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View Poll Results: How fast can you tear through a book?
People still read? I'm all about the audiobooks 1 2.56%
Less than 200 wpm 2 5.13%
200 - 350 wpm 7 17.95%
350 - 500wpm 13 33.33%
500 - 650 wpm 5 12.82%
650 - 850 wpm 5 12.82%
Googol wpm 6 15.38%
Voters: 39. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 07-08-2009, 10:15 AM   #16
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I took a speed reading class in med school, because there were several tons of books to be read. Went to the class three weeks running, and didn't increase my rate, but was still the fastest reader there. Must be sort of like c, with an upper reach of rate, or something...
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Old 07-09-2009, 08:05 AM   #17
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I'm at 220 wpm.

It never used to bother me as it meant my books lasted longer and 220 is near the upper limit of "normal". Now I have so many books to read that I want to improve it. I think 400-500 would be a nice "pleasure reading" speed to be at.

Any suggestions on good courses or reading material to improve? As was mentioned earlier, there are so many scams out there it's hard to tell if there are any "accepted practices" or anything that is considered to work.

Cheers,
PKFFW
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Old 07-09-2009, 09:51 AM   #18
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According to the test, my speed is ca. 415wpm @ 100% recognition.
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Old 07-09-2009, 10:00 AM   #19
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I just did a quick online search for a online test and found http://www.readingsoft.com/
I've never timed my reading speed (nor, to my knowledge, had it timed!) but I've always been a fast reader. I tried the little quick read test at this site, and if it is to be believed. I got 10/11 of the questions correct after reading and it says "You read at 761 words per minute. ", so not too bad I guess.
OTOH, I'm doing it while working, so eh ;p maybe it could be 1000!!!
I guess it's possible... I've always thought my books didn't last long enough ;p

I tend to think as long as you are enjoying what you are reading you're fine... speed tests/speed reading etc just gets you to the end faster, possibly while missing some of the "good stuff". If it's important enough to read, it's important enough to read well, no?
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Old 07-09-2009, 10:09 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PKFFW View Post
I'm at 220 wpm.

It never used to bother me as it meant my books lasted longer and 220 is near the upper limit of "normal". Now I have so many books to read that I want to improve it. I think 400-500 would be a nice "pleasure reading" speed to be at.

Any suggestions on good courses or reading material to improve? As was mentioned earlier, there are so many scams out there it's hard to tell if there are any "accepted practices" or anything that is considered to work.

Cheers,
PKFFW
The dictator program that someone posted earlier is a good way to push your reading speed ahead and its free. The program that I have was Ace Reader which is good, I've been using it for a couple of weeks now and I got my reading speed up by about a 100-150wpm but I've been stuck at around 400 for a while so now I'm using one of their programs that's similar to Dictator to push my reading speed with news articles (since I don't care about remembering everything in a news article it makes for good material to practice with). The program has a couple of good drills that help with speeding up your eye movements and stop regressing while reading.

I had found this site which gave some reviews for speed reading software programs available (I couldn't find any other programs than the ones they mentioned which was surprising I guess not a lot of people make programs for speed reading). You can check it out and see if any of them look helpful to you http://speed-reading-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
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Old 07-09-2009, 10:16 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ceili View Post
I've never timed my reading speed (nor, to my knowledge, had it timed!) but I've always been a fast reader. I tried the little quick read test at this site, and if it is to be believed. I got 10/11 of the questions correct after reading and it says "You read at 761 words per minute. ", so not too bad I guess.
OTOH, I'm doing it while working, so eh ;p maybe it could be 1000!!!
I guess it's possible... I've always thought my books didn't last long enough ;p

I tend to think as long as you are enjoying what you are reading you're fine... speed tests/speed reading etc just gets you to the end faster, possibly while missing some of the "good stuff". If it's important enough to read, it's important enough to read well, no?
Nice! Yea the big trick with speed reading is to read faster while keeping your comprehension either at the same level or better than you were before. I was reading somewhere in the high 200s and the stuff I wanted to read was just piling up so I definitely need to get my speed up. My goal is to get somewhere around 600, if I could get to 760+ that would be amazing.
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Old 07-09-2009, 03:08 PM   #22
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531 wpm, at 55% comprehension... the text was boring as hell, and I don't have a good memory for numbers, so I'm not surprised.
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Old 07-09-2009, 03:54 PM   #23
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For me it would depend upon the subject of the piece I'm reading. I read slower on non-fiction and anything with numbers in it. I tend to skim a bit when reading fiction---move through the descriptions of places a bit quicker and slow down on the dialogue, as it is more interesting to me.
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Old 07-09-2009, 04:01 PM   #24
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For me it would depend upon the subject of the piece I'm reading. I read slower on non-fiction and anything with numbers in it. I tend to skim a bit when reading fiction---move through the descriptions of places a bit quicker and slow down on the dialogue, as it is more interesting to me.
Same here. It all depends on how interested I am, and how well the author writes, whether there's stuff I want to linger over, or if I just need to get the gist of it (as in a technical manual) and I can blow through it.
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Old 07-10-2009, 06:21 AM   #25
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How do speed readers cope with sentences like the one below?
It's typical of much Victorian writing, but I have to pick my way through them pretty closely, otherwise I lose the thread :

"How it was, however, that Lady Markham—who was very different from Brown, who considered herself above the vulgar argument of wealth, one to whom the mystic superiority of blood was always discernible, and a rich roturier rather less agreeable than a poor one—how it was that she looked upon this easy, careless, lighthearted young man, who was ready to make himself the servant of everybody, and who made his way through life like an obscure and trusted but careless spectator, rather than an agent of any personal importance—with altogether different eyes after the secret of his wealth had been communicated to her, is what we do not pretend to explain."
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Old 07-10-2009, 08:01 AM   #26
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I think that in this particular case it makes no sense to read it faster than you could imagine the scene and the words being said. Even if one can gather information from this sentence faster, the way it's written would allow me to enjoy reading it only if I could imagine the scene.
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Old 07-10-2009, 08:10 AM   #27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by junkyardwillie View Post
The dictator program that someone posted earlier is a good way to push your reading speed ahead and its free. The program that I have was Ace Reader which is good, I've been using it for a couple of weeks now and I got my reading speed up by about a 100-150wpm but I've been stuck at around 400 for a while so now I'm using one of their programs that's similar to Dictator to push my reading speed with news articles (since I don't care about remembering everything in a news article it makes for good material to practice with). The program has a couple of good drills that help with speeding up your eye movements and stop regressing while reading.

I had found this site which gave some reviews for speed reading software programs available (I couldn't find any other programs than the ones they mentioned which was surprising I guess not a lot of people make programs for speed reading). You can check it out and see if any of them look helpful to you http://speed-reading-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
Thanks for the suggestions.

Seems from what people have said that alot of "speed reading" isn't really reading at all but merely skipping/skimming over stuff that seems to be unimportant. At least when one is talking speeds of 600 wpm and over. If that is the case I'm not really interested as almost all my reading is for pleasure and I don't want to be skimming it just to get it done.

Anyone know what would be considered a good fast speed that is still actually reading everything on the page and not skimming?

Cheers,
PKFFW
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Old 07-10-2009, 10:07 AM   #28
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Anyone know what would be considered a good fast speed that is still actually reading everything on the page and not skimming?
Judging from the responses here, and my own test, I'd say 400 wpm.
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Old 07-10-2009, 02:35 PM   #29
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It seems that I'm at 457 wpm in the test posted above.
I had 8 of 11 questions right.

I used to read much faster, but somehow I got used to do vocalisation sometime in the last 10 years.

When reading fiction I slow down a lot to really enjoy the book.
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Old 07-10-2009, 02:52 PM   #30
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I seem to come out at about 200 WPM with a 100% comprehension. I've always tested well in reading comprehension. I think I used to read faster but between the courses in literary criticism and philosophy I picked up a habit of reading in analytic mode. So I selected the range with 200WPM on this poll.

When reading the typical novel for pleasure I probably am about 400WPM. I'm pretty sure I read about a page a minute.
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