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How can we read and assimilate faster?

At one point in our lives, we have all experienced the following: we are driving our car and we begin to accelerate: as speed increases from 45 to 80 m.p.h., for instance, our brain is forced to adapt to this new speed. We discover that when we slow down to 60 m.p.h., our brain makes our senses believe that we are actually going much slower. This is simply because when we sped up, we forced our brain to take in more information in less time; therefore, when we slow down, we realize our brain has extra time to perceive things from the external world: in spite of the fact that we are still driving at 60 m.p.h., our brain perceives a greater amount of details. This is exactly what happens to our brain if we increase our reading speed: our brain will adapt and will be able to assimilate greater amounts of information in less time. The average reading speed for a university student is 240 words per minute. After a fast reading training program, the same student can increase his reading speed up to 800 or even 1,500 w.p.m.

By keeping in mind the factors explained earlier and by focusing on each of these practices for a certain period of time when you read, you will certainly "break" them and develop new and more efficient reading habits. There is a basic rule you need to follow when you read: practice, practice, and practice again. For instance, you can set up training sessions in which you focus on increasing your reading pace without trying to remember much at first (i.e. like the effect that the acceleration has on your brain when driving a car).

There are different ways of reading:

Study-pace reading:
Approximately 250 w.p.m. This is the speed to be able to go straight to "the heart of the matter".
Fast reading:
Aproximately 400-800 w.p.m. This is the ideal speed to go over reports, summaries, and previously read texts.
Exploratory reading:
500 to 1,500 w.p.m. is the ideal speed for a first text recognition. It allows you to identify main topics, length, and interesting points in a short period of time. Most important of all, it prepares you for a better assimilation of the content.
When we "explore" a text for the first time, we pinpoint those topics that interest us the most, and we determine their length and structure. This is certainly a time-saving practice because when we finally sit down to study the text, we will be able to go straight to "the heart of the matter". Exploratory reading becomes an extremely important practice when we have to study a book chapter by chapter: a faster reading pace allows us to explore previous and following chapters and, thus, our learning capacity increases.

Why do we read so slowly?

Because there are certain bad reading habits we learned in childhood.

A habit is an activity that is repeated regularly and involuntarily over a period of time. The way we read is a habit. However, modifying reading habits is a simple process that can be accomplished in 1 month or a few months, depending on your personal characteristics and how much you put into it.

These are the most common bad reading habits we should try to correct:

1.- Uniform reading speed:
Some texts are easier to understand than others. We should be able to adapt our reading speed to the level of difficulty of the text.

2.- Inefficient eye movement:
Eye regressions: When we read, our eyes usually go back and read the same line over and over again. In 90 % of the cases, these actions are habitual, unnecessary, and unconscious. However, it is important to distinguish these spasmodic eye reflexes from voluntary eye regressions which sometimes are essential for understanding a text.
Arrhythmic eye movements: This type of movement interrupts the natural process of fixing or stamping images in our brain. This usually happens when our eyes slow down to read a word more carefully or when we sweep from one line to the next. This is when our reading becomes "arrhythmic."
Defective line sweeping: When we go from one line to the next, sometimes our eyes are tempted to wonder aimlessly for a few moments instead of focusing straight on the first word in the following line.

3.- Low perception range:
When our eyes fix upon a text, they usually perceive only 3 to 4 words. This insignificant amount of words our eyes perceive is the result of our childhood's bad reading habits: we were taught to read word by word. However, we can train our eyes to see up to 12 words every time they fix on a page.

4.- Subvocalization:
This process consists in simultaneously reproducing written words into sounds as our eyes fix on them. This terrible habit, also known as auditory reaffirmation, is rooted in those days in elementary school when the teacher used to ask us to read aloud to make sure we understood the relationship between letters and sounds. We must learn to read a text without reading aloud to ourselves; when we do, we limit our reading speed to our talking pace.

5.- Distractions:
Both internal and external distractions are true comprehension and motivation "killers" when it comes to reading.

6.- Slow speed:
When we read at a slow pace, we fragment the reading material and also narrow our perception of it. Reading fast allows us to assimilate concepts and ideas with greater clarity.

Why do we have to learn to read faster?

To gain time in identifying what is important and to discard what is accessory.
To assimilate what is essential in a text faster and effortlessly.
To understand with greater clarity and to store in memory more effectively what has been read.
To have more time to study a certain topic in depth and then put it into application