by Wesley Deans

Created on: March 04, 2009

How to Speed Read and Maintain Comprehension

College reading homework can take hours to complete. Mounds of textbook and miscellaneous readings accumulate daily.
How are we to cope with time consuming reading assignments? Speed-reading techniques are a great solution for the average college student. The method is much simpler than you might think.
Only a few simple tools are necessary, such as reading material and a pen (or if you do not have a pen, your index finger will serve perfectly well.) With easy-to-use methods, we can reduce homework time through increased reading and comprehension.

Before You Begin:

Pick up your reading material and proceed to read the way you have always read.Realize that, if you do read slowly, it is not your fault. Most readers read at a snail-like pace of about 200 words per minute.Notice as you read your eyes tend to re-read, or regress over words you have already read. The regressions cause the decreased reading speed and allow your mind to wander off task more frequently.Most people read so slowly that they "hear" each word in their mind's ear. As you begin to read faster, you will realize your brain can read and comprehend words without necessarily "hearing" every word in your mind's ear.

The Process of Speed Reading:

1.
Recognize results will come with continued practice of the simple speed reading formula.

2.
Begin by placing your finger or pen underneath the line you are about to read.

3.
Smoothly drag your finger or pen underneath the line. Read the line by following the speed of the pen with your eyes. The words will come rapidly and your eyes will no longer regress to words you have already read. You may feel uncomfortable reading at such a rapid pace,

but that is normal.

4. Do not concern yourself with reading comprehension with your first trials in speed-reading. Breaking from ingrained reading habits does not come easily.

5. Practice, in every reading situation, using your hand or pen as a pacer.
You will gradually feel more comfortable reading at higher speeds.

6. As your speed increases, a strange phenomenon occurs. You will comprehend smaller words without actually "hearing" them in your mind's ear. Your brain will naturally pick up those words and incorporate them with the rest of the sentence.

Increasing Comprehension:

After each paragraph or so, make sure to restate in your own words what the text is trying to convey.If possible, visualize events and create a mental timeline of your reading assignment.Analyze key points by stopping every so often to think about what you are reading.

Advantages of Speed Reading and Comprehension:

Decrease the monotony of slow reading pace. Most people's minds tend to wander while reading because they have no clear-cut purpose for reading.Information reaches your brain quicker allowing you to make mental connections between events. Creating mental connections makes reading more fun.Reading
is a passive skill. Stopping after every few sentences and summarizing the text is an active skill, which will create a challenge. When we are active and challenged, remembering the text becomes much easier.

Speed-reading is a great tool that can improve a college student's efficiency. The greater efficiency will allow more free time for the things we love.
There is no reason to continue using old reading habits that can double or triple the time it takes to finish our reading homework.

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