Speed Reading Exercises

Most people today wish they could read faster, and most are actually capable of reading much faster than they do. Learning to read at a faster pace can help you on the job and in your personal life. You'll be able to get through required reading at work much faster and you'll be able to complete good books you want to read much faster as well. What you may not realize is that there are often subconscious habits that are holding your back. Here is a closer look at some of the poor reading habits that may be keeping your reading slow and some speed reading exercises that will quickly help you increase reading speed.

Understand the Bad Habits that Slow You Down

Before taking a look at some great speed reading exercises, you need to understand the bad habits that are slowing you down. One of the big habits that will hold you back is called subvocalizing. This occurs when you are actually pronouncing words subconsciously while you are reading. While it doesn't seem like a big problem, it requires extra thought and slows your speed. Another bad habit is over-thinking while you are reading. You may think that you aren't comprehending everything, so you slow down, you over think, and then reading becomes a drag instead of fun. Start by trying to break these habits and then you can begin incorporating speed reading exercises to boost your speed.

Exercise #1 - Read by Keywords

One of the easiest and most effective speed reading exercises is to begin making yourself read by keywords. Allow your eyes to begin picking out the most important words and make yourself ignore works that aren't as important, such as "but," "the," "a," or "and." While you probably do this already to some degree, refining this technique is going to help you read faster. Work to read a page in a magazine or a book by quickly reading the keywords and blocking out words that aren't important. Soon you'll find you are reading faster while still comprehending what you read.

Exercise #2 - Check for Comprehension

Another of the best speed reading exercises you can use to increase your speed is to check for comprehension. Push yourself to read faster and you may even want to use other exercises to help yourself read faster. After you read a paragraph, stop and summarize it on paper or simply record it on a recorder. Once you have done this for several pages of text go back and check those summaries. Ensure that your summaries are on target. Keep doing this and you'll build up your speed and increase comprehension.

Exercise #3 - Work to Read in Blocks

Last, working to read in blocks instead of word by word is another of the most effective speed reading exercises. We get in the habit of simply reading one word at a time when we first learn to read, but this slows down your speed. Instead of looking at text word by word, this exercise requires you to look at phrases, or blocks of text. You'll be able to scan through text much faster. Practice doing this on a regular basis, keeping yourself from focusing on individual words. As you continue using this exercise, you'll find that it drastically improves your speed.