Posted: 10/4/2011 12:32:52 PM EDT
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Ever since school started back up, I've come to the realization that I'm a slow reader, especially when it comes to textbooks. I tend to reread stuff, never really get anywhere, and my eyes unfocus randomly. I timed myself, and i tend to average around 250 words per minute reading textbooks. Is this slow? How fast can the average arfcommer read? |
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Quoted:
Ever since school started back up, I've come to the realization that I'm a slow reader, especially when it comes to textbooks. I tend to reread stuff, never really get anywhere, and my eyes unfocus randomly. I timed myself, and i tend to average around 250 words per minute reading textbooks. Is this slow? How fast can the average arfcommer read? textbooks i'm slow as shit usually, because its not something I enjoy If i'm reading a good novel or history book, i can read fast and forever |
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Quoted: Novels that I am interested in, I tend to read pretty quickly, but retention isn't exactly necessary in novels.Quoted: Ever since school started back up, I've come to the realization that I'm a slow reader, especially when it comes to textbooks. I tend to reread stuff, never really get anywhere, and my eyes unfocus randomly. I timed myself, and i tend to average around 250 words per minute reading textbooks. Is this slow? How fast can the average arfcommer read? textbooks i'm slow as shit usually, because its not something I enjoy If i'm reading a good novel or history book, i can read fast and forever I tend to have to read something 4 or 5 times slowly over days just to remember it. Anyone have tips for retention of content? |
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I have never measured it, but I can read pretty fast... A reasonably sized book in a few hours if I put my mind to it. If it's a book I really enjoy, I take my time and savor it. I am super envious of people who can read fast. I am an extremely slow reader. Like the OP, I have to re-read everything several times because my mind wanders. A touch of ADD most likely. |
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Depends on the content.
Textbooks tend to be very densely packed with info and you need to pay a lot more attention to be sure you're following the concepts. Modern novels are much easier to rip right through in a few hours, but you'll sometimes find that something like Patrick O'Brian will require you to read carefully lest you miss something. |
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My wife often comments at how fast I read, when I'm reading a book she's read before, as she watches me turn the pages. But I've never timed myself, so I have no idea. When I took the standardized state tests as a kid, I was scoring at 12.9 (graduating senior basically, if I recall correctly) in reading, from 5th grade on. If there was ever a college equivalent reading level I might have achieved, they didn't let you know what it was in California on the standardized tests, when I was a kid. I can only assume my reading has improved dramatically, since then. But honestly, I don't know. I've never timed it. Beyond a certain speed, I'd have to think any incremental improvement isn't worth the effort involved. |
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http://www.free-speed-reading.com/ I came out in the 650 range
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I got 778 first time. But I was trying harder than normal. Normally I read about half that speed, and really 'chew' mentally on each word, sentence, and paragraph. |
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I got 1149. |
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464, here. I read it at the same pace I read forum posts that interest me. Any faster, and I'd be purposely trying to game it. Know what I think a good test would be? A reading speed test, then a quiz at the end. I can "hear" the words in my head reading at supersonic speed, but I have a feeling I won't retain what I just "read". EDIT: I've also had a few beers, but I don't think it's affected my reading speed yet. That doesn't happen until I have to close one eye to read arfcom. I'm not quite there, yet.  |
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I shall try this at home. |
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I got 630s on that test, reading it with the same level of concentration I would give to a work email. Reading a textbook is a bit different depending on the text. I read about four pages per hour with some math texts
A history textbook is different; I can power through those. Sometimes reading faster is good because you form the overall picture in one sitting in that case. I'm not sure about the subvocalization thing-I can hear the words in my head but I'm not consciously pronouncing them. As in, I'm not pronouncing them syllable-by-syllable-each word is kind of a unit. Another reading skill that is useful is reading upside down. Backwards also. You'd be surprised how many people assume that you can't see what is written on the paper in front of them because it's upside down to you. 
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426 I read that at the same speed I would normally read and had to look at the "start" button that switched to "stop" twice, because I'm weird like that.
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Quoted:
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Novels that I am interested in, I tend to read pretty quickly, but retention isn't exactly necessary in novels.
Quoted:
Ever since school started back up, I've come to the realization that I'm a slow reader, especially when it comes to textbooks. I tend to reread stuff, never really get anywhere, and my eyes unfocus randomly. I timed myself, and i tend to average around 250 words per minute reading textbooks. Is this slow? How fast can the average arfcommer read? textbooks i'm slow as shit usually, because its not something I enjoy If i'm reading a good novel or history book, i can read fast and forever I tend to have to read something 4 or 5 times slowly over days just to remember it. Anyone have tips for retention of content? You might see if your school offers a learning assistance program. Some offer programs to help with just this problem. |
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I use several different techniques based on what I am reading. At times, precision is the difference between success or failure; at other times pertinent information can be gleaned quickly and without much effort.
Some folks seem to try to sound out everything they read in their minds, like they were receiving a mental lecture from a book. That's fine if the topic is complex, and if you need to pause frequently to weigh the implications or potential relationships of each piece of information. However if you're reading something entirely qualitative that is based off of common-sense concepts, just look at the page like you would a road-map and let your eyes follow along a visual route; taking a wide picture of a paragraph or parts of a sentence. If you get to a tangle of complexity, stop and look a bit more closely. Check yourself by pausing at the end of a section and checking your understanding against what you gleaned from your reading. Most generalized topics could be condensed down to literally a couple of words, but we use excessive language to verbally dance around a conceptual topic and map out its boundaries with specificity so that there can be little or no confusion. You could try looking at a page of text like you would a picture, just letting your eyes rove over it and pick out little details until you have a skeletal mental outline of the subject, then flesh in the bits that need a bit more detail in order to make sense to you. Another observation is that words don't need to be read individually to make sense, strings of them can be treated almost like ideograms. You can mentally section out sections of text and read them as wider strings, rather than individual words; for example: "how fast can you" and "read" rather than "how" "fast" "can" "you" "read". Or, alternatively, "how fast" "can you" "read". Sometimes it's faster just to let your eyes rove over a jumble of text and get the general picture of the concepts being communicated, and then going back with your eyes to pick out specifics that give you a clearer picture. |
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I think that if I could have one wish granted, it would be the ability to read one page per second.
... And be able to remember it. Of course, books would no longer be useful for passing time. But, I would be smart as shit! I tend to be a slow reader. Especially if it's not something I'm interested in. |
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I have never measured it, but I can read pretty fast... A reasonably sized book in a few hours if I put my mind to it. If it's a book I really enjoy, I take my time and savor it. I am super envious of people who can read fast. I am an extremely slow reader. Like the OP, I have to re-read everything several times because my mind wanders. A touch of ADD most likely. My school librarian loved me in high school. I used to read a book a night - no joke - and write reviews for her newsletter. She always had a stack of books waiting for me, that she'd picked out. 
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