How Do You Calculate How Fast You Are Reading
(Photo: Dustin Diaz)
How much more could you get washed if y'all completed all of your required reading in one/iii or 1/5 the time?
Increasing reading speed is a process of controlling fine motor movement—period.
This post is a condensed overview of principles I taught to undergraduates at Princeton University in 1998 at a seminar chosen the "PX Projection." The below was written several years ago, then it's worded like Ivy Leaguer pompous-ass prose, only the results are substantial. In fact, while on an aeroplane in China two weeks ago, I helped Glenn McElhose increment his reading speed 34% in less than 5 minutes.
I have never seen the method fail. Hither'due south how information technology works…
The PX Project
The PX Project, a single 3-hour cognitive experiment, produced an average increment in reading speed of 386%.
Information technology was tested with speakers of 5 languages, and even dyslexics were conditioned to read technical material at more than 3,000 words-per-minute (wpm), or x pages per minute. One page every vi seconds. By comparison, the boilerplate reading speed in the US is 200-300 wpm (1/2 to 1 page per minute), with the top i% of the population reading over 400 wpm…
If you understand several basic principles of the human visual system, you can eliminate inefficiencies and increase speed while improving retention.
To perform the exercises in this post and meet the results, you volition need: a book of 200+ pages that can prevarication flat when open up, a pen, and a timer (a terminate watch with alarm or kitchen timer is ideal). You lot should consummate the 20 minutes of exercises in one session.
First, several definitions and distinctions specific to the reading process:
A) Synopsis: You must minimize the number and elapsing of fixations per line to increase speed.
You lot practice non read in a straight line, but rather in a sequence of saccadic movements (jumps). Each of these saccades ends with a fixation, or a temporary snapshot of the text within y'all focus expanse (approx. the size of a quarter at 8 inches from reading surface). Each fixation will final ¼ to ½ seconds in the untrained bailiwick. To demonstrate this, close i middle, place a fingertip on top of that eyelid, then slowly scan a straight horizontal line with your other eye-you lot will feel distinct and separate movements and periods of fixation.
B) Synopsis: You must eliminate regression and back-skipping to increment speed.
The untrained subject engages in regression (conscious rereading) and back-skipping (subconscious rereading via misplacement of fixation) for up to 30% of total reading time.
C) Synopsis: You must employ workout drills to increase horizontal peripheral vision span and the number of words registered per fixation.
Untrained subjects utilise central focus but non horizontal peripheral vision bridge during reading, foregoing up to 50% of their words per fixation (the number of words that can exist perceived and "read" in each fixation).
The Protocol
Y'all will 1) learn technique, ii) acquire to apply techniques with speed through conditioning, then three) learn to test yourself with reading for comprehension.
These are separate, and your accommodation to the sequencing depends on keeping them separate. Practice not worry near comprehension if y'all are learning to apply a motor skill with speed, for example. The adaptive sequence is: technique ' technique with speed ' comprehensive reading testing.
As a general rule, you will need to practice technique at 3x the speed of your ultimate target reading speed. Thus, if you currently read at 300 wpm and your target reading speed is 900 wpm, you will need to do technique at 2,700 words-per-minute, or 6 pages per minute (ten seconds per page).
We will cover two main techniques in this introduction:
1) Trackers and Pacers (to address A and B above)
2) Perceptual Expansion (to address C)
First – Determining Baseline
To determine your current reading speed, accept your practice book (which should lay apartment when open up on a tabular array) and count the number of words in v lines. Carve up this number of words by 5, and you have your average number of words-per-line.
Example: 62 words/5 lines = 12.four, which you circular to 12 words-per-line
Next, count the number of text lines on 5 pages and dissever by v to arrive at the average number of lines per page. Multiply this past average number of words-per-line, and you lot have your boilerplate number of words per page.
Case: 154 lines/5 pages = xxx.viii, rounded to 31 lines per page x 12 words-per-line = 372 words per page
Mark your beginning line and read with a timer for 1 minute exactly-practice not read faster than normal, and read for comprehension. After exactly ane minute, multiply the number of lines by your average words-per-line to determine your current words-per-minute (wpm) rate.
Second – Trackers and Pacers
Regression, back-skipping, and the duration of fixations can be minimized past using a tracker and pacer. To illustrate the importance of a tracker-did you use a pen or finger when counting the number of words or lines in to a higher place baseline calculations? If you lot did, information technology was for the purpose of tracking-using a visual help to guide fixation efficiency and accuracy. Nowhere is this more relevant than in conditioning reading speed by eliminating such inefficiencies.
For the purposes of this article, we will apply a pen. Holding the pen in your dominant mitt, y'all will underline each line (with the cap on), keeping your eye fixation above the tip of the pen. This will not only serve every bit a tracker, just it volition also serve as a pacer for maintaining consistent speed and decreasing fixation duration. Yous may hold it as you would when writing, merely it is recommended that yous hold it under your hand, flat confronting the page.
1) Technique (2 minutes):
Practise using the pen as a tracker and pacer. Underline each line, focusing above the tip of the pen. DO NOT Business organization YOURSELF WITH COMPREHENSION. Proceed each line to a maximum of 1 2nd, and increment the speed with each subsequent page. Read, merely under no circumstances should you have longer than 1 second per line.
2) Speed (three minutes):
Repeat the technique, keeping each line to no more than ½ second (2 lines for a single "ane-one-grand"). Some volition embrace zip, which is to be expected. Maintain speed and technique-you are conditioning your perceptual reflexes, and this is a speed exercise designed to facilitate adaptations in your system. Do not decrease speed. ½ 2d per line for three minutes; focus above the pen and concentrate on technique with speed. Focus on the do, and do not daydream.
Tertiary – Perceptual Expansion
If you focus on the center of your computer screen (focus relating to the focal area of the fovea in inside the eye), you can still perceive and register the sides of the screen. Training peripheral vision to annals more than effectively tin increase reading speed over 300%. Untrained readers apply upwards to ½ of their peripheral field on margins by moving from 1st give-and-take to concluding, spending 25-50% of their time "reading" margins with no content.
To illustrate, let usa have the hypothetical one line: "One time upon a time, students enjoyed reading four hours a day." If yous were able to begin your reading at "time" and stop the line at "four", you lot would eliminate 6 of xi words, more than doubling your reading speed. This concept is easy to implement and combine with the tracking and pacing yous've already practiced.
1) Technique (ane minute):
Use the pen to track and pace at a consistent speed of one line per second. Begin 1 word in from the first word of each line, and finish 1 word in from the last word.
Exercise Non Business organization YOURSELF WITH COMPREHENSION. Continue each line to a maximum of one 2nd, and increase the speed with each subsequent page. Read, but nether no circumstances should y'all take longer than 1 2d per line.
2) Technique (1 infinitesimal):
Use the pen to rails and step at a consistent speed of one line per second. Brainstorm 2 words in from the start word of each line, and end ii words in from the last word.
iii) Speed (3 minutes):
Begin at to the lowest degree 3 words in from the outset word of each line, and terminate 3 words in from the last give-and-take. Repeat the technique, keeping each line to no more than than ½ second (ii lines for a single "one-ane-yard").
Some will comprehend goose egg, which is to be expected. Maintain speed and technique-you are workout your perceptual reflexes, and this is a speed exercise designed to facilitate adaptations in your system. Exercise non decrease speed. ½ 2d per line for 3 minutes; focus higher up the pen and concentrate on technique with speed. Focus on the exercise, and do not daydream.
Fourth – Calculate New WPM Reading Speed
Mark your first line and read with a timer for ane minute exactly- Read at your fastest comprehension rate. Multiply the number of lines past your previously determined average words-per-line to get decide your new words-per-minute (wpm) rate.
Congratulations on completing your cursory overview of some of the techniques that can be used to accelerate human cognition (defined as the processing and use of information).
Final recommendations: If used for study, it is recommended that you lot not read 3 assignments in the fourth dimension information technology would have you to read one, but rather, read the aforementioned assignment 3 times for exposure and think improvement, depending on relevancy to testing.
Happy trails, page blazers.
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Source: https://tim.blog/2009/07/30/speed-reading-and-accelerated-learning/
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