First of all, I will be the first to admit that I am not a world champion speed reader. I am a former USA Memory Champion but not speed reading. I do know how to speed read though and can teach anyone how to speed read fairly easily.
Memory training and how to speed read are both considered accelerated learning techniques and I do use both of them. Memory training I have mastered and I do know how to speed read. Here are some of my best how to speed reading tips:
1. Do not say the words out loud when you read. This slows you down. Hum or chew gum if you have to. But don’t move your lips and don’t read outloud
2. Practice seeing groups of words instead of each individual word
3. Use your finger to move your eye to go faster. For example, put your finger under the first word on the first sentence and then move your finger along in a straight line. Move your finger faster to go faster and force your eye to follow your finger. What does this do? It prevents you from rereading words and your eye bouncing around. For example, in this sentence:
The boy ran to the store.
The eye has a tendency to bounce around and read it this way:
The
The boy
The boy ran
The boy ran to
The boy ran to the
The boy ran to the store.
Your eye is going backwards so fast you don’t realize it but because it is doing it it slows you down. So use your finger to keep going
4. Go faster than you think is possible! Most people read slow because they think that the need to to absorb the information. Not true. Trust your memory and move your finger faster than you think is possible. This is a key in learning how to speed read.
5. Turn on classical music in the background. Studies have shown this helps your brain read faster. Not sure why. Maybe it just relaxes you and because of that you read faster.
These are some of my BEST speed reading tips. On the link highlighter here I will teach you how to calculate your reading speed. Go here to learn how to calculate your reading speed
http://memorise.org/speed-reading/calculate-reading-speed
When I first started to learn to speed read I measured my speed and I was reading about 200-250 words per minute.
After implementing the speed reading techniques in this post I was able to double that to about 500 words per minute.
I’ve never mastered it to the level I have memory training but it is a useful skill for me. I had a 300 or so page book I wanted to read and about a 3 hour flight recently. I read the entire book almost with these speed reading techniques.
In that time when I came across something really interesting or that I wanted to remember I would make a note about it in the blank pages in the back of the book. It was the first book that I fully read with speed reading techniques. So I do practice this and I do know that they work.
Learning how to speed read is one of the coolest skills I have learned.
Thank you Ron for the tips. I like your style of mnemonics better than others I have studied.