What reading speed I should aim at?
Photo by Koonisutra
In the today’s world, which is flooded by information many people suffer from time shortages to consume that information. Reading is the most important source of information. We read different types of text both for job and for leisure. For example, we read e-mails, reports, articles, blog posts, books etc.
Reading is a time consuming activity. An average person reads texts at 200-250 words per minute. It means that if there are 500 words per page in a book then it will take 2-2.5 minutes for him to complete a page. That person can read 24-30 pages in one hour. At 250 words per minute it will take 6 hours and 40 minutes to complete a 200 page book.
Some people are slower and some are faster than average readers. For example, an educated person, who reads lots of texts every day can read at 350 words per minute or even faster. A guy who puts rarely his nose into book may manage only 150 words per minute.
Do you want to know how fast reader you are? You can test your reading speed by this test.
Fortunately, it is possible to increase your reading speed, by learning special techniques for reading faster. On the general, most people can double their reading speed if they have had decent amount of speed reading practice. This decent practice means that you will take a speed reading course and after the completion of the course you will spend 45 minutes a day for a month on speed reading practice.
Doubling your reading speed will mean that if you were reading at 250 words per minute initially then now you can read at 500 words per minute. You can finish the 200 page book in the half of what it took previously. You are estimated to complete it in 3 hours and 20 minutes.
50% of e-mail messages contain 250 or less words. So you can decrease the reading time of that kind of message from 1 minute to 30 seconds. If you have to read 40 messages per day, then you will save alone 10 minutes a day on reading e-mails.
But how far can I go with speed reading? Well, if you take it seriously then you may be able to triple your initial reading speed, but not everyone is capable of doing it. So you can reach 750 words per minute from 250. Usually slower readers are more likely to gain more reading speed so it would be easier to increase from 200 to 600 than from 250 to 750.
Best speed readers can read at 1000 words per minute and faster. The speed reading word record is held by Anne Jones. In 2007 she read “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” at Borders, Charing Cross Road, London in 47 minutes and one second – 4251 words per minute.
Most people will never reach these reading speeds and actually there is no need for it. Reading fast itself should not be a goal for you, it is only a means to being more productive in mental work. In order to process information fast, having a good mechanical reading speed is not enough. It is important that you can select important information, organize your work efficiently and so on, in order to work productively. Fortunately, many speed reading courses will teach you not only to read a given text fast, but also how to select and prioritize your reading materials, how to make quick previews and manage your time on reading.
Only if you put all theses skills together, then you will be a productive worker and will save time on office work.
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My name is Kristjan-Olari Leping. I am a speed reading trainer. I have an associated professor position at the University of Tartu, am a policy analyst in a policy research center, I am a trainer and I am involved in many other business projects. 