Lesson 1: WPM

NOTE: If you are serious about increasing your reading speed, we highly recommend you check out this popular speed reading software

Learning to speed-read has to start somewhere, so why not start at your current reading rate. The idea behind this first lesson is to observe how fast or slow you read now — and then, understand how it can be improved, later. I know, I know — you’re saying, “But I already know how I read. I read slow – that’s why I’m checking out this website!”

In order to speed-read, it’s important to not only acknowledge that you’re a slow reader, but also to evaluate why you’re a slow reader in the first place as well. We want to identify what makes reading slow for you, and then remove those things so you can finally read at your preferred pace. So we’ll take this part slow, and then get into the nitty-gritty in the next section. I promise – everything literally speeds up from here (and again, my apologies for the puns).

Now do you remember how you were taught to read? You were taught to read from left to right, correct? Do you remember how you interpreted words? That would probably be one at a time, right? That’s how all of us were taught to read. As children, we were slow readers because we were still learning the craft.

As adults, we already know most of the words we’ll ever need to know, so there’s no need to struggle with them any longer. Instead of reading one word at a time, we’re free to read two, three, even four words at a time. Let’s see how many words you can read in a minute now as we work on ways to increase that number later on in the guide.

Exercise 1

Get that stopwatch we mentioned earlier, and set it to sound a buzzer or ring a bell after 60 seconds have passed. Then flip open a book and start reading a random page full of text. Any book will do – just don’t worry about not finishing the entire page. Once the timer goes off, mark the final word that you were reading.

Count from where you were when the timer went off to where you began reading. The value will give you your “WPM” or words-per-minute reading speed. (In case you were wondering, speed-readers can comprehend over 700 words per minute!) So how did you do?

Did you read 200 words or less? If so, you’re part of a group which will benefit from this website most. Did you read at least 300? If so, you’re an average reader who will benefit from some time-tested strategies. If you read the entire article and even had a little time to spare however, you’re an above average reader and will benefit from some of the tricks introduced towards the end of this guide.

Take the time to write down your current reading rate or WPM, now. We don’t want to forget this number because we’ll use it to compare your progress at the end of this guide. Put it in a place you’ll remember and continue on to Lesson 2.