Effective Techniques To Read At A Faster Rate
Sunday, March 18th, 2012There is a lot to be said for being able to read faster, especially in an academic setting or when you simply want to learn something new. Think of how convenient it would be to be able to learn new material or skills in a fraction of the time it now takes you. What follows are some proven strategies that will allow you to become a faster reader in a short time.
Most people read word for word, taking time to concentrate on every letter on the page. You may think that this is how to understand what you’re reading, but this actually isn’t the case at all. It is much more efficient to learn to chunk words together by using more of your peripheral vision instead of focusing your eyes on a single word at a time. This will probably seen unnatural when you first try it, but it’s a matter of looking at entire sentences at once rather than single words. Your eyes and brain soon adjust to this technique, and then you’ll be taking in chunks of essential information rather than wasting time on every character.
It might seem obvious, but you really need to make sure you can see the page properly. If you have bad vision, it is possible that this technique will not work for you. Good vision is required.
With children, this is particularly true. If you do have problems reading, or you are extremely slow when you do it, go see an ophthalmologist to find out what is wrong with your eyes. To read properly, you might need prescription glasses. If you do get glasses, you should be able to focus for a longer period of time, allowing you to speed read much more efficiently.
A great way to increase your ability to speed read is to organize or structure the material that you have to read. Words, outlines, phrases, and subheadings are elements of the material that you should focus upon. Skimming is a technique that many people use when reading. This is what you will do with the aforementioned content portions so that you will be better able to digest what you are reading at lightning speed. The way you do this is simple: you skim the entire book looking at headings, subheadings, as well as the table of contents – basically anything that stands out. Basically, this outline that you have read prior to reading the book will give you the ability to skip useless information and only take in what is necessary and content-based.
In conclusion, reading fast has nothing to do with learning new skills. You need to replace your old reading habits. Similar to subvocalization or regression therapy – you simply need to move the old technique out and replace it with a more efficient technique to help you read fast. By using your index finger, and moving it along as you read, you will read more quickly. You now have the ability to read faster than you could prior to reading this article. Just implement the techniques, and you can start saving time and reading more books. If you are presbyopic you will want to get a nice pair of reading glasses prior to starting your adventure towards faster reading. Learn more about readers.