Speed Reading Training

Reports and Study Material

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With reports and study material, we suggest you take a two-stage approach.

1 Preparation

Browse through the material you want to read very quickly in order to preview it. Then decide how much time you want to devote to it and how much material you want to cover. Be realistic about the amount of material you will cover in the time you have available. Factors to bear in mind are the difficultly of the material, your familiarity with it, your ability, and your previous knowledge in the area.

Make a note of what you already know about the subject matter. This will give you mental hooks to which you can attach the new material. Then quickly brainstorm what you already know about the material.

Finally, decide what exactly you want to get from the new material. Establish your goals with as much clarity as you can, so that you will know when you have achieved them. For more on goals, see the Goals Course.

2 Study

When you have done this thoroughly you will be ready to start the second study section. There are four stages to this section. If you feel the need, take notes at the end of each stage.

Firstly, get an overview of the material. This will let you know exactly what it is you are looking at, what you can expect to get out of the material and enable you to focus on important sources of information. Essential areas to focus on are the contents table at the front and the index at the back. These will tell you where you can find what is important to you. If you are reading a book, examine the front and back covers: these will give you further general information. Look at the preface, foreword and introduction: these will give you the writer’s view of the material. When you have done all this, skim read the material you have decided to read at one second per page.

When you have completed this overview, read the selected material in more detail. Using a visual guide, read through the selected material at high speed. Your aim here is to become aware of the structure of the material and focus on the important points. Do not slow down at this stage. If there is difficult material, mark it lightly with a pencil and leave it for the next stage. Your aim in this stage is to build a general mental structure.

Thirdly, you should conduct a detailed examination of the material, as by now you should be quite familiar with it. It is at this stage that you focus on the main information in the material and fill in the blanks that you have not yet worked on.

Fourthly and finally, conduct a review of the material. This will help you to fix it in memory and enable you to resolve any remaining difficulties.

Mastering different reading materials: newspapers

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This section is designed to help you devise a strategy that will help you with particular reading tasks. In this part we will outline an approach that you can use with newspapers, reports and study material, to master the material in the minimum amount of time. You might like to experiment with this approach and see how it works for you.

Newspapers

Start off by skim reading your newspaper at one second per page, using a visual guide (as you should be doing for all your reading). As you skim, use a pencil to mark any articles that are of interest to you.

When you have been through the whole newspaper, read in detail the articles you have marked. If you think they might be of use to you in the future, cut them out and keep them. Throw the rest away.

Works of literature

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When you are reading (or noting) works of fiction, you can concentrate on various different topics to maintain interest and motivation. Among these are the following: -

Plot or storyline

How important is the actual plot or story line? In some novels, particularly, thrillers and mysteries, plot is most important and character development is secondary. Ask yourself does the plot hold together in a logical manner?

Philosophical system

What is the philosophical system underlying the work? Few novels set out an explicit philosophical stance. However, some raise certain philosophical questions: for instance, works by Dostoyevsky and Sartre deal with ethical matters. Other works deal with political philosophy, such as George Orwell’s, 1984 and Animal Farm. Some deal with metaphysics and ontology, such as Martin Amis’s Time’s Arrow and any number of science fiction works.

It is possible to question every work of literature from a philosophical standpoint, because they all assume the existence of a world that is different in some way from the actual word. Ask yourself to what extent is a world that does not exist capable of having any meaning at all? What assumptions do you need to make to buy into the story?

Standpoint

Another factor to take into consideration is the standpoint from which the book is written. Is it written in the third person or the first person? Examples of the latter are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. You might ask to what extent the words written and the views presented are those of the fictional author (Finn / Gulliver) or of the real author (Twain / Swift).

Character development

Just as some books concentrate on plot development, other concentrate on the development of the various characters. See the works of Charles Dickens for examples. You can use the idiosyncrasies and the catchphrases of the different characters as hooks to remember them and their situations. Other books devote relatively little time to character development. These present more opportunities for you to use your own imagination and creativity.

Mood

Some books are written in a very realistic prose style, including mundane details of the protagonists’ lives. See for example, Remembrance of Things Past by Proust. Others convey an air of unreality, which affects the mood of the whole book. For example, see One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Setting

The setting of the book is its physical or temporal location. What is the physical setting of the book? Which country is it set in? Is it set mainly indoors or outdoors? How does the setting affect the mood? King Lear (William Shakespeare) and Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë) are examples of works where the various locations create a mood and relate significantly to other facets of the work. For instance, the two houses in Wuthering Heights are symbolic of Heathcliff and Cathy’s different characters.

You might also consider the temporal setting. When is the novel set? This will determine the cultural setting of the characters and what might realistically be expected of them. For instance, the status of women in Victorian novels is very different from what it is today, and is usually inextricably linked to the development of the plot. See for example, Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen).

Literary Devices

You can look out for various literary devices used by the author, such as simile (when one thing is likened to another) and metaphor (when one thing actually stands for another). You can also look out for the use of imagery, when the author uses visual (or other sense related) words to convey his or her meaning. Symbolic imagery can also be used. A symbolic image is one in which a symbol stand for something else in the work: for example, in Freudian psychology, certain objects such as trains and tall buildings are phallic symbols.

Taking Notes

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One other way you can maintain involvement with what you are reading is to make notes as you read. As we have said in the Memory Course, writing can increase general recall by as much as six times.

As you read, try noting down the main and secondary ideas in each paragraph, using one, or at most two, words for each idea. Doing this will involve you in the reading without slowing you down significantly. To gain a greater understanding of how to note reading material, look at pages 6 and 7 of the Concept Mapping Course. There we deal with the concept of key words, which will help you identify main and secondary ideas more easily.

Managing your Reading: Paragraph structure

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You can use knowledge of paragraph structure to make better decisions about where specifically to direct your attention as you read. Just as you do not need to read every single word with the same degree of attention, the same with paragraphs. Some are more important than others, and you can use your knowledge of the different types of paragraph to decide where to concentrate: -

Explanatory paragraphs

An explanatory paragraph will typically start with the idea to be explained. The middle section will link the ideas in what is hopefully a logical manner. The final sentence will be some sort of conclusion. Explanatory paragraphs are relatively important and therefore you should devote a high degree of attention to them.

Descriptive paragraphs

These are subsidiary to explanatory paragraphs. They may reiterate the same idea with an aim of increasing comprehension. Alternatively, they may provide an example to demonstrate the idea, which, if you already understand the concept under discussion, you might want to skip over.

Concluding paragraphs

Coming at the end of a sequence, these will summarise the main ideas or arguments under discussion, and maybe give you an idea of the writer’s opinion. These can, therefore, be very important.

Making sure that you focus on the different types of paragraph as you read will maintain your involvement with the material and thereby increase your understanding.

Managing your reading: Content

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One of the main ways that you can get more out of your reading is to increase your understanding of what is being said. Lack of understanding can lead to a decrease in motivation to read, and thus a reduction in understanding and speed. You may get bogged down and not want to pursue your reading any further.

There are various different levels at which any piece of writing can be understood (or misunderstood):

Letter recognition

The most basic level of understanding is the recognition of the characters that make up the words being used. We assume that you are already able to do this to a high level or you would not be reading this now. However, implicit in this is an assumption that you can actually see what you are reading. If your eyes are not up to the task, then you will find that your understanding is limited. If you think that your eyesight is defective in any way, we suggest that you consult an optician.

Word recognition

The next level of understanding is that of individual words: you may find that your understanding is limited by a poor knowledge of the English language. If so, we suggest that you consult the Vocabulary Course, which will help you broaden your overall vocabulary and gain an understanding of the construction of a large number of English words that are based on foreign words.

Meaning

Moving on to a higher level of meaning, we come to an understanding of what the words you are reading actually mean. A full discussion of this would take a book by itself and still be incomplete. We merely summarise a number of points to bear in mind: -

* The writer is trying to convey some sort of idea to the reader. Is this idea stated explicitly in the text? That is, is it literal? If not, how do we know what the writer is trying to say. Is it implied? If it is implied, why is that the case? Is there a reason for not stating it explicitly? Perhaps because the idea is considered too obvious to state. The writer may assume a degree of common knowledge with the reader. However, the writer’s experience of the world will inevitably be different from the reader’s, so this assumption may be misplaced. If you don’t understand something because your assumptions differ from the writer’s, don’t be afraid to challenge the author’s view of the world.

* Remember, also, that whether the meaning is express or implied has no bearing on whether or not it is true. Many people are inclined to believe what they read merely because it is in print. This is not the case.

* Another reason that an idea may not be expressed explicitly is that the author may be lacking confidence about the idea, or may be embarrassed. Bear this in mind when reading and consider whether this has any impact on the writer’s credibility. Alternatively, it may be the case that the author hasn’t thought to question his assumptions. We all live by assumptions that we don’t challenge. Life would be too complicated if we constantly challenged every assumption that we lived by. But sometimes doing so can be fruitful. For instance, by challenging everyone’s assumptions about the inflexibility of time and space, Einstein came up with his theories of relativity.

A good approach to understanding at this level of meaning is to adopt a critical and questioning approach. As you read, question what the author is saying. Does what he says make sense? Has he adopted any underlying assumptions? Is he assuming certain knowledge on the reader’s part? If so, what? Taking such an approach will increase your emotional and logical involvement with your reading and make it more memorable. If you have completed the Memory Course you will know that you can increase your chances of remembering something by involving your whole brain. Switching on your critical faculties will do this. You will find more about critical thinking in the Logical Thinking Course.

Managing Your Reading

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The aim of this section is to give you various strategies to help you manage your reading, so that you can better decide how to direct your attention; what to read and what to ignore; and how to be in the best position to put what you read to good use. You can use the strategies here with all different types of reading tasks, including novels, books, articles, study material, letters and reports.

We are going to look at ways of increasing your understanding of what you are reading, including the importance of previewing, broadening your vocabulary and getting a grip on the structure and logic of what is being presented. We will also look at paragraph structure and show how you can use knowledge of this to decide the relative importance of what is being said, what to read and what to skip over.

For reading material that you will want to use as a source of knowledge, such as reports and study material, we will give you advice on how best to approach reading it.

Reading Exercises

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Having completed the basic exercises, you are now ready to put what you have learned into practice in real reading situations, and push your reading speeds to new heights. If your turn to the Speed Reading – World Literature Classics document, you will find extracts from one hundred classic works of literature. Each is laid out in landscape format so that it looks just like it would in a book.

Before you start, make sure that you are properly prepared by adopting the principles of good practice outlined earlier on. It is particularly important to make sure that you are in the best frame of mind for reading at speed, so make sure that you are properly relaxed and in an alpha state (see page 7)

When you have done this you are ready to start the reading exercises. In addition to the extracts, you are going to use the transparencies supplied in the Speed Reading – Transparencies document to set various different reading speeds.

Exercise 1

The aim of this exercise is to take your normal reading speed and push yourself to read a little faster. By doing so, you will gradually increase your usual reading speed.

Select one of the extracts from world literature. You are going to use this throughout this exercise.

To warm up you are going to skim read the extract, reading one page every second. If you want to, you can use the skimming transparencies provided in the Speed Reading – Transparencies document. Select the transparency that corresponds to your preferred fixation rate, set your metronome to that rate and read one page per second, by focusing on the spots, using your preferred form of visual guide. If you want to skim without using the transparency, feel free to do so, but use your visual guide. Doing this exercise encourages visual, non-auditory reading, prevents back-skipping and regression and reduces sub-vocalisation.

When you started this course you calculated your normal reading speed. Select the following six transparencies. Remember to use the ones appropriate for your preferred fixation rate: -

* The one that corresponds (most closely) to your normal reading speed

* The one that corresponds to your normal reading speed plus 100 wpm

* The one that corresponds to your normal reading speed plus 200 wpm

* The one that corresponds to your normal reading speed plus 300 wpm

* The one that corresponds to your normal reading speed plus 400 wpm

* The one that corresponds to your normal reading speed plus 500 wpm

If the precise transparency is not available, use the nearest available one instead.

Select the first transparency, and place it over the first page of the extract you are using. Set your metronome to your preferred fixation rate, and start reading. Focus on the x’s, one x per beat, and read this way for one minute, remembering to use a visual guide. If you move on to a new page, do so, but continue using the same transparency. Remember to stay as relaxed as you can.

When one minute is up, select the next transparency and start again from the beginning of the extract, reading at 100 wpm faster than your normal speed. Do this for one minute.

Work through the different transparencies, so that you spend a minute reading at your normal reading speed plus 200, plus 300, plus 400 and plus 500 wpm.

Your aim in this exercise is to get your eye used to reading at these faster speeds. Do not worry if you find that your comprehension is limited. Your brain will get used to the faster speed in time.

You will find that as you get faster you will be reading more than one line at a time. You should be reasonably familiar with this now, because you have covered this in the basic exercises.

When you have worked through the transparencies, switch off the metronome, and read the extract normally, as if you were reading a book. Push yourself to read as fast as you can, while maintaining comprehension. Remember to use a visual guide. Time how long it takes you, and when you have finished, work out your current reading speed, and make a note of this at page 59 in the materials section.

Exercise 2

In the previous exercise, you started off from your normal reading speed and got gradually faster. In this exercise we are going to use a different approach. You are going to work out your potential reading speed (PRS), and read at this speed. Doing this will get you used to reading at and around your potential.

You can work out your PRS quite easily by multiplying the following two numbers together: take your preferred fixation rate, (i.e. the number of fixations per second), and multiply by the maximum number of words you were able to read in the expanding your focus exercise (page 16). This should give you the number of words you are currently capable of reading in one second. Multiply by sixty to give the potential number of words per minute.

(Summary: PRS = fixation rate x maximum words per fixation x sixty)

Make a note of this at page 60 in the materials section. This number should be constantly rising as you continue your practice. Reassess this number every week.

Now take out the following five transparencies: -

* Potential reading speed minus 200 wpm

* Potential reading speed minus 100 wpm

* Potential reading speed

* Potential reading speed plus 100 wpm

* Potential reading speed plus 200 wpm

Select an extract from the world literature materials, and do the same as you did for Exercise 1. Skim read the extract, taking one second to read each page, and then read it through five times using the different transparencies for one minute each, starting off with the slowest (PRS minus 200) and working up to the fastest (PRS plus 200).

Again, do not worry if you find that your comprehension is limited. Your brain will get used to the faster speed in time.

As before, when you have worked through the transparencies, switch off the metronome, and read the extract normally, as if you were reading a book. Push yourself to read as fast as you can, while maintaining comprehension. Remember to use a visual guide. Time how long it takes you, and when you have finished, work out your current reading speed as you did for Exercise 1. Record this at page 61.

Exercise 3

In this exercise you are going to push your reading speed to much higher levels.

Remembering to select the transparencies appropriate for your preferred fixation rate, take out the following five transparencies: -

* 1000 wpm

* 2000 wpm

* 3000 wpm

* 4000 wpm

* 5000 wpm

Select an extract from the world literature materials, and do the same as you did for exercises 1 and 2. Skim read the extract, taking one second to read each page, as you have done before, and then read it through five times using the different transparencies, starting off with the slowest (1,000 wpm) and working up to the fastest (5,000 wpm). In this exercise you should read the article through to the end each time. When you are reading at 5,000wpm this should take you only about 24 seconds. Do not worry whether you only understand a small proportion when you are reading at these extremely high speeds.

These three exercises use the so-called motorway effect, which occurs when you have spent some time driving at a high speed and then have to slow down. Often, you underestimate how fast you are going. For instance you might think you are doing 30 mph when in fact you are still doing 50 mph. Similarly, by forcing yourself to read at very high speeds and then allowing yourself to read naturally, you will find your natural reading speed is now much faster.

Variations

You can vary each of these three exercises by changing your reading pattern, and reading both backwards and forwards.

Advanced scanning exercise

In this exercise you will practise scanning in a more realistic way. At page 63 in the materials section you will find a list of five of the extracts and ten words that appear in them with the number of times that they occur.

Pick an extract and scan through it looking for the first word on the list. When you have found it the required number of times, pick the next word and look for that one. Carry on until you have found all ten words. Time how long it takes to complete, and make a note of it at page 64. As you practise this you should find that your scanning skills improve and the time it takes you to find all the words falls.

Skimming exercise

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The aim of this exercise is to help you to preview material at high speeds. By previewing material, you will see all of the material you are planning to read in a very short space of time, and even if you do not take it all in, you will gain an idea of the structure and content of the material you will be reading.

As you preview, your brain will be able to start making subconscious connections between what you are seeing and knowledge you already have. This will make it easier to absorb when you read through more thoroughly later on. We suggest that you preview all material you read, with the possible exception of any reading purely for pleasure, where you want to be surprised by what happens next.

In this exercise you will use the extracts from world literature (alternatively, you could use a book of your own), and using your visual guide, read at the rate of one page per second. Start your guide off at the top left hand corner of the left hand page and move it diagonally to the bottom right hand corner of the same page. Then move on to the right hand page, start at the bottom left corner, and move diagonally up to the top right.

Use your normal fixation rate. If you are using a fixation rate of four fixations per second, you should be making four fixations on each page.

If you are not sure where to focus, turn to the separate Speed Reading Transparencies document. Pages 1 to 5 contain the appropriate transparencies for this exercise. Select the transparency appropriate for your fixation rate and place it over each page, using the x’s as your points of focus. Do this for two minutes or so. These transparencies are designed for use with the extracts we have provided. If you use your own reading material, they may not work as well. However, aim to use these transparencies for only a limited period of time. Once you have done this exercise a number of times, you should be familiar with where to focus as you skim read. At this point, do this exercise without using the transparencies.

Scanning exercise

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The aim of this exercise is to get the eye and brain used to scanning for a particular word or number. This is not skill you will necessarily use when reading normally, but you might need it when you are looking through material for a particular item, for instance a word, piece of information or a name. Moreover, it has been shown that by scanning in this manner, you will actually take in more of what you are reading than when you are read without any particular object of focus in mind.

At page 55 in the materials section, you will find sequences of numbers. This time the left-hand column is repeated elsewhere in the same row. Cover up all the rows and then reveal one row at a time. Your aim is to spot where in the row the left hand sequence has been repeated.

Move from the shorter sequences to the longer ones. Go as quickly as you can and record the time you take at the bottom of the page. Repeat this exercise regularly and see if your times improve.

As with the other exercises, if you run out of material, make up some similar exercises of your own.

Exercise to practise reading backward

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The aim of this exercise is to get you used to taking in words backwards. Learning to read backwards will enable you can move your eyes over the page from right to left as well as from left to right, thus saving yourself time.

Turn to page 50 in the materials section. You will be presented with a sequence of words that make sense backwards but not forwards. Cover them up with the card, then reveal them in the same way as for the previous two exercises. Reveal them at the normal fixation rate and do your best to make sense of them. When you write them down, do so in the order in which they make sense (i.e. the reverse of how they are presented to you). You may need to go a little slower initially, but aim to get your speed back up to the normal fixation rate as soon as you can.

As before, move from the shorter sequences to the longer ones and try and push yourself to take in more and more words. Keep a record of the maximum that you can take in and the next time try and go one higher.

Exercise to practise reading vertically

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Exercise to practise reading vertically

We have stated that your eye makes no distinction between reading vertically or horizontally, forwards or backwards. The next two exercises are designed to get your brain used to taking in information both vertically and backwards, and to increase the number of words that can be taken in at the same time.

Turn to page 45 in the materials section. You will see sequences of numbers arranged vertically. These start off with short sequences which get longer as you progress. Start off with the shorter sequences and cover them up with the card in exactly the same way you did for the previous exercise. You will then quickly reveal one sequence at a time by moving the card out of the way, and then replacing it.

As before, your aim is to reveal each sequence for the length of time that corresponds to the fixation rate you are using. Set your metronome to the appropriate speed and reveal the sequence for one beat only. Your aim is to make sure that you are able to see and to read all of each sequence, and so after each one, write down what you see. Since you may not be used to reading vertically, in the initial stages of doing this exercise you may, if you want, increase the amount of time that you reveal each sequence for, but try to make it your aim to use the same fixation rate as you used for the previous exercise.

As you work through the exercise move from the shorter sequences to the longer ones. Try and push yourself so that you take in ever more words per fixation and the next time you practise try and go one higher. If you run out of numbers, make up some of your own.

Exercise to expand your focus

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We stated earlier that there are essentially two ways of speeding up your reading: either increase the number of fixations per second your eye makes, or increase the number of words you absorb in each fixation. The aim of this exercise is to increase the latter, the number of words per fixation.

You will do this by looking at some sequences of words and numbers, aiming to take the whole sequence in with one fixation. You will start off with shorter sequences and then move on to longer ones. We have provided a number of these sequences at page 36 in the materials section.

Set your metronome to the fixation rate you have previously identified. Find a piece of card or a blank sheet of paper. Turn to the first word or sequence of words and cover it up with the card. Then, in time with the metronome, move the card out of the way so that you can see the sequence, and then replace it, covering up the sequence once again. Reveal the word sequence for one beat only.

Your aim is to make sure that you are able to see and to read all of each sequence, and so after each one, write down what you see.

As you work through the exercise the sequences get longer. Try and push yourself so that you take in ever more words per fixation. Make a note of the maximum number of words that you can take in at page 44 and the next time you practise try and go one higher. Once you have used up the sequences here, make up some more of your own adopting the same format.

Using a Visual Guide

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When you use a visual guide, you can either use your whole hand or just some of your fingers. There are a number of different hand shapes you could use. Try practising with different hand shapes and adopt whichever works best for you.

Alternatively, you could use a pen as a guide. The advantage of a pen is that it obscures less text, and so your peripheral vision is more able to give you a preview of what is coming.

If you haven’t used a visual guide before, remember that when practising a new skill that requires concentration, people have a tendency to tense their bodies and to hold their breath, so be aware of this and stay as physically relaxed as you can. Keep your breathing slow and measured, and your body, especially your guide hand and shoulders, relaxed.

Variations

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Variation 1 - Reading Backwards

We have already discussed reading backwards and how this can save you time, thereby speeding up your reading. You can practise the eye movements for this by reading one row from left to right and the following row from right to left, alternating between the two. If you do this, keep to the same fixation rate, and read through all the different pages, as you did for the main exercise.

Variation 2 - Using a Visual Guide

Do these exercises both with and without visual guide. You will find it easier with a visual guide, but you should train yourself to do without, as it will not always be possible or appropriate to read with a guide.

Exercise to gain control of your point of focus

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Turn to the separate Speed Reading Transparencies document. You will see a number of sheets of transparent paper marked with red x’s, some closer together and some further apart. The aim here is to train your eye to focus on certain points of the page, corresponding to where you will focus when actually reading.

For example, if you take in four words per fixation, and the average page contains three hundred and fifty words, you will focus on eighty-eight points per page. If you are going faster and taking in eight words per fixation, you will be making forty-four fixations per page. The different sheets provided correspond to different values for words per fixation, and help you practise where to focus your eyes.

By training your eye to do this without having to actually read anything, you can devote your attention solely to moving the eye to the correct part of the page. You will be training your eye to move properly and developing muscle memory at the same time.

The contents section to the transparencies shows approximately how many words you would take in each fixation. This figure has to be approximate, because not all words are the same length, not all pages are laid out the same way, not all print fonts are the same size, and not all pages are the same size. It will, however, give you a feel for different points of focus, and with practice you will be able to make the necessary adjustments for different types of reading situation. For example, if you are reading a lot of dialogue, much of the right hand side of the page might be blank. You would not bother to focus on this part of the page, as you would just be wasting your time.

When doing this exercise, use the metronome, and set its rhythm to the fixation rate that you established in the previous exercise. Focus on each point in turn, from left to right. When you reach the rightmost x, move down a row and start again on the left, just as if you were reading a book. You will see each page is laid out to look like two pages from a normal book, so complete the left hand page before you start on the right hand side.

Read through each page at least twice before moving on to the next one.

[Note – use transparencies 5 to 30 for this exercise. Do not use 1 to 4]

Exercise to gain control of your eye fixations

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The aim of this exercise is to establish how many individual fixations your eye can make in a second and to push that number as high as you can.

Turn to page 34 in the materials section where you will find a sheet of paper with numbered dots marked on it. Your aim is to focus on each numbered dot in turn, and then move on to the next one, and to do so under control in a regular rhythm.

If you have a metronome set it to two beats per second, and focus on one dot per beat. Do this for one minute. If this means going back to the top of the page and starting again, do so.

When you have done this for one minute, increase the fixation rate by one beat per second, so from two fixations per second you will increase to three per second. Adjust your metronome accordingly. Do this for one minute. The aim here is push your eyes to move and focus more quickly.

Keep increasing the speed every minute, until you find a rate at which you start to fail. In the space provided in the materials at page 35, record the fastest rate that you were able successfully to focus on each number (that should be the last one before you failed). This fixation rate will be the rhythm that you are going to use in the remaining exercises. So if you were able to focus four times per second, use a fixation rate of four for the following exercises.

If, at the end of this exercise, you find that your eyes are a little tired, take a short break. Also, if you find, that reading at your fastest fixation rate for an extended period tires your eyes out too much, slow down just a little. But, as your eye muscles get stronger, try not to do this.

As time progresses and as you find your eye muscles getting stronger, aim to increase your number of fixations per second, but keep good form and ensure that your point of focus is always under control.

Your fixation rate need not be a whole number. If you find that four fixations per second is manageable, while five is beyond you, try four and a half instead. Always try and go as fast as you can, while at the same time keeping good form. Keep repeating this exercise regularly to push your eyes to move and focus more quickly.

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Eye exercises

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These exercises for strengthening the eye muscles are also to be found in the Flexibility Course. So, if you are already doing these exercises, there is no need to duplicate them here. They should take no more than five minutes in total.

Exercise 1

Centre your head and focus your eyes straight in front of you. Now, keeping your head still and moving only your eyes, look up as far as you can. Keep the movement slow. It should take about one second to complete. Hold your eyes at the top for a second and move them back to the centre again. Now look down, hold and return to the centre in exactly the same way. Do this sequence five times. Remember to breathe slowly through the nose.

Exercise 2

Now centre your head and focus straight ahead again. Keeping your head still and moving only your eyes, look as far to your left as you can, hold for a second, and return to the centre. Then look to your far right, hold, and return to the centre. Do this five times.

Exercise 3

Centre your head and focus straight ahead. Keeping your head still look diagonally up and to the left, again as far as you can, hold, and return to the centre, then look down and to the right, hold, and then return. As before, do this five times, and then do the same looking up to the right and down to the left.

Unless you have exercised your eye muscles before, you might find this quite tiring, but as they get stronger, slow down each movement that you make. This will make your eye muscles work harder. Each movement, and each hold, should be one second long when you start doing these exercises, but aim to extend that to five seconds as your eyes get stronger.

Exercise 4

Centre your head and eyes again. Now slowly move your eyes in a circle, starting at the top and moving clockwise, stretching your eye muscles, so that the circle your eyes are describing is as large as it can possibly be. Keep the movement slow and steady. Do this five times. Then do the same, moving your eyes in an anti-clockwise direction. Again, as your eyes get stronger, slow down your eye movement to work the muscles harder.

Exercise 5

Centre your head and your eyes. Find an object directly in front of you that is a long way away and focus on it. It could be a spot on a far wall, or something you can see outside through a window.

Now hold your thumb up in front of you, and keeping it in focus, move it slowly towards your eyes. Stop moving it just before it starts to go out of focus. Your thumb, therefore, should be at the closest point that you can focus on.

You are now ready to start the exercise. Holding your thumb in place, switch your focus between your thumb and the distant object, ten times in succession, focusing on each object for one second. As your eye gets stronger, see if you can move your thumb closer to your face and still keep it in focus, and increase the number of repetitions from ten to twenty.

Reading forwards and backwards

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The eye takes in information from the outside world in any and all directions. It doesn’t care whether it is presented left to right, right to left, up to down, or down to up. Our brains however, are used to taking in written information in a linear order, and the reason for this is readily apparent: language is a linear medium with one word following another to give the meaning. However, your brain is intelligent enough to derive meaning from words if they right order not presented even in are. Indeed, many languages use a completely different word order. For instance, the word order in Japanese is often the reverse of what it is in English, and certain languages are read from right to left rather then left to right.

What this means is that you can reduce the amount of time the eye is in movement by learning to read backwards and incorporating this into your speed reading practice. Normally, each time you reach the end of a line, your eye has to go all the way back to the beginning of the next line, doing no useful work in the meantime. This doesn’t take very long, but over a number of lines it adds up.

For instance, if it takes a quarter of a second to move from one line to the next, on an average page, that is ten seconds of time where no useful work is being done. This can be eliminated if you read one line forwards and the next line backwards. Not everyone seems to be able to do this, but we suggest that you experiment to see if you can.

By the same token, as you expand your visual field with the exercises in this section, there is no reason why you should not be able to take in more than one line at a time. So rather than reading one line at a time, you might try to read two, three or more at a go.

Visual guide

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We have already shown that it is easier to focus your eye where you want to by using a visual guide. Using a visual guide means that you will be able to make sure your eye stops at the desired point on the page, rather than at random haphazard intervals. We suggest that you practise using both your hand and a pen as a guide. We also suggest that you practise using no guide at all, as it will not always be possible to use a visual guide, although it is always preferable to do so.

Implications for speed

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The implications of these facts for speed reading are straightforward. In order to speed up your reading, you need either increase the number of fixations per second, or alternatively, take in more words with every fixation.

For example, to read at 1,000 wpm you would need to have four fixations per second and take in four words per fixation, making a total of sixteen words per second. To double that to 2,000 wpm, you would need to either double the number of fixations to eight per second, or the number of words you take in per fixation to eight, (or some combination of the two), to read at thirty-two words per second.

The exercises in this section will help you to raise both the number of fixations per second you are capable of making, and the number of words per fixation you can take in, but the second of these two is the real key. The reason is that you will soon run up against a physical limit in the number of fixations per second you can make, whereas the potential to increase the number of words you can take in per fixation is much greater. As we have already seen the eye is capable of seeing a whole page in one second. In order to read this much, however, it is your brain, not your eye, that you need to work on.

In order to for the eye to accurately stop, focus, move on, stop and focus again, the muscles of the eye need to be in good condition. We have included a number of exercises that will strengthen the muscles of the eye, as well as exercises to help you to improve and control your saccadic eye movements. We have also included a number of exercises designed to help your brain take in more information in one go, and to expand your visual field. Whenever you do these exercises make sure that you are in the best, most relaxed frame of mind that you can be in.

Readin faster: eye movements

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One final thing that you should know is that to focus on an object, your eye must be still, relative to that object. So, when you are reading, your eye must stop temporarily to focus on each group of words. Each such stop is called a fixation. This means that when you are reading, your eye moves in a series of jumps, which are called saccadic eye movements. The eye is normally capable of about four or five of these fixations per second. If you watch someone else when they are reading, you will see their eyes making these jumps.

Reading faster: eye physiology

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Eye physiology

By using a device called a tachioscope, which flashes words on a screen for a short space of time, it has been shown that the eye is capable of seeing as many as four words in just two one-thousandths of a second. This means that in one second it can recognise as many as two thousand words, or about seven pages of the average book. It is our aim to get you reading at about 2,000 words every minute, one sixtieth of that speed, so you can see that your eye is certainly up to the task.

The inside surface of your eye, the retina, contains about 130 million light sensitive cells, each of which responds to the colour and intensity of light. Each cell is capable of processing about five photons every second. Your perception is sharpest at an area of the retina called the fovea. This area is very small: it occupies about 1/40,000 of your visual field. This corresponds to about three letters at a distance of two feet (0.62 meters). Try this now: hold this page about two feet from your eye, and focus on any word. You should find that about three letters stand out in sharp focus, while all the others are peripheral. However, the fact that a word is in your peripheral vision does not prevent you from reading it. Try focusing on the word you just looked at. Without moving your eyes, you can still recognise whole words close to the one you are looking at.

So, we know that you can read without focusing sharply on every word you read. In fact, doing so slows you down and feels unnatural. Read the following sentence, one word at a time.

The

Cat

Sat

The

Mat

Doesn’t it feel unnatural to read this way? Taking in one word at a time slows you down, restricts the amount of information you take in with each eye fixation, and prevents you from grouping words into concepts. The eye can take in many words in one go, and to read at high speeds you should take advantage of this fact. Furthermore, it doesn’t matter if in doing this you do not take in every word you read. It is possible to leave out some words and still be able to understand what you are reading.

Establishing good reading habits

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I have now covered some of the problems that may prevent you from reading at high speeds. Now we will look at some of the things you can do to improve your reading and to make sure that you get the most out of it. The first of these is ensuring that you are in the best mental state for reading.

State of Mind

As I have stated elsewhere (see the Concentration Course), the alpha mental state is associated with improved mental performance, including speed reading, and so, if you want to be able to read at high speeds you should aim to be in this state whenever you are reading. If you have completed the Concentration Course, you should, by now, be adept at achieving this. If you have not, we include a summary of the steps you need to take below. For a more detailed explanation, refer back to the Concentration Course.

Consider for a moment what it actually means to read something. It is much more than merely moving your eyes over the page that you are reading. Instead, it is a process involving a number of different stages: light particles, called photons, hit the page and are reflected towards your eye. They pass through the lens and are focused onto your retina. Here, neurons fire, stimulating the visual cortex or your brain. Your brain reorganises the information it receives into visual symbols and recognises these symbols as the letters on the page.

It then builds these up into words and links these words together in a logical fashion, so that you are able comprehend what you are reading. However, that is not the end of the matter: you still need to store what you read in both short and long term memory to make sense of it, so some form of recall is necessary. This is a highly complicated process involving many different parts of the brain and therefore it is important that you are in a completely focused state of mind as you read. It will assist you in the initial stages of basic comprehension, with the logical structure of what you are reading, and of course with recall. We therefore strongly advise you complete the

Concentration Course, as it will enable you to direct all of your mental energies towards whatever it is that you are reading.

Attaining the right state of mind

Sit still for five minutes, and allow yourself to relax. Breathing through your nose, inhale deeply from your abdomen. Breathe in for a count of three, hold for another three count, and exhale for a count of three. Do not strain as you breathe. If you are unsure how to breathe from your abdomen, refer to the abdominal breathing section at page 5 of the Breathing Course. If you are having difficulty relaxing physically, do the sun salutation and facial exercises on pages 19 and 23 of the Flexibility Course and start again. As you sit and breathe, command your mind to be still. Focus entirely on your breath as it goes in and out of your nose. When you have spent five minutes sitting like this, breathing deeply and relaxing, you should be in the right state of mind. Continue breathing slowly and deeply throughout the entire reading session.

If you are still finding that you have any residual distractions or anxieties, the Goals Course and the States of Mind Course will help overcome them, by helping you to establish your precise goals and to attain the right state of mind to achieve them.

Posture

In the long run you will find reading more enjoyable if you adopt a good reading posture. If you slump when you read, your neck and back are bent, and you will restrict the flow of oxygen to the brain, impeding your mental functioning. So ensure that you keep your back straight when you sit down to read, and sit on your sitting bone. Do not strain to adopt a good posture, just be comfortable and well balanced (you will find more about this in the Posture Course and the Flexibility Course). Use a chair that is both comfortable and conducive to good posture.

Light

You need light to read by and the quality of the light you use can affect the quality and enjoyment of your reading. Natural light is preferable, so read by sunlight if you can. Try not to read where the sun is too bright though, or where the shadows and contrast are very strong, as this is likely to be distracting. The best options then are in the shade or near a window.

If you have to use artificial light, make sure that it is not too bright, and that it is diffuse rather than sharp, so that there are no sharp shadows. Place the light behind you on your non-writing hand side, particularly if you are going to be writing or marking your book, as it will minimise the shadows moving across the book as you read.

Fitness

By now you should be familiar with the idea that in order to function at your best in any mental sphere, you need to be in the best possible physical shape, and the courses in the Physical Mastery section will help you to do this. Pay particular attention to the Cardiovascular and Muscular Development Course as this will affect the amount of oxygen your blood can carry to your brain. We have pointed out elsewhere that about forty per cent of your oxygen intake is used by your brain. It receives more than any other organ in your body. Improving your cardiovascular fitness will mean that more oxygen will go to the brain. Another factor that will enhance the flow of oxygen rich blood to your brain is your physical flexibility. Paying attention to this will ensure that muscular tension is minimised. For further information on this see the Flexibility Course.

Healthy eating

To ensure that your brain is functioning at its highest level, and to make sure you are as healthy as you can be, your diet is something that you must also bear in mind. Remember that every single part of your body, every single molecule, comes from something you have once eaten. If you eat rubbish, your body is unlikely to be in a very good state. The Healthy Eating Course will provide you with advice on what you can eat to maintain a healthy body.

Sleep

To function at your best you need to make sure that you are adequately rested and that you are getting a good night’s sleep. The Sleep Course will help you to improve the quality of your sleep.

Motivation

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Another factor that may lead to difficulty concentrating is poor motivation. It is difficult to stay focused on something that you are really not interested in doing. So, if you think that this might be a problem with you, spend a few minutes brainstorming. Ask yourself why you want to read this particular piece of material. What are your motives? Come up with all of the ultimate benefits that doing so will give you, and any intermediate benefits that will accrue. Also, ask yourself what are the negative consequences if you do not read that material. For more on motivating yourself to take action, see the Goals Course.

If, having done this brainstorming exercise, you are still not able to come up with any good reasons to read the material, read something else instead!

Concentration & Distractions

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One problem that you might have is an inability to concentrate on what you are reading. You might find that your mind constantly wanders away from the reading material and you find yourself thinking of other things. If this is the case with you, I urge you to look at the posts on meditation and concentration. In the long term there is no better way of learning to take control of and focus your mind. This will help you with your mental focus and you will be able fully to concentrate on what you are reading without becoming distracted.

Another thing you can do to maintain concentration is to think actively about the material as you read it. Take a critical viewpoint about what is being said: do you agree or disagree with it? What do you think generally about what the author is saying? If you are reading a work of fiction, what do you think about the characters? Do you think the plot realistic? And so on…

You can also make notes about what you are reading as you read. The process of note taking ensures that you are much more involved with what you are doing and so helps to maintain concentration. For more on efficient note taking see my posts on learning how to mind map

Regression and Back Skipping

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Regression is when you consciously return to material you have previously read. Clearly, any time you spend re-reading material is time that you are not reading new material, so doing this will slow you down. If you do regress, you need to ask yourself why you are re-reading the material and whether it is compatible with your goals. For example, if you are reading for pleasure, and you come across a particularly pleasing passage you really want to read again, there is nothing wrong with doing so. You should just be aware that it will slow you down.

However, there may be other reasons why you re-read the same passage. You might be re-reading material with which you are familiar and comfortable in order to avoid moving on to new material that you think will be more difficult. Alternatively, you may be re-reading something because you find it particularly difficult to understand. We will deal further with this in the Managing your Reading section and suggest a different approach. In the meantime, it is generally better to read a passage in one go without re-reading any of it, because you will be able to derive more from the surrounding context, than you will by reading one section over and over in isolation from the rest of the text.

Now that you know about regression, try to become aware of it as you do it. Then you can make a conscious decision whether you want to read a particular piece again or not. One way of making sure that you do not regress is by using your finger as a visual guide. If your eye is focused on your finger as you read, you will find it impossible to return to previous material without being aware of it. Using your finger as a visual guide will force your eye onwards.

Back-skipping is similar to regression, in that it is a return to material you have previously read. However, unlike regression, it is something that happens unconsciously, like a visual stutter causing your eye to move backwards. Again, like regression this will slow you down, and so you should do your best to eliminate it. The best way to do this is again to use a visual guide, because if your eye is focused on your finger, it will be much more difficult for it to focus on anything else, and using a visual guide enables you to control your eye more easily.

Finger Pointing

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Finger pointing is moving your finger over the page as you read it, using it as a visual guide. This is usually perceived as a problem because of the way reading is taught in school. You start off by reading one word at a time, pointing to each word as you do so. As you get more fluent, you are encouraged to stop using your finger because it is supposed to slow you down. The better readers are usually the first to stop using their fingers while the slower ones are the ones who take longer to give up the habit.

However, the reality is that using some form of visual guide, such as your finger, makes it much easier for you to point your eye exactly where you want. Try this exercise. Get a partner to sit facing you and then ask them to move their eyes slowly round in a circle. Watch their eyes very closely. The movements will be very jerky and not very circular. Now ask them to do the same but point an arm out in front of them and then move it around in a big circle, using their index finger as a guide for the eye to focus on. This time the eye movements will be much smoother and more circular.

This exercise demonstrates that you can control your eyes much better if you use your finger as a pointer to focus on. There is no reason why this should slow you down, because all you need to do to speed up your reading if you are using your finger as a pointer, is to move your finger faster.

Subvocalisation

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Subvocalisation can be one of two things: either mouthing words to yourself as you read, or hearing them in your head.

Dealing with the first element, mouthing to yourself: this will be a problem if you want to read very quickly because generally not even the fastest speakers can speak at more than 300 words per minute. Therefore, by mouthing what you are reading to yourself, you will inevitably be limiting the speed at which you can read. The solution to this, in the initial stages, is consciously to refrain from doing so, and speed up your reading till you reach a speed that is impossible to mouth.

Plan to read for twenty minutes every day for the next three weeks. During this period make sure that you refrain from mouthing while you are reading. If you can manage this for three weeks, you should be well on your way to eliminating this habit.

It is possible that you may not be aware that you mouth when you read, as you may do it subconsciously. If you are not sure whether you mouth words, ask someone to watch you as you read. They will be able to tell you.

The second type of subvocalisation is when you hear words in your head as you read. This is less of a problem than mouthing as it is possible to hear at a faster rate than you can speak, and so you should be able to hear every word inside your head and still read at speed. You should try and reduce your reliance on hearing the words in your head as much as you can, though. Try and take in meaning from the visual appearance of the words and push what you hear back into your subconscious as much as you possibly can. You can do this by being completely relaxed and focused. We will say a little more about this in other posts.

Extract from Gulliver's Travels

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Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the third of five sons. He sent me to Emanuel College in Cambridge at fourteen years old, where I resided three years, and applied my self close to my studies: but the charge of maintaining me (although I had a very scanty allowance) being too great for a narrow fortune, I was bound apprentice to Mr. James Bates, an eminent surgeon in London, with whom I continued four years; and my father now and then sending me small sums of money, I laid them out in learning navigation, and other parts of the mathematics, useful to those who intend to travel, as I always believed it would be some time or other my fortune to do. When I left Mr. Bates, I went down to my father; where , by the assistance of him and my uncle John, and some other relations I got forty pounds, and a promise of thirty pounds a year to maintain me at Leyden: there I studied physic two years and seven months, knowing it would be useful in long voyages.

Soon after my return from Leyden, I was recommended, by my good master Mr. Bates, to be surgeon to the Swallow, Captain Abraham Pannell commander; with whom I continued three years and a half, making a voyage or two into the Levant, and some other parts. When I came back, I resolved to settle in London, to which Mr. Bates, my master, encouraged me; and by him I was recommended to several patients. I took part of a small house in the Old Jury, and being advised to alter my condition, I married Mrs. Mary Burton, second daughter to Mr. Edmond Burton, hosier, in Newgate Street, with whom I received four hundred pounds for a portion.

But, my good master Bates dying in two years after, and I having few friends, my business began to fail; for my conscience would not suffer me to imitate the bad practice of too many among my brethren. Having therefore consulted with my wife, and some of my acquaintance, I determined to go again to sea. I was surgeon successively in two ships, and made several voyages, for six years, to the East and West Indies, by which I got some addition to my fortune. My hours of leisure I spent in reading the best authors, ancient and modern, being always provided with a good number of books; and when I was ashore, in observing the manners and dispositions of the people, as well as learning their language, wherein I had a great facility by the strength of my memory.

The last of these voyages not proving very fortunate, I grew weary of the sea, and intended to stay at home with my wife and family. I removed from the Old Jury to Fetter Lane, and from thence to Wapping, hoping to get business among the sailors; but it would not turn to account. After three years’ expectation that thing would mend, I accepted an advantageous offer from Captain William Prichard, master of the Antelope, who was making a voyage to the South Sea. We set sail from Bristol, May 4th, 1699, and our voyage at first was very prosperous.

It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader with the particulars of our adventures in those seas: let it suffice to inform him, that in our passage from thence to the East Indies, we were driven by a violent storm to the northwest of Van Diemen’s Land. By an observation, we found ourselves in the latitude of 30 degrees 2 minutes south. Twelve of our crew were dead by immoderate labour, and ill food; the rest were in a very weak condition. On the fifth of November, which was the beginning of summer in those parts, the weather being very hazy, the seamen spied a rock, within half a cable’s length of the ship; but the wind was so strong, that we were driven directly upon it, and immediately split. Six of the crew, of whom I was one, having let down the boat into the sea, made a shift to get clear of the ship, and the rock. We rowed by my computation about three leagues, till we were able to work no longer, being already spent with labour while we were in the ship. We therefore trusted ourselves to the mercy of the waves; and in about half an hour the boat was overset by a sudden flurry from the north.

What became of my companions in the boat, as well as of those who escaped on the rock, or were left in the vessel, I cannot tell; but conclude they were all lost. For my own part, I swam as fortune directed me, and was pushed forward by wind and tide. I often let my legs drop, and could feel no bottom: but when I was almost gone and able to struggle no longer I found myself within my depth; and by this time the storm was much abated. The declivity was so small that I walked near a mile before I got to the shore, which I conjectured was about eight o’clock in the evening. I then advanced forward near half a mile, but could not discover any sign of houses or inhabitants; at least I was in so weak a condition, that I did not observe them. I was extremely tired, and with that, and the heat of the weather, and about half a pint of brandy that I drank as I left the ship , I found myself much inclined to sleep. I lay down on the grass, which was very short and soft, where I slept sounder than ever I remember to have done in my life, and, as I reckoned, above nine hours; for when I awaked, it was just daylight.

I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir: for as I happened to lie on my back, I found my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and my hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner. I likewise felt several slender ligatures across my body, from my armpits to my thighs. I could only look upwards; the sun bean to grow hot, and the light offended my eyes. I heard a confused noise about me, but, in the posture I lay, could see nothing except sky. In a little time I felt something alive moving on my left leg, which advancing gently forward over my breast, came almost up to my chin; when, bending my eyes downwards as much as I could, I perceived it to be a human creature not six inches high, with a bow and arrow in his hands, and a quiver at his back. In the mean time I felt at least forty more of the same kind ( as I conjectured) following the fist. I was in the utmost astonishment, and roared so loud, that they all ran back in a fright; and some of them, as I was afterwards told, were hurt with the falls they got by leaping from my sides upon the ground.

However, they soon returned, and one of them, who ventured so far as to get a full sight of my face, lifting up his hands and eyes by way of admiration, cried out in a shrill, but distinct voice, Hekinah degul: the others repeated the same words several times, but I then knew not what they meant. I lay all this while, as the reader may believe, in great uneasiness: at length, struggling to get loose, I had the fortune to break the strings and wrench out the pegs that fastened my left arm to the ground; for, by lifting it up to my face, I discovered the methods they had taken to bind me; and, at the same time, with a violent pull, which gave me excessive pain, I a little loosened the strings that tied down my hair on the left side, so that I was just able to turn my head about two inches. Bu the creatures ran off a second time, before I could seize them; whereupon there was a great shout in a very shrill accent, and after it ceased, I heard one of them cry aloud, Tolgo phonac; when in an instant I felt above an hundred arrows discharged on my left hand, which pricked me like so many needles; and besides they shot another flight into the air, as we do bombs in Europe, whereof many, I suppose, fell on my body (though I felt them not) and some on my face, which I immediately covered with my left hand. When this shower of arrows was over, I fell a groaning with grief and pain, and then striving again to get loose they discharged another volley larger than the first, and some of them attempted with spears to stick me in the sides; but, by good luck, I had on me a buff jerkin, which they could not pierce.

I thought it the most prudent method to lie still, and my design was to continue so till night, when, my left hand being already loose, I could easily free myself: and as for the inhabitants, I had reason to believe I might be a match for the greatest armies they could bring against me, if they were all of the same size with him that I saw. But fortune disposed otherwise of me. When the people observed I was quiet, they discharged no more arrows: but by the noise increasing, I knew their numbers were greater; and about four yards from me, over-against my right ear, I heard a knocking for above an hour, like people at work; when, turning my head that way, as well as the pegs and strings would permit me, I was a stage erected about a foot and a half from the ground, capable of holding four of the inhabitants, with two or three ladders to mount it: from whence one of them, who seemed to be a person of quality, made me a long speech, whereof I understood not one syllable. But I should have mentioned, that before the principal person began his oration, he cried out three times, Langro dehul san: (those words and the former were afterwards repeated and explained to me). Whereupon immediately about fifty of the inhabitants came, and cut the strings that fastened the left side of my head, which gave me the liberty of turning it to the right, and of observing the person and gesture of him who was to speak. He appeared to be of a middle age, and taller than any of the other three who attended him, whereof one was a page who held up his train, and seemed to be somewhat longer than my middle finger; the other two stood one on each side to support him. He acted every part of an orator, and I could observe many periods of threatenings, and others of promises, pity and kindness. I answered in a few words, but in the most submissive manner, lifting up my left hand and both eyes to the sun, as calling him for a witness; and being almost famished with hunger, having not eaten a morsel for some hours before I left the ship, I found the demands of nature so strong upon me, that I could not forbear showing my impatience (perhaps rather against the strict rules of decency) by putting my finger frequently on my mouth to signify that I wanted food. The Hurgo (for so they call a great lord, as I afterwards learnt) understood me very well. he descended from the stage, and commanded that several ladders should be applied to my sides, on which above an hundred of the inhabitants mounted, and walked towards my mouth, laden with baskets full of meat, which had been provided and sent thither by the King’s orders upon the first intelligence he received of me.

(2021 words)

Reading potential

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The following table sets out a ranking of different reading speeds in words per minute (wpm): -

Poor 10 - 100

Below average 100 - 200

Average 200 - 400

Above average 400 - 600

Good 600 - 800

Top 1% 800 – 1000

Top 0.1% 1000 +

The United Nations defines functional literacy as being able to read at 400 wpm.

Assessing your initial reading speed

Before you start any speed reading courses, assess your current reading speed. In the next post I've placed an extract from the beginning of the book Gulliver’s Travels. Read the extract and time how long it takes you. You will need a timer to do this, such as a watch with a second hand or a stopwatch.

When you have done this, work out how many words per minute you can currently read. To do this, convert how long it took you into seconds, by multiplying the number of minutes you took by sixty and then adding on the remaining seconds. So, for example, if you took 5 minutes 40 seconds, multiply the 5 minutes by 60, to give 300 and add 40 seconds, to give a total of 340 seconds.

Then divide the number of words in the article, 2,021, by the number you have just found, in our example, 340, to give 5.94. This is the number of words per second you can read. To convert this to words per minute, multiply this number by 60, giving 356 wpm. This will be your initial reading speed. Make a note of this.

I suggest you assess your reading speed regularly while doing this course.

Which of the above categories do you currently fall into? By the end of the course, you should easily fall into the top 0.1% of readers. In a course on skim reading that was taught at North West University in the USA, the majority of the people who took the course were able to read at speeds of 2,000 wpm when they had finished. One per cent were able to read at 20,000 wpm and one girl was able to read at speeds of up to 80,000 wpm. Do note, however, that skim reading is not precisely the same as speed reading. It is possible to skim read faster than speed read, because your aims are different. The difference between the two will become apparent during the course.

Under competition conditions, speed readers are required to read a book and are then tested on their knowledge by a panel of experts. Speeds of up to 3,850 wpm have been recorded.

By following the Reading Course you will be able to achieve similar results. This means that you should be able to read five pages of an average book every minute, one hundred pages in twenty minutes, two hundred pages in forty minutes and three hundred pages in an hour. You should, therefore, be able to read most books from start to finish in under an hour, and there will be very few that you won’t be able to finish in two hours.

Compare that to how much you can read at the moment, and consider how much more knowledge and information you will be able to take in as a result of such an increase in reading ability. Just in case you have your doubts about your ability to read at these speeds take a piece of card and cover up the sentence on its own at the bottom of this post. Then reveal for just a third of a second. That is the time it takes to say one in one thousand at normal speaking speed.

If you can read all of it, then you will be able to achieve these reading speeds. Even if you couldn’t read all of it, as long as you could see it all, you will eventually be able to achieve the results you want.

You should be able to read this phrase.

Benefits of reading faster

2009-07-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

The benefits of being able to read much more quickly should be self-evident. By learning to read more quickly, you will be able to absorb more new information in less time, expand your knowledge base and enhance your abilities in a wide variety of situations.

As was the case with developing your memory, the ability to read at speed will give you a competitive edge at work, raising your efficiency as well as your earning potential. If you have a certain amount of material that you have to read regularly, you will also free up time to devote to other things and, of course, you will be able to read more. These factors will lead to an expanding knowledge base and awaken interest in new areas, leading to a much richer and fuller life. Your expanded knowledge base could also lead to increase in your general intelligence levels.

I suggest that you spend some time thinking about the establish the specific benefits to you of developing the ability to speed read. Write them down. Identifying these factors will help you to stay motivated.

Introduction

2008-11-29T16:24:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog on speed reading training.

As with my other blogs on personal development these are designed to be an easy to follow outline of the areas we cover in our speed reading courses.

I hope you enjoy reading the posts here. Some will refer to other courses or other parts of this course. You should find links to the other courses on the sidebar.

One word of warning. If you are interested in speed reading you might decide to take it further and do a course. You will find a number of courses that make claims that are quite frankly amazing / incredible. For instance, I have come across claims that would supposedly allow you to read the equivalent of a PHD thesis (68,000 words) in about a minute. What these have in common is that the reading you do will supposedly go into your non-conscious mind and you won't be aware of it, but it will come to you when you need it. I want my speed reading to be conscious reading and that is the aim of the courses |I run.

Having said that, some of the techniques used are valuable (and where they are I incorporate them here), some are useless. Yet people pay very large amounts of money for them. I would advise you to be careful with your money.

Gary Lorrison