Anyone have experience w/ speed reading / improvement courses? ....

[Boiler20]

I'm a very average reader, speed wise. Back in grade school, junior high, I was always testing out at reading 5-7 grade levels at least above my actual grade. Then, IIRC, I slowly came back to the pack it seems, starting in high school. My daughter, who starts at Michigan next month, has always been the same way, but it seems she has taken it to the next level. We each took a speed reading / comprehension test, at staples.com. I was fairly average / above average iirc, at about 240 wpm. My daughter? Over 500. We each took the test 3x so we had a good approximation.

So, my questions are 2:

1.) How fast do you read...with comprehension? Go to the link and take the reading speed test and do it the 3x for a good measure /average. Anyone who wants to share that with the others, please do so, and please don't cheat!

2.) Anyone have any experience taking a reading improvement course or courses? Which ones and your evaluation / results / feedback would be appreciated.






This post was edited on 8/8 12:35 PM by Boiler20

How fast do you read, with comprehension?

 

[CalBoiler]

Average...

of 560 wpm. I didn't miss any questions so I assume that they'll take off for that.

 

[beardownboiler]

Originally posted by Boiler20:
I'm a very average reader, speed wise. Back in grade school, junior high, I was always testing out at reading 5-7 grade levels at least above my actual grade. Then, IIRC, I slowly came back to the pack it seems, starting in high school. My daughter, who starts at Michigan next month, has always been the same way, but it seems she has taken it to the next level. We each took a speed reading / comprehension test, at staples.com. I was fairly average / above average iirc, at about 240 wpm. My daughter? Over 500. We each took the test 3x so we had a good approximation.

So, my questions are 2:

1.) How fast do you read...with comprehension? Go to the link and take the reading speed test and do it the 3x for a good measure /average. Anyone who wants to share that with the others, please do so, and please don't cheat!

2.) Anyone have any experience taking a reading improvement course or courses? Which ones and your evaluation / results / feedback would be appreciated.






This post was edited on 8/8 12:35 PM by Boiler20

I took it 10x and eliminated the highest (647) and lowest (354 . . . . partially due to missing the button to end the test and trying to recover from that . . which led me to just delete the outliers) and came up with 556.25 (In order: 602, 354, 632, 629, 429, 489, 482, 600, 647, 587). This is about right for my reading narratives like this, because the words kind of create a "movie" in my head. I know I'm just skimming if this isn't happening for me. I'm faster at reading non-narratives, because I don't feel the need to have this kind of projection in my mind (just absorbing and processing the info for what it is).

Sorry, but I have no info on your second question. But for reference, because you mentioned age and degradation over time in your post . . . I'm 30. Thanks for posting.
This post was edited on 8/8 12:57 PM by beardownboiler

This post was edited on 8/8 1:10 PM by beardownboiler

 

[TheCainer]

On 3 readings I averaged about 270. I did miss one of the 9 questions though.

 

[TheCainer]

I forgot about the second question. I took one of these courses before and was actually asked to give a testimonial. I have linked to it below.

Link

 

[jfv2000]

This test parallels a test you might find in Cosmo or People. Here are some of my criticisms;

1. The test passage is far too short of a passage and relies on extrapolation. People generally tend to lose speed, focus and comprehension the longer a passage goes on.

2. Not enough questions on comprehension. Three questions are hardly the basis for a statistically sound measurement.

3. Your interest and type of material you are reading greatly influence your speed. Read GBI's announcement of a new commitment vs. a similar length passage on genetic analysis of recombinant DNA - you get the idea

4. External influences affect your results. Are you tired? Do you have ADD? Are there other aspects in your life that would adversely affect your results?

5. Training affects things as well. If you are an engineer, you probably have spent the majority of your life reading slower to catch the details than if you spent your life reading novels and People magazine.

6. The very fact that you are aware that this is a speed reading test may influence you, even if the instructions tell you not to skim or try to read at a faster than normal pace. Humans are competitive and easily respond to suggestions, positive or otherwise. If I tell you there is a mosquito in the room which may bite you, you will respond mentally, if not physically.

In summation, there are too many factors involved to accurately assess one's reading speed on a definitive basis, let alone compare speeds with other readers. My advice for top reading speed is to stick to picture books. Seriously, you can absorb a lot more information in a shorter time when you do so. The passage from War of the Worlds could have been conveyed in 1-3 pictures.

You can thank Evelyn Wood and others looking to make a profit off of the self-improvement culture for your concern about reading speed.

 

[jfv2000]

Great link. I think of that every time I see the words "speed reading." Anybody got some Ritalin they don't need? I have to War and Peace by tomorrow night.

 

[Boiler20]

What area is your profession? Are you an attorney or some other similarly reading- inclined profession? I've read that younger minds can switch / adjust faster and that it degrades with age, which might explain my deterioration (I'm 50, fwiw).

 

[Boiler20]

Re: Average...

What is your profession? What kind of and how much do you have to read for your profession, and what type of reading does it include?

 

[CalBoiler]

I work...

in commercial real estate so I go over a lot of contracts, legal documents, etc. Also, aged 55, at least for another two weeks.

 

[kescwi]

First, I'm not concerned with how fast I read, but I do put in effort to read well, I just enjoy reading. Second, linked is a great book about that, not worrying about how fast you read, but how well.



How to read a Book

 

[beardownboiler]

Originally posted by Boiler20:
What area is your profession? Are you an attorney or some other similarly reading- inclined profession? I've read that younger minds can switch / adjust faster and that it degrades with age, which might explain my deterioration (I'm 50, fwiw).

Good guess. Yes, I"m an attorney.

But I was also an English Lit major at Purdue, so I've got "training" reading fiction/narrative there . . . and have been a book fiend my whole life.

 

[jfv2000]

Originally posted by kescwi:
First, I'm not concerned with how fast I read, but I do put in effort to read well, I just enjoy reading. Second, linked is a great book about that, not worrying about how fast you read, but how well.

That is a great book. Adler and Van Doren are two of the elite American intellectuals of the 20th century. Van Doren was in the center of the famous $64,000 quiz scandal of the 1950's. Adler, among other things, headed Britannica and together with Robert M. Hutchins, put together the University of Chicago's famous "Great Books of The Western World" program. I have mentioned Hutchins on these forums before as he was President of the University of Chicago when they de-emphasized football in 1939 and later wrote about it for a Sports Illustrated article in 1954, which basically outlined all the problems we see today in college football.

 

[kescwi]

Re: Anyone have experience w/ speed reading / improvement courses? ..

Ha, to go way off topic here, I first watched the film "Quiz Show" in a theater and gave off a guttural "ha" at the scene where it depicts Charles at his father's house at a gathering and in the back ground there is a Trappist monk, representing Thomas Merton, and have always wondered if the other guests are meant to be Mark Van Doren friends/protA?gA?s... like Whittaker Chambers
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