What Speed Readers Won't Tell You

Benjamin, what would you say your approx WPM Reading speed is
Thanks

I feel that applying some of the techniques of speed reading, it helps my attention level to stay better for longer. The thing is, it only really works if the speed is kept quite low. The most reasonable speed of reading can quickly be found by pen and backtracking and lingering with the pen seems more deliberate. This is of course not how speed reading is markedet, but perhaps it is how it should be.
Can you make a new video about "attention reading"?

I feel like one reason people feel like speed reading "works" at first is that most people can read a little faster if they try--in the same way most people can run a little faster than they think they can. And I can even believe that modest improvements are possible without a drop in comprehension, because those early gains are more about consciously directing your attention, not any magic method.

❤

Being able to read fast enough to keep the narrative going in yiur stm can be important

for me reading english as foreigner teach me to reading in my native language(indonesia).

Im really curious about how this concept applies to listening to material at 2x speed

Ferris is just a sock head regurgitating other people's ideas and making them seem like his own.
Many of the techniques he presents were around in the 70s and 80s.
Everyone is different and each will need to find what works for their situation.
For me chunking works as well as understanding sentence structure. Main ideas are usually followed by support.
Anecdotes are okay but many are just authors going off on a tangent.
Quiet environment creating a bubble is a must.
I learned about sniper bubble in the military. It's just you the rifle and the target. Nothing else matters or exists...

I really appreciate your taking the time to make this video. Thanks for setting the record straight.

I've always thought of myself as a "slow reader" and when I would read about those speedreaders who could read an entire book in 45 minutes, I couldn't help but compare myself adversely. Then, I read an excellent article which came out in 2016 called "So Much to Read, So Little Time" from the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest. It basically made many of the same points which you're making here. I realized that those advocating speed reading either genuinely believed that they had achieved a superior level of skill although they had no objective measure to substantiate that claim, or they were trying to sell a program. I now plod along at my own speed, unconcerned with artificial comparisons.

your video really helpful to me, thank you so much

Why is the maximum WPM so low? I just took a lot of the top Google results for "speed reading test" and my lowest score was 320 wpm 100% comprehension, I even got 600 wpm 100% comprehension on the yellow one

I am speed reading and I found that I barely remember something. Speed reading make me not concentrate more to remember.

I think the way I typically parse text is somewhat analogous to speed reading. I scan down the page looking first for the most uncommon words and for transition words that helps me get a very very rough idea of what seems to be going on. I then look at the area around those words I’ve identified, which can happen in really any order my mind decides on. In most cases I feel like I can use pattern recognition to reconstruct what got into my head, but a decent amount of time I do end up have to go back multiple times. I’ve been doing this since around first grade, so I feel like I don’t really know how else to read text aside from it. It is probably detrimental to how I process long form texts now, but it definitely helped me stay more mentally engaged while reading “age appropriate” literature as a kid.

If it sounds too good to be true it usual is.

interesting, so you read and create meaning, around five to seven years ago i was an avid reader of non-fiction books. And essentially the way to convey meaning in those books were by providing lots of redundant examples. And the actual meaning to be conveyed of course could have been summarised in far less words. Well guess what the best speed reading advice turns out to be...drumming sounds... not to read a book at all.
Well to be fair this video is not the most exhaustive dismantling of speed reading ever, just brushing the surface actually and already condemning the practioners and the thing itself.

Thank you! Now I fell more human!

i've been doing alittle "speed reading" research, and i found a suspicious video that im almost convinced was sped up. also they stated, "i can speed read" which makes me even more so. oddly enough thats right before i found this video🤣

You have been reported to Evelyn Wood, Inc.

I feel much better about myself now.
Thanks

To remedy the problem of speed reader apps reducing comprehension, I think if they brought up a word's surrounding paragraph when they paused (which I haven't seen in any apps), the benefit might be salvageable.
To me it seems the most important aspect of speed reading is the ergonomics of the application, and not really the hyper-fast wpm that people crank up to.

I tried speed reading when I was studying computing about twenty years ago. It didn't work. However my mother was probably the fastest reader I have ever seen. She could read two novels in a day, and still tell you exactly what the book was about. I've never seen anyone do that before or since. I could never understand how she could read so fast, and she didn't know anything about speed reading.

I don’t think speed reading is right or wrong. It just depends on my mood and the material. If the author is telling me the color of the kitchen table, then I’m like yeah that doesn’t add anything. But if there are more relevant plot points, then I’ll slow down. A reading life is kind of like a dating life, you’re going to do different activities depending on the person you’re seeing, and similarly different books depending on their fiction or nonfiction genres need to be read differently.

Maybe people think they are lazy and that a speed reading course would smack them into shape so they are actually focused on reading instead of being distracted by other things?

I think that speed reading can be useful in certain situations. Sometimes, you're not reading to comprehend or learn, but to quickly review, such as with spec scritp reading. When you have so many scripts to get through in a day, you kinda need to get through them fast, and them being relatively short and quick reads I think it helps to speed read, stopping to slow down on a 2nd read if the work sticks out to you or when it's worth keeping rather than passing on. But nice to see info showing it's not as useful for learning and comprehension

What about Anne Jones 6 times champion of speed reading? Her level comprehention is 60-70% and speed 1300 WORDS in minute.
At speed reading championships, people are very carefully tested for accuracy in understanding the text and asked a lot of questions.
There are many such champions who have a speed of more than 1000 words per minute. And we’re not talking about unrealistic numbers like 10,000 words per minute.

i couldnt agree more with this video. i truly feel like speed reading especially educational books rather then fiction books you really dont comprehend much infomation at all. none fiction books are not meant to be speed read. i prefer taking my time not matter how long a book takes me

There is a very easy and efficient speed reading technique I use. I don't read. Most books barely contain any significant amount of relevant information. You just need to identify those pieces and read only them. Books have structure and you can use this structure to skip all the water.

I'd prefer not to, sir.

"Such an insightful and honest video! Thank you for sharing the information about speed reading in such a clear and logical manner. It has helped me understand better why many speed reading techniques fail and why slow, comprehensive reading is more important. I will continue to practice careful reading to ensure better comprehension. Thank you so much!"

sounds about right. There is probably some built in speed limit that humans can basically see a word and conceptualize it. All the tricks in the world will not change it if it is a biological thing that a person needs ... whatever amount on nanoseconds to see and identify something. Reading or otherwise.

I actually found out that reading slower was way more efficient in university. Reading fast leads to misunderstandings. Good authors pick their words precisely and by skimming through sentences you won't grasp what they're actually saying. And if you're not picking up what the author is saying you'll lack understanding. Same goes for fiction, you are supposed to experience the story, imagining the pictures, maybe stop and think about a sentence or a point being made. You can't do any of that when speed reading, and if you can't do that, there's no point of reading

I catch myself doing inefficient things regularly ... going back to reread a paragraph in which I was thinking about something else. I feel like my speed would increase significantly if I could cut down on these unhelpful behaviors.

I’ve seen a professor “speed read” in person. It was humbling and made me feel stupid. It took him about 2 min to read my 14 page essay. He was able to summarize the ideas in detail, correct the grammar and make suggestions on how to organize the themes better.

He used his pen as a pacing device.

Was he some kind of genius or did he learn it? I would like to possess that kind of power.

I watched this video on 2X. 99% of YT videos are doo dooz.

"it's just a math problem" is the same specific, yet vague comment that Dr. Keep talks about in his 5 myths of Learning video.

Well Jim Kwik can teach people how to speed and fully understand all the complex details of any full book you read in a day. So clearly you don’t have to read slowly and in depth to be able to understand absorb everything.

There’s a happy medium for sure. A lot of people don’t read bc they’re not getting information fast enough.

If only there was a way to read fast and comprehend it, like improving brain processing speed and power

What do you think about sub-vocalization? Do you do it?

Did you write any books on this topic?

You completely painted this as a black and white issue and it's simply not. There are obviously going to be margins with anything and finding the best balance should be the goal. Idk about ALL of the speed reading techniques, but using a guide (pen) definitely helps a lot and at minimal loss of comprehension. Also you showed a 10% loss of comprehension at one point (without context of how much faster they were reading btw) while saying there was a massive loss in comprehension but that is not massive, especially if you're reading the same thing 2-3x as fast, thats actually a pretty good tradeoff for most people... You should avoid taking stances in extremes and actually try to be unbiased when you evaluate things. You clearly didn't plan from the start to give any of the speed reading techniques a fair shake.

honestly as someone who reads pretty quickly naturally i think the number one thing "speed readers" don't tell you is the way fast readers became fast readers was by spending a really long time reading a bunch of stuff. not by learning speed reading techniques and then applying them. i always read stuff in class like 3x faster than my peers and then i'm able to engage in discussion about said stuff without issue but i got this way because i just like reading things so i read all the time and it's basically my number one hobby and when you spend most of your time doing something you get good at it. like it's literally that simple.

Many good comments here. One thing I do to read more quickly is to read by phrases, as phrases often contain one complete idea.

Isn't speed reading about using your senses more aggressively? Slow reading perhaps is being too fearful and cautious.

I was introduced to speed reading 20 years ago. The only thing I found a use for it for me is to find a keyword in a block of printed text. I'm pretty sure you do get good at scanning text for specific words. For digital text, simply press ctrl+f. I don't think I ever learned anything while doing it.

That was so realistic 💐👍🏻