How to Speed Read and Comprehend More

The most often question asked is, "How can Igetting (memorizing) as they go through this initial
read over 1500 words per minute and stillskill building stage.
understand, or comprehend the material?" StatedAfter the learner is more comfortable with the
in another form, "Does speed reading reallyphysical/mechanical skills, then we build
work?" Without writing an entire course, thiscomprehension in a purposeful manner. When the
article will try to answer these questions.learner has broken out of the old habits they
When people question about reading fast and nothave accumulated in the past, then they are
comprehending, there is a basic misunderstandingtaught how to monitor what the mind is doing as
of terms. Reading is the mind's response to print.they don't have to think so much about the eye
If your mind is not responding when you aremechanics. One of the keys to comprehension is
applying any speed reading technique, then youpreparing the mind for reading. There is a wide
are in fact not reading.assortment of tools to help this phase of training.
The word reading, then, always assumes someThe comprehension approach breaks the learner
level of comprehension. If you have beenout from the traditional left brain approach they
exposed to some program that teaches you howlearned in early life and engage the whole brain, or
to move through materials at very high rates inin other words they learn how to activate the
the thousands of words per minute range andright hemisphere as well. One way of helping to
you do not comprehend, then the program hasdo this is looking through the material in a manner
failed you.that gives you the "30,000 foot view" instead of
How can you Speed Reading and Increase Yourthe word-by-word view you were taught when
Comprehension Rate:first learning to read.
There are two primary aspects of "speedFrom that "high" view, you then learn to navigate
reading." The first is improving the mechanicalat various levels depending on your needs and
aspect of reading. That happens with some sortpurposes. Nevertheless, do remember,
of eye movement techniques. In fact, it iscomprehension is you. It is your mind's response
possible to physically move the eyes and see allto print. As your eyes are moving through the
the words in the material at rates of 10,000 -material, ask yourself, "What am I thinking
100,000 words per minute. Naturally a speedabout?" If it has nothing to do with the print, then
reading program will contain this aspect. Butyou are not reading. You are doing something
unfortunately, this is about all that is trained,else, possibly daydreaming, or criticizing yourself.
leaving the user frustrated. The second aspect ofBring it back to the print. Again, speed reading
speed reading is comprehension. Comprehension isdoes not work. You work it! Learn how to build
the mind's response to the symbols on the page.better comprehension and monitor what your
In effect, then, reading is thinking. You can readmind is thinking about.
as fast as your mind can respond to the print. So,By following these steps, a person's capacity to
to truly speed read, you need to learn how tospeed read becomes more powerful and hence
move your mind faster as well.the individual will learn to comprehend more as
To answer the question, "Does speed readingwell. Furthermore, an individual can also benefit by
really work," I say no! You work it! That meansincreasing their vocabulary and by learning new
there are ways to train your brain to respondwords. By doing this, the individual will be able to
differently as you accelerate your speeds. What Iunderstand the language better and this will
have found to work best is to teach learners thetranslate into faster reading time, hence increasing
mechanics first with some level of comprehension,their speed reading and helping them to
but letting them relax and not worry aboutcomprehend more of the material.