Improve Your Speed Reading By Practice
- By Matt Chang
- Published 08/14/2008
- Advice
- Unrated
Matt Chang
Buy cheap shoes online and check out http://ibuyshoesonline.com to buy running shoes online or buy women's designer shoes online.
One of the best ways to improve your reading speed, is to practice. Practice reading doesn't mean reading more and more. Practice reading involves the actual art of and conscious decision to work on reading faster than you can actually read. Chances are you won't comprehend much of what you are reading because your brain is so used to going at a slower rate and subvocalizing. Remember, sub localizing is the practice of creating the words and reading them in your head instead of looking at the word and automatically creating a mental understanding.
The point is simply to see the text faster than you can read so you can untie the habit of sounding the words as you comprehend them. Basically, what practice reading means is taking the time to make sure and actually focus on learning how to look at the words and not try to form them so that you can speak them.
Start your reading practice by taking a stopwatch and seeing how quickly you can look at text and create understanding in your head without trying to say the words. Use a book you haven't read before to ensure your brain is actually practicing instead of relying on memory. Mark out where you started and stopped.
Count the number of words per line (use a quick average) and then the number of lines you actually read in the book to compute your practice reading rate.
What is going to happen, is you won't be able to completely comprehend all the words you're seeing, but you will be able to understand and comprehend some of those words. Again, because you're going at a very fast rate, when you slow down you will be able to read it faster then you were originally able to and with more practice that speed will increase. Once you get used to practice reading at a high rate that you can't comprehend, you should slowly be able to actually comprehend at a slightly slower rate but still faster than if you subvocalized.
To review what we are going to do. Take out a book that you have not read. Set the timer, and then start looking at the words in order as if you're reading the sentence. Make sure that you do not try to form the words with your mouth. If you can hear yourself in your head reading the page that you are not doing this correctly. When the one minute timer is up, review to see if you were able to understand or get through that page quickly. Over time, your rate will increase.
But how can you practice reading faster than you can read? How do you follow the text but still go faster than you can read? The answer is another of speed reading tricks, using a pointer. But for now, practice, practice, practice!
The point is simply to see the text faster than you can read so you can untie the habit of sounding the words as you comprehend them. Basically, what practice reading means is taking the time to make sure and actually focus on learning how to look at the words and not try to form them so that you can speak them.
Start your reading practice by taking a stopwatch and seeing how quickly you can look at text and create understanding in your head without trying to say the words. Use a book you haven't read before to ensure your brain is actually practicing instead of relying on memory. Mark out where you started and stopped.
What is going to happen, is you won't be able to completely comprehend all the words you're seeing, but you will be able to understand and comprehend some of those words. Again, because you're going at a very fast rate, when you slow down you will be able to read it faster then you were originally able to and with more practice that speed will increase. Once you get used to practice reading at a high rate that you can't comprehend, you should slowly be able to actually comprehend at a slightly slower rate but still faster than if you subvocalized.
To review what we are going to do. Take out a book that you have not read. Set the timer, and then start looking at the words in order as if you're reading the sentence. Make sure that you do not try to form the words with your mouth. If you can hear yourself in your head reading the page that you are not doing this correctly. When the one minute timer is up, review to see if you were able to understand or get through that page quickly. Over time, your rate will increase.
But how can you practice reading faster than you can read? How do you follow the text but still go faster than you can read? The answer is another of speed reading tricks, using a pointer. But for now, practice, practice, practice!