The one question I see over and over again in this site’s comments or on reviews of my work here is perhaps the most basic of all questions – Does Speed Reading Work? I find it very strange that I should even have to answer something like this, but alas, people ask, so I must give my two cents.
There are two major reasons why people believe that speed reading doesn’t work: they’ve tried it and found that the techniques were not effective, or they read about the speed reading techniques and think that they’re silly, or harmful, or would ruin the enjoyment of their books. For these people, the answer to does speed reading work is, of course, that they haven’t tried it, and probably aren’t interested in trying it.
Does Speed Reading Work – Excuse #1
Does speed reading work? Only if you practice it.
For the first reason why speed reading might not be considered effective: SPEED READING ONLY WORKS WHEN YOU PRACTICE. I learned how to speed read over 6 years ago, and yet once a week, I double-click on my Speed Reader X or Quick Eye program and spend a half hour trying to reach or exceed my benchmarks. I think it’s essential, even knowing and writing about these speed reading techniques to practice all the time. Now, if you’ve had a bad experience doing something along the lines of the speed reading eye exercises, as promoted by EyeQ software, then you might have some kind of complaint, but overall, this is nothing to worry about. You need to try a variety of different techniques and lessons, and while most people will see results very quickly, this is not the case with everyone.
Does Speed Reading Work? – Excuse #2
To the people who claim the second excuse, I say that you need to try it first. You can’t make a judgement based on hearsay. If you’d really like to try, take my reading test online before, and then again after practicing any one or two speed reading techniques you can learn about on this site and practicing them on your own for a week. I think you’ll definitely see some increase in your reading speed. In fact, I would extend that challenge to anyone. If you have any doubts on whether speed reading actually works, you have a completely free resource right there to try, and you can make your own decision on the question of “does speed reading work.”
If you think that speed reading might not work because it makes reading a chore instead of for enjoyment, then you too have missed the point. Speed reading should not be used for novels or items read for your own interest. This powerful reading strategy should be primarily used when you’re reading things that you don’t really want to read anyways – emails, legal documents, memos, and all of the other things that you feel like you should read, but don’t really want to. Maybe that applies to the daily newspaper, so that you can keep up with current events, but it might not if you consider the newspaper to be a source of entertainment.
It’s all up to you at the end of the day anyways. Check out our reading test online and take it once now, and then once after you’ve practiced for a week with other speed reading techniques. Then make up your own mind. Does Speed Reading work? I think it does.