Does speed reading work?

[Andre1332]

Has anyone here ever had a successful experience with any method of speed reading?

[alwazqestion]

Here's an interesting article on the subject: http://lifehacker.com/the-truth-about-speed-reading-1542508398

 

I'm unsurprised by it's conclusions that speed reading leads to poor information retention, particularly with important or challenging documents ... anything that requires a lot of concentration and time to process the information.

 

It also just seems like a waste if you're actually interested or enjoying what you're reading. It's like wolfing down a gourmet meal. Isn't savoring the food to enjoy it's subtleties a big part of the enjoyment? I'm a very slow reader, but I spend a lot of time visualizing scenes, considering topics, rereading and appreciating the language of a well written segment, or conversely rewording an awkwardly written one.

[Wuzzums]

I don't speed read but I do speed listen

 

I'm actually being serious. It was a forced transition for me from the written word to audiobooks but well worth it. Reading is pretty artificial and archaic if you think about it. You're using your eyes to form sounds in your head so why not skip the first part and just listen to the words?

 

After consuming a copious amount of audiobooks, I listened to one that was about brain plasticity in which it explained how the brain adapts the sound it hears to "normal speed" (as in you're able to comprehend it without any strain) whether that sound is sped up or down. I apply the same principle to audiobooks and can finish 400 pages in about 2h or so (with not much difficulty). This is not some learned skill like speedreading, this is just something you're already capable of without any prior preparation.

 

Try it on YT with one of Stef's vids. Speed it up to 2x the speed, you won't be able to understand much at first but after 5-10 min you'll forget it's even sped up. Also try just to listen to the audio, it's harder for the brain to adapt to sped up video than audio.

[Pepin]

Hard to say because it might depend a lot on the context and the individual. Some people are great speed readers, while others can't seem to do it very well. Comprehension is reduced greatly with speed. This may not be such an issue if you are reading about the history of Pink Floyd, but more of an issue if you are reading a physics textbook,

 

Like audiobooks, I think it may be useful when the information isn't so condensed. I have the issue with certain audiobooks of having to rewind ten or more times to fully understand a point. Better written material will expand out the point to make it easier to understand,but with some material, if you didn't understand it in the paragraph it was explained you won't have a clue what they are talking about after. I am referencing the audiobook Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow, as that was a tough listen.

 

I can read fast, but my comprehension is completely lost when doing so. I am the sort of person who gets half way through The Hobbit to realize I don't know what is going on or who these characters are, even when  I was reading slow. For me, reading fast is more about skimming and finding things.

 

I think a big part to reading is finding parts that you don't need to read and skimming them. There tends to be a lot on a page that is predictable but needed and skimming over that saves time. It is like how there are whole parts of a speech which kind of waste your time because either you already know what they are talking about, or what they are talking about is typical speech talk like "how is everyone doing, good? Well my name is X".

[Jer]

Has anyone here ever had a successful experience with any method of speed reading?

I recently asked a professor who researches this stuff and she unequivocally said the infomercial speed reading programs are BS. Like Pepin mentioned, you can skim with a strategy searching for key words, but that's not increasing the amount of words per minute you are processing.

[Andre1332]

Thanks for replying guys.

 

Yeah, i had guessed that the arcane arts of reading 1000+ wpm while keeping concentration would be bogus. However I have read an interesting book that said that you can increase your reading speed by increasing you comprehension, trough visualization of the content and practice.

 

But I still read slowly, stop at points to take notes and reflect of the content and if I try to speed up comprehension goes down the sink.

 

I will try speed listening, thanks for the suggestion Wuzzums

[BD91]

I always thought it would be cool to speed read; I have a nice little book collection going and being able to just blaze through all the material sounds epic!

 

However, in practice I found that:

 

A. I was reading a fiction story, and couldn't enjoy the depth and richness of the text by trying to go through each chapter at the same speed. Stories ebb and flow, there's adrenaline and there's lulls; compressing it all into one speed felt like I was taking the details of the books and ignoring them completely. Maybe good if it's a book you're reading as a requirement for a class, but for enjoyment I'd say take your time

 

B. I was reading non-fiction/conceptual material (advanced trig/calculus, Digital Signal Processing, C++ programming) and by trying to blaze through all of it I'd find myself constantly going back through material to read it quickly a million times where it wound up being easier to just take my time, solidify each concept individually and then move on from there.

 

So, in my opinion, speed reading: Cool idea, and useful for things like reading class material that you need to just have a basic handle on, but if you're trying to develop a deep knowledge of a material or to truly lose yourself in the story of a fiction novel it's best to let the material dictate it's own pace to you.

[Duart]

I think speed reading is possible but not without the effort of comprehension. 

 

Most books, let alone chapters, have a few central ideas to them.

Without already having the starting schema in mind for what each chapter is referring to it's difficult to build up a mental picture of what is being said. It's like reading a description on the features of a penguin. If you miss the third word in a chapter 'penguin' you'll spend a good amount of time thinking "what the fk is this about" before going back and it suddenly making sense.

 

I define speed reading as reading without saying each word aloud in your head. In my experience it's significantly quicker (2-3 X) if the content is limited, i.e a description of a person or location, but pointless for anything detailed like character conversation or a physics text book. 

[Justin K.]

I have this "eye Q" speed reading course. With computer training - I think I had some mild success with it years back. But I enjoy reading slow & contemplating. If you want to try it I'll give it to you. It was some kind if infomercial & you can find it on YouTube to give you an idea. It I called infinite mind Eye Q.

[EveryVoluntaryistIsLemons]

For one of my classes in high school, we had to read three 1000+ page novels over the summer. As a chronic procrastinator, I put it off until the last week of summer. I was a really slow reader, so I looked up how to speed read (don't read the words out loud in your head, read blocks of text at a time, etc.) and was able to read four pages per minute.

 

A few months later (October/November) we had to write an essay on the books, and, despite waiting until the weekend before it was due to do it, I got... I think a 96 on it. I was able to remember a ton of information from the books even though I read through them fast.

 

I don't think this works as well for nonfiction/scientific/textbooks. I mean, once you get the general idea of what's being described you can gloss over the details until you get to the next topic if you're reading purely to get a general understanding of the subject for a course or something, but it's not a good idea if you really want to understand a topic.

[AccuTron]

... I am the sort of person who gets half way through The Hobbit to realize I don't know what is going on or who these characters are, even when  I was reading slow. ..

I think that's standard.