Reading Speed – I read 2x faster than average readers with these techniques
Reading Speed – More than a million words enter our lives every day. Magazines, newspapers, posters, and the books we want to read if we can find the time…
Being in a limited time when there is so much to read, makes us either turn away from reading or cause us to be postponed.
Well, is it possible to read quickly and intelligibly in this time constraint?
What are speed reading techniques?
How to increase reading speed?
Here below I’m going to share easy and quick reading techniques
- WHAT DOES SPEED READING DO?
By strengthening and repeating fast reading techniques with exercises, a new reading habit is given to the eyes.
The new reading habit is largely independent of the voice of the mind. Words are seen in blocks, not one by one, as in the old reading habit.
The eyes move fluently on the lines, making fewer stop and hop movements.
Since the data flow to the brain is fast, a more focused reading takes place by being less affected by external factors.
With the action of reading with a high focus and fast, a more comfortable unity is established between the sentences, so the reader creates the structure of the text that reads more easily and understands it better than before.
Since comfortable data flow is provided, long readings can be made without getting bored and distracted.
All these increase the reader’s desire to read and strengthen the reading habit.
“If you make reading a part of your daily work, you will have a chance to progress much faster.”
The first thing you should do is test yourself and evaluate your reading skills.
This means determining your initial reading speed and how much you remember from what you’ve read.
- HOW TO DETECT THE READING SPEED?
Most people read slowly because they have no idea how fast they actually read.
It is necessary to test yourself with more than one book to know more about your reading ability.
In this case, the second book should be the reverse of the first book.
So if your first book is a non-fiction text, your second book should be a book like a novel or a biography.
The reason for experimenting on more than one book is explained as the fact that people have more in one area than other areas and that it will not give an objective result as a reflection of this situation on reading speed.
- 3 MINUTES ARE ENOUGH TO MEASURE SPEED
Your reading speed;
If it’s under 120 words per minute: You’re below the average reader.
Between 120–180 words per minute: If you are not under the age of 16, your reading speed is below average.
If it is between 180–240 words per minute: You are an average reader.
If it is between 240–350 words per minute: You are an average reader at the academic level.
Between 350–500 words per minute: You are above the average reader.
If it’s more than 500 words per minute: You’re a high-level reader.
- BE AWARE OF WHY YOU’RE READING
To reinforce your reading purpose, you need to engage in reading designs.
The stronger your reading intent, the greater your focus on the text.
Therefore, reading with a high focus also affects the information and details you will get from the text.
The information you will get from the texts you read with a low focus decreases as much and it also affects your reading desire towards the text.
This causes you to return frequently while reading the text, and the information you understand remains limited even if you read the text to the end.
- HOW TO DO THE READING EXERCISE?
Choose any book that does not contain too many foreign words.
Open any page of the book you have chosen and take a pen in your hand and hold it so that the pointed end of the pen is under the line. Start reading by following the pen.
After a minute, double the speed of the pen and drive 2x your normal reading speed to follow the lines.
But after 5 minutes, you will feel that your brain completes the words you missed and provides the integrity of meaning.
- WHAT IS THE “ARER” TECHNIQUE?
If you use the “ARER” technique, you will create a strong reading design.
“ARER” technique is an abbreviation consisting of the initials of the words Ask, Read, Explain, Repeat, and is a reading design and comprehension technique.
You should review and watch the book or text you are going to read before you start reading, watching should be for general information about the book.
What the subject is, the message the author wants to give, and the fictional structure he creates while giving this message should be examined.
To do this, the preface, the contents, headings, subtitles, italicized places, the first and last sentences of the paragraphs, the last pages and last sentences of the book, the photographs on the book, if any, the subject and chapters of the book give you a lot of information to get a preview of the book. It will help.
After creating the general setup in your mind, it‘s time to ASK, It is not about creating a question about the book by summarizing the book.
You can list all the questions that come to your mind as a result of watching. While creating the questions, on the one hand, think about the answers to the questions you have created and try to make predictions.
To do this; The “WH-” rule will come in handy.
WHAT? The question gives the subject.
WHY? Gives purpose to questions.
HOW? The question determines the method.
WHERE? Determines the concepts of space and place.
WHEN? Process concepts
WHO? The question also determines the relevant and responsible persons.
Asking questions will increase your focus and desire on the text you will read.
After the monitoring and questioning process, new connection paths have already formed in your mind, your brain has now determined which parts of your mind will record the future detailed information.
When you start reading the book after watching and asking questions, the book will start to make a lot of sense to you from the first page.
When you start reading, you will feel that you are reading with more focus, more detail, and better understanding.
When reading, you should focus on ideas, not words. This will increase your reading speed and comprehension.
Explaining is the best learning method. When you start to tell, your brain goes from passive to active and many parts of the brain are actively involved in the learning process.
Thus, you associate your information with your life and make it a memory. The brain uses sounds, photos, and emotions to make memories.
Memorized information is saved in permanent memory and is not easily forgotten.
If you explain the information by converting the information into your own sentences, not the same sentences written in the text, you will learn more effectively, because people learn with their own sentences.
If you do not repeat the information you have learned, you will forget most of it within a week and have difficulty remembering.
To avoid this, you should do daily, weekly, monthly repetitions.
You should do the learning process before sleep and repeat it in the first hours after sleep in the morning.
Because what you keep your brain busy with before sleep, your brain is busy with that information during sleep.
Learning continues during sleep, and information is analyzed and synthesized, and interpreted.
What you did hard the day before will be much easier for you the next day. The first hours of the morning are when your mind is most active.
The repetitions you will do during these hours are very effective.
- YOU MUST EXPAND YOUR VOCABULARY
In order to be an effective and fast reader, you need to master grammar.
Grammar and vocabulary deficiency is seen in people with poor reading backgrounds.
In order to be able to recognize words easily and quickly, the symbolic equivalent of the words must be created in your mind beforehand.
This has to do with how often you see words and sentence structures.
The more you see a word, the easier it is to recognize it in your next reading.
It is difficult for children who are new to reading or those who read little, to recognize words and sentence structures.
This greatly reduces the reading speed.
You can improve your vocabulary by reading books and magazines daily, regularly, but this is a time-consuming process.
