Read Faster

Written by Gabrielle Kazenbroot-Phillips

Graphics designed by Sylvia Li

Reading is essential to our daily life, and is necessary for learning, research, and enjoyment. The average person reads 200-250 words per minute. For a school student, who reads frequently this may even be around 300 words per minute. However, reading can be time-consuming, mentally draining and straining on our eyes. 

If you are reading for leisure, then slowly reading at any pace can be a great way to appreciate and comprehend the text. Nonetheless if you are a busy bee, reading with pace can save time and improve efficiency, as well as being a great skill to acquire.

Here are some handy tips on how to ramp up your reading speed:

1. Skim Read First

Do this by scanning the document for any headings, titles, or words in bold or italics, thus familiarising yourself with the content and gaining a basic understanding of what is to come. This means that when you go to read the text, nothing will surprise or confuse you, thus not slowing you down. At first, this may seem like its adding time to your reading- but just give it a go!

2. Don’t Re-read

When we don’t understand a text or cannot fully grasp some information, the logical step seems to be to go back and re-read. However, if you did not understand it the first time, it’s likely you won’t the second time. Instead, keep reading and eventually the context of the book will allow all to make sense. Or, if it doesn’t make sense with time, then it probably wasn’t necessary to begin with. (This however does not always apply to textbook reading- sometimes when learning, it can be useful to re-read)

3. Read phrases, not words

This may seem obvious, but it is a difficult skill that takes time and practice. Our eye-span can see up to 9 words at a time. Try only looking at every 5th word, thus training yourself to read in chunks.

4. Point

Related to the above tip on reading in chunks, an effective way to help you do this is to use your finger to point. You may remember that your primary school teacher telling you not to point. The trick is to not point at every single word, but to point ahead. You might for example end up pointing just one or twice on a single line. This utilises your peripheral vision to read more words at any given time. Pointing also helps you keep track of which line you are reading and preventing you from skipping lines.

5. Stop Sub- Vocalising

Most of us read by ‘speaking’ the words in our head. This slows down the reading process enormously. To train yourself out of this, try reading passages while actively and consciously forcing yourself to not read out loud in your head. There are however exceptions to the rule. You would want to “speak out” texts like poems. Those are meant to be savoured, not rushed over.

6. Focus

Prepare time solely dedicated to reading. Minimise background noises and distractions. Try and remove other thoughts from creeping into your head. Don’t think about school, life or problems, instead try and solely focus on the text. 

7. Practice

To read faster, you need to read more. Read frequently and track your progress by timing how long it takes to read a page. 

Hopefully with these tips, you too can increase your reading speed! It’s important to remember to not sacrifice comprehension for speed (especially with textbooks!). Fast reading is not the be-all and end-all and reading for enjoyment does not need to be rushed, but rather can be peaceful and pleasant!