How students can increase reading speed

Our reading speed is slowed down by the amount of time we take to think through the complexities of unfamiliar concepts, especially when reading for more demanding reasons other than pleasure. Fixation holds you down on a particular word or several words for an average of 0.25 seconds before moving your eyes to the next group of words in a process called saccade, which lasts for about 0.1 seconds on average.

This may happen once or twice, going back and forth your phrases before you attain full comprehension. When it comes to average fixation, saccade, and comprehension process, when you read, your brain uses about 0.3 to 0.5 seconds on average and puts you at a speed ranging from 200 to 400 words per minute. 95% of all college-level readers find themselves in this category.

These 5 speed reading pointers provide a reliable guide on how to become a faster reader and make the most of your reading time whether in or outside college:

Read More, Read Widely

"Practice makes perfect" is an adage which never loses meaning with any professional, an artist or an avid learner. This holds for any reader struggling with a question on how to increase speed. Extensive reading helps you develop your skills and eventually your speed. You don't have to start off with the obsession of Theodore Roosevelt never called it a day until he had read at least 4 books of average length. Use his obsessive tactic to trigger your own spirit instead.

Reading wide will increase your exposure to numerous concepts and vocabulary that will help you achieve quicker understanding and double your pace.

Track Your Reading Progress

Any learning process is best achieved with self-evaluation. A measure of your progress.  Short reading speed and comprehension test will help you gauge your baseline reading rate. The results will give you a better idea of what you need to pull together to get even better. Self-evaluation and constant practice should go on as long as there is more room to become better. Remember this is a skill that only comes with practice and consistency.

Strive to Better Your Vocabulary
 

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How to increase your speed with books should not be any more daunting. It's a common experience to stumble into words that you never knew in the reading process. Some of these words will arouse immediate interest, and you'll soon be looking them up or trying to figure them out by context.
This will slow down your reading or stop it all together while deep into the search for the meaning of the retarding word. Of course, this would not be the case if your quest to build a rich vocabulary had brought you to a prior encounter with such words. A rich vocabulary will help you a lot with college essays. Most students have turned to https://samedaypapers.com/essays-maker for aid with papers on sensitive topics calling for extra vocabulary skills which often don't come easily for most of them. Improving your vocabulary cuts down on your spending with complex words and helps you to read more and faster.

Spend some time working on your vocabulary now and skip the hurdles that may later hold you back.

Resist the Boredom, Shun Daydreaming

Some books will blatantly shut down the little interest you developed and send you straight into boredom and daydreaming.  Whether you're reading on a complex subject or you just can't get through with the tough wording and establish strong bonds with a book, pauses caused by daydreaming and boredom will always predate your speed. This can be solved if you adopt one or all the strategies listed at http://www.7speedreading.com/5-ways-for-students-which-are-actually-increase-reading-speed-guest-post/ or use the measures below:

•    Forge an interest link with what you're reading. Try linking the material with something of your interest, whether a movie, computer game or something you personally enjoy.
•    Get a prime location. Some environments are just too cozy. Find a place that will put your brain to its best.

Skim the Main Points First


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How to read faster is also determined by the method you adopt. Skimming, Meta guiding, and Rapid Serial Visual Presentation are the 3 ways to read a book faster that are commonly used. It's okay to adopt skimming sometimes. Skimming is a crucial skill to master when you're regularly dealing with dense materials and speed read books. Much of the information in such documents is hardly useful. The pseudo-skimming method is one way to achieve effective skimming.

With this method, you skim through your material until you single out the paragraph with real flesh, usually in the form of the main points, a vital procedure or critical vocabulary terms. Here you double down your concentration and adopt the normal speed to digest the essential information.  

You will find these fleshy paragraphs faster when you pay attention to the formatting, notably the bold and italicized text, and the first and the last sentences in each paragraph.

Conclusion

The bulk of how to increase reading speed depends on your ability to reduce fixation on a word.  This can be achieved by cutting down on your inner monologue, also known as sub-vocalization. This is the voice that tags along in your head as you read. It immensely obstructs your way through the passages you read and ultimately brings down your speed. Your speed will undoubtedly rise above the average 0.3-0.5 seconds the moment you manage to turn off this mental voice and adopt the best ways of reading as mentioned above.  

About the Author
Sandra Hayward is an author and specialist in mental performance. She has spent most of her career exploring the core of the human mind in her numerous projects and publications. Hers is a quest to bring the human brain to its best performance while upholding the ultimate mental health.