College is the time to live it up! However, it is also the perfect time to cultivate valuable skills that enhance one’s performance academically and serve to improve the quality of life in general. College entails a lot of reading; course books, general awareness material, project related reading, assignments, e-mails and the like. Undoubtedly, reading equips you to deal well with college requirements of all kinds. Speed reading is one such special skill that may take a while to develop but serve you well not only through college but otherwise too, as you move on.
What Is Speed Reading?
Speed reading can be understood as the ability to read faster and better along with complete comprehension of what is being read. Well, all of us read. Infact, reading is often taken for granted. For many of us, a cursory gaze through the morning newspaper, a brush-up through the college textbook, looking at a report just to get to the crux of it and the like may seem like a reading activity but actuallly, are far from it. Real reading takes push and practice. It centers around the skill of being able to unlearn a casual reading habit, gradually developing an effective and productive way of reading and absorbing what you are reading while understanding it in totality.
The Science Of Reading
Scientists observe that as one reads, each of the eye tends to lock on to different letters at the same moment, generally at a difference of two characters. It is indeed interesting to note that the brain then works to fuse the letters together and create the word for us to understand. And the best part is that the entire process is instantaneous! It is upto us to try and facilitate the co-ordination of the brain and the eyes and mould it in our favour.
Tips For Speed Reading
On an average, reading speed for a student is around 200 to 250 words per minute. Ask yourself if it can be doubled or even tripled. The answer is sure to surprise you and here’s how you can achieve the miracle:
Avoid sub-vocalization. In simpler words, as we read a word, we tend to ‘speak’ it in our mind which doubles the time spent on reading. A number of students do this subconsciously. What’s required is a steady and dedicated effort towards silencing our mind, thus trying to stop sub-vocalizing.
Make a conscientious effort towards reading a group of words rather than single words at a time. With some practice, you’ll be able to achieve this goal.
Develop an active reading strategy that works best for you. For instance, before beginning to read, ask yourself questions related the topic and what you know about it already, identify new terms, focus on the crux of the matter, write an outline as you read, make a diagram alongside, use the margins wisely to scribble your personal notes and questions etc. Also, concentrate on the headings and sub-titles more than the running text.
Create a conducive reading environment that enables you to concentrate and accomplish satisfactory knowledge and understanding of the topic. This can be attained by minimizing distractions and avoiding multi-tasking as you read. Well, keep the day-dreaming, doodling and hunger pangs for later!
Avoid reading word by word. Instead, aim to grasp the gist of the topic or the concept by learning to read all the important words and phrases. As you finish a particular topic or chapter, dont’ be in a hurry to go. Ten minutes spent here for making the summary will benefit you immensely as the matter would be fresh in mind. It will save unnecessary re-reading and give you more time for other co-curricular activities for an all- round development.
As your first step towards speed reading exercise, start practising with simple reading material and gradually move on to the complex. Your eyes can be trained to locate the ‘meat’ of the matter rather than move in a useless erratic fashion, work at it. Try using the ‘White card method’ wherein, a blank paper or white card is used to guide the reader’s eyes through the page.
Speed Read Your Way To Success
As a college student, time is always at a premium. Speed reading is the key, use it to your best advantage, maximize your reading potential and come out with flying colors. Remember the time tested saying of ‘Practice Making Perfect’. And needless to day, as you save on your reading time, feel free to de-stress the way you like and in your own sweet time!
We recommend using the Max Grades Min Effort to get full explanation on how to apply speed reading techniques properly. This is the most advanced system founded by a young graduated engineering student who got ranked among the top 5% in school.
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