy kovidgoyal... I could read much more books if I read as fast as him.

Keep reading you'll get there ;-)

[reycat]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Keep reading you'll get there ;-)

400-450 wpm in the second test, at home and with no distractions.

By the way, one question for all of you who use to read in a language different from the one you usually speak... I have noticed that when I'm reading a book and somebody talks to me (in Spanish, of course), it bothers me more if the book is in English, and less if it's in Spanish.

Have you noticed something like this?

[Andanzas]

Originally Posted by reycat

Have you noticed something like this?

Not me.

[lexico]

As a data point, Carver (in Optimal Rate of Reading Prose. Ronald P. Carver. Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 1, 56-88. Autumn, 1982. 56) quoted 200ms/word for optimal comprehension. That's 300wpm.

For more background and references, see: http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/~muter/pmuter1.htm

Lex

[Hvatum]

Originally Posted by phrodod

I found a great resource to help people learn speed reading from a book. If you like it, consider going onto the site and contributing to the author. He doesn't charge, but accepts donations. (And no, I'm not affiliated with it, but I did learn useful stuff from it.)

http://www.semanticrestructuring.com/lookma.pdf

After following the advice in it, I found my reading speed to roughly double, while my comprehension stayed about the same. By the end of the book, I was speed reading the book as well.

Despite that, my reading speed is still only around 400 WPM.

Phrodod

EyeQ worked well for me. Speed reading software is certainly a better investment compared to a speed reading course. A course won't offer the kind of eye training exercises nor the short daily repitition which is so important when it comes to something like reading. You didn't learn to read in a four hour session, so it's not surprising that you can't learn to speed read in a four hour session either. You're really kind of re-training your brain how to read.

I probably doubled my reading speed if I'm going for 90% comprehension, or tripled if I'm willing to sacrifice and go for 70%. At first speed reading felt awkward and I missed vocalizing every word. After just a few weeks though I was back to imagining everything which was happening when reading fiction, just as you do when watching a movie.

Really the biggest problem for most people is probably vocalizing. You start off learning to read by reading aloud, and many people never give up that habit. I know I didn't until I finally got around to trying some speed reading stuff.

[moz]

I'm amused that a few of the faster readers went back and re-read the numbers to push their comprehension up. Since I read the thread first I did the opposite - skimmed the text for the numbers, then did the test. I scored 100% and 8000 wpm So my "vote" above is a bit meaningless.

In practice I read ~500wpm recreationally and "it depends" with educational stuff. For arts courses at school I was way more than twice that speed but I was reading for the feel of the material rather than to be able to recite large chunks of it. With engineering texts I was slower than recreational speed, but not by much.

[Hvatum]

Originally Posted by moz

I'm amused that a few of the faster readers went back and re-read the numbers to push their comprehension up. Since I read the thread first I did the opposite - skimmed the text for the numbers, then did the test. I scored 100% and 8000 wpm So my "vote" above is a bit meaningless.

In practice I read ~500wpm recreationally and "it depends" with educational stuff. For arts courses at school I was way more than twice that speed but I was reading for the feel of the material rather than to be able to recite large chunks of it. With engineering texts I was slower than recreational speed, but not by much.

I'm about the same, I scored 600 with 90% on the test, but in practice I'm actually closer to 400-500. Also I like to get through more books, there are so many things that I want to read and I find I get more enjoyment by reading through more stuff quickly then a few books slowly. If there were just a few books worth reading every year then I would read more slowly

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by HarryT

When I forced myself to re-read it slowly and carefully, my speed was 430 wpm with 100% comprehension, but I can't imagine reading a book for pleasure at that snail-like speed.

I can see the advantages of speed reading for ploughing through technical stuff as fast as possible; but I'm puzzled by the notion of speed reading recreational books.

When I start a reading session I start quite slowly; as I immerse myself into the narrative, I find my reading speeds up to match the rhythm of the text. I get the most enjoyment from reading when I let the book dictate how fast I go.
I'm currently reading a Trollope, so the scenes take place in Victorian settings with people in the costumes of the period. The sounds from the street are of horses and carriages; servants wander to and fro in the background. Very few of these things are described in the book, but your imagination creates them to complete the mental image of the story.
How do speed readers manage to savour the ambience of the story if they're galloping through it at a hundred miles an hour?