Speed Reading: What It Is, and What Actually Works
An honest guide to speed reading techniques, with what published research says about each one.
Updated by the SpeedReadTest team
Speed reading is reading much faster than normal by skimming, and it does not let you keep full understanding. Research finds a trade-off between speed and accuracy. Skilled readers typically manage 200 to 400 words per minute, and skimming works well only when you need the main ideas (Rayner et al., 2016).
Test your reading speed →What Is Speed Reading?
Speed reading is a family of techniques that aim to raise your reading rate well beyond the average adult speed of about 238 words per minute. Most courses teach the same ideas: use a pacer, stop saying words in your head, stop looking back, and take in more words at each glance.
The idea is appealing, because reading takes up so much of our time. But reading isn't held back by slow eyes. It is held back by how fast we can recognize words and understand them, which is why the main limit is in the mind, not the eyes.
Does Speed Reading Work?
In 2016, a team of leading reading scientists reviewed the evidence for the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest. They found little evidence that speed reading offers a shortcut to understanding and remembering large amounts of text. In the words of co-author Elizabeth Schotter, "There's a trade-off between speed and accuracy."
That doesn't make fast reading useless. The same review found that skimming can work when you only need the gist, and that the most effective fast readers tend to be skilled skimmers who already know a lot about the topic. Knowledge is doing much of the work.
How Fast Is Fast? The Five Reading Gears
The reading researcher Ronald Carver described five "gears" that readers shift between. These are his figures for college students. The useful lesson is that the right speed depends on your goal.
| Gear | WPM | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Scanning | 600 | Finding a specific word or fact |
| Skimming | 450 | Getting the general idea |
| Normal reading ("rauding") | 300 | Understanding each sentence |
| Learning | 200 | Studying to remember facts |
| Memorizing | 138 | Being able to recall the text |
Speed Reading Techniques: What the Evidence Says
| Technique | The claim | What research shows | Try it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Using a pacer | A finger or moving guide keeps your eyes moving | Can help you hold a steady pace and focus, but going much faster still costs comprehension. | Reading pacer |
| Skimming | Read only the most informative parts | The best-supported technique, as long as you only need the main ideas. | Skimming guide |
| Silencing your inner voice | Stop "saying" words in your head | Not supported. Inner speech helps you understand and remember, and blocking it hurts comprehension. | Subvocalization guide |
| Widening your eye span | Take in more words per eye stop | Not supported. Sharp vision covers only a few letters around where you are looking. | Vision span trainer |
| Schulte tables | Grid drills train faster reading | You get faster at the grid, but this hasn’t been shown to carry over to reading. | Schulte table |
| Never looking back | Re-reading wastes time | Not supported. Looking back helps you fix misunderstandings, and blocking it lowers comprehension. | Over-speed trainer |
| RSVP apps | Flash one word at a time to remove eye movements | Fine for short, simple text. Comprehension falls as the speed rises. | RSVP research guide |
What Actually Helps You Read Faster
- Read more, and read widely. Practice at reading for comprehension is the one thing the research shows can raise overall reading ability.
- Build your vocabulary. Words you know well are recognized faster, and wider reading gives you more of them.
- Learn about the subject. Background knowledge helps you predict what comes next and fill in what you skip.
- Match your speed to your goal. Skim to find out if something is worth reading, then slow down for what matters.
- Measure comprehension too. A speed without a comprehension score can't tell reading from skimming.
Our free reading speed test measures both, and the guide to reading faster turns these points into a practice routine.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is speed reading?
Speed reading is a set of techniques that claim to raise reading speed far above normal, often to 1,000 words per minute or more, without losing understanding. Research shows that people can skim at these speeds, but they understand less than they do at a normal pace.
Does speed reading actually work?
Only in part. Trained speed readers can move through text quickly and pick up the main ideas, especially when they already know the subject. But a major 2016 review found a trade-off between speed and accuracy, and found no shortcut to reading much faster with full understanding (Rayner et al., 2016).
Is speed reading real or a myth?
Fast skimming is real, while reading thousands of words per minute with full comprehension is a myth. Skilled readers typically read at 200 to 400 words per minute, and claims of extraordinary speeds rarely hold up when tested.
How fast is speed reading?
Courses often promise 1,000 words per minute or more. For comparison, the average adult reads about 238 WPM. In Carver’s reading gears, college students skim at about 450 WPM and scan for specific facts at about 600 WPM.
What are the main speed reading techniques?
The common ones are using a pacer, skimming, silencing your inner voice, widening your eye span, Schulte table drills, never looking back and RSVP apps. Skimming is the best supported, as long as you only need the main ideas, and a pacer can help you hold a steady pace. Research does not support the others as ways to read faster with full understanding (Rayner et al., 2016).
How can I learn to speed read?
Start by measuring your speed and comprehension together, then practice reading varied material regularly and learn when to skim. Practice reading for comprehension and building your vocabulary are the changes research supports.
Related
Sources
- Rayner, K., Schotter, E. R., Masson, M. E. J., Potter, M. C., & Treiman, R. (2016). So much to read, so little time: How do we read, and can speed reading help? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17(1), 4–34. Link
- Association for Psychological Science (2016). Speed reading promises are too good to be true, scientists find. Link
- Brysbaert, M. (2019). How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate. Journal of Memory and Language, 109, 104047. Link
- Carver, R. P. (1997). Reading for one second, one minute, or one year from the perspective of rauding theory. Scientific Studies of Reading, 1(1), 3–43. The five reading gears were first set out in Carver (1992), Journal of Reading, 36(2), 84–95. Link
- Duggan, G. B., & Payne, S. J. (2009). Text skimming: The process and effectiveness of foraging through text under time pressure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 15(3), 228–242. Link