Learn to Unlearn what your Elementary School taught you about reading.
Over the past few days I have been taking a speed reading course online. I was amazed at how simple it was to learn. I wanted to share with you some of the main points that you need to know if you in order to improve your reading speed and your reading comprehension.
First: You do not need to read every single word when you are reading an article. Truly your subconscious is smarter and quicker than you are. When you read you don’t actually sound out the letters that make the words. Your mind makes assumptions and reads the words without the need to sound out every letter. The next step is to stop the sub vocalization in your mind where you read every word into a sound. You do not need to read every word in order to understand a sentence or even a paragraph. Like I said your subconscious is smarter that you are.
Second: Read continuously! Don’t stop along the way and go back and re-read, doing so will completely destroy the thread of though in your mind and you will have to start over again. What you should do is continue reading till the end of the chapter or the end of the main point that you are reading and then if you feel that you didn’t comprehend what you should have from the chapter then go back and read it again. Skipping backwards to points that you just read to try to better understand them done frequently can completely destroy your train of thought, comprehension and slows your reading down to a reverse.
Third: Measure your progress. The two above simple tips are all that you need in order to increase your reading speed immeasurably. Actually, it is measurable. Really to improve upon your reading skills you should measure your progress. There are many online courses today that can measure your progress by using a timer and then testing your comprehension at the end of the article. Using the correct tools can increase the rate at which you learn to speed read. Technology is a great thing you should learn to use it.
I know it doesn’t feel like the three above points isn’t much in the big scheme of things but they are the keys to learning to speed read. Removing sub vocalization and reading in blocks is the first step. Training yourself to concentrate and move forward rather than skipping backward when reading and trying to consciously understand everything on the first read is the second. If you can master those two skills then you are well on your way to reading faster. The last thing to do is to improve upon those skills using today’s high tech tools.
