| Before you can learn how to speed read, you | | | | time it took you to read it. Let’s say it took |
| need to determine your average reading speed. | | | | you five minutes. 1760 divided by 5 is 352, your |
| Your average reading speed is the number of | | | | average reading speed. |
| words you can read per minute, or wpm (words | | | | There are a number of things you can do to |
| per minute). The average reading speed of a | | | | increase your average reading speed. Do you |
| five year old child is in the 150 wpm range. The | | | | find yourself having to vocalize the words as you |
| average reading speed of an adult doesn’t | | | | read? This is called sub-vocalization, a bad habit |
| get any larger than that at 250 wpm. The | | | | that slows down a person’s average reading |
| reason for this is because along the way, we pick | | | | speed because we speak slower than we can |
| up a lot of bad habits that slow down our reading | | | | read. Try to be aware of what you do when |
| speed, like sub-vocalization and back skipping. | | | | you read, and catch yourself when you start |
| With speed reading exercises, you can eliminate | | | | sub-vocalizing. Another bad habit that keeps an |
| these bad habits and increase your average | | | | adult’s average reading speed low is back |
| reading speed by as much as 1,000 wpm or | | | | skipping. This is when you go back to reread |
| more. | | | | words or sentences you might have glossed |
| To find out what your average reading speed is, | | | | over. When you read, try to make sure you |
| you will need to find out what your wpm rate is. | | | | understand the word or block of words that you |
| Grab a simple text and count the number of | | | | read before moving on to the next. |
| words on the first three lines. Let’s say that | | | | If you would like to increase your average reading |
| there are 33 words on those lines. Divide this | | | | speed, a good target would be 500 – 800 |
| number by three to obtain the average words | | | | wpm. Once your average reading speed is in the |
| per line. Count the number of lines in the page | | | | 500 wpm range, you’ll notice that you can |
| (let’s say that there are 40 lines) and multiply | | | | read larger quantities of words in shorter amounts |
| this number by the average words per line. In this | | | | of time. Of course, make sure that you can |
| example, there are 440 words per page. Do the | | | | comprehend everything that you read! |
| same for the next four pages. Get your timer | | | | Remember, speed reading is useless if you |
| and hit start as soon as you begin reading. Once | | | | don’t understand what you’re reading. |
| you’ve read the four pages, multiply the | | | | You can easily increase your average reading |
| number of pages you read by its word per | | | | speed by reading every day, or by enrolling for a |
| page. For instance, 440 words per page times 4 | | | | speed reading course. Try working on it by |
| pages is 1760 words read. Divide this by the | | | | yourself before you sign up for a class. |