Preparing For Speed Reading

By Kathy Glee

What is your reading speed? When you read at a pace faster than what average people read, which is about 200-400 words per minute, you can classify as a speed reader. You can master this self improvement tool with some practice and self discipline. But before you start, here are some preparatory steps that you need to know.

1. Have a diary ready where you can mark off the period of time that you will practice speed reading. You need to take at least two sessions a week to help you improve your reading speed. You can time your sessions. If you will take only two sessions a week, each session should be at least 90 minutes. You can also practice daily in slots of 30 minutes each.
2. Collect lot of interesting material to read. Check out your favorite books and magazines and have them ready when you start. Though not a must, it is recommended to have reading material with larger font size. This helps you to navigate between words easily and hence improve reading speed. You can switch to ordinary print size once you are a little into the habit.
3. Have a watch handy or better a stop watch. This is required first to check your current reading speed and later to measure progress.
4. Try to find like minded people and form a group. Group forming will motivate you to reach the goal faster. Someone in the group is sure to catch the speed reading faster than others and will act as a role model to help you reach the required reading speed. You yourself could be the fastest reading person in the group!
5. Do not leave the habit of speed reading once you have started. It is important to know that it takes practice to make it a way of life. If it is a month that you have marked in your diary to learn the technique of speed reading, then be sure to follow up the same routine and practice for the next two months as well.
6. A reading comprehension test is mandatory while you embark on learning to speed read. Many people think that reading speed is inversely proportional to reading comprehension. This is, however, not true. By improving your reading speed, you also improve your comprehension and memory retention. Therefore it is equally important to measure your reading comprehension as well. You may not be able to recall everything that you have read in the initial stages but let that not bog you down. Over a period of time your comprehension will also improve with improvement in reading speed.
7. Once the initial couple of weeks are done, you can set an alarm clock and keep a target for yourself. The target can be that you finish 10 pages in 1 minute.

Whenever you start remember that you already have a pattern of reading. It is necessary to break away from this reading habit to acquire a new one. By constant practice and self discipline you can become a speed reader.

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