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Did you know that the average reading speed is approximately 300 words per minute?

People who can speed read, however, can easily double that result. A fast reader has a higher potential to be a smart professional because they can access and process information faster than others. You can easily outpace your competitors.

Becoming a faster reader requires more than reading a lot. Discover more techniques and tips to boost your reading speed with our list below:

Use a Tracker

The first step is to use a tracker. Some people underline words and sentences using a pen. Others take a straight edge, such as a ruler, and then descend as they keep on reading.

Reading with a tracker is helps keep you moving. The tracker prevents you from suddenly getting lost. You won’t waste time trying to figure out which line you were last reading, helping you keep the momentum moving down.

It also stops you from going back to reread previous lines, called regressing. We’ll tackle the issue of rereading in a separate segment below.

Don’t Talk to Yourself

Your inner voice is a major antagonist when it comes to speed reading. You should try to stop talking to yourself while reading.

If you wait for your inner voice to read the words out loud, you’ll slow yourself down. Before you know it, you might end up reading out loud, using your mouth. Physically reading is a lot slower than reading silently in your head.

There are a few ways of preventing your inner voice from getting in the way. One oft-suggested method is to chew on something while reading. Chewing and constantly moving your tongue will cut down the physical act of reading, keeping the process solely in your head.

Bookmark Reading Content

Every time you find something difficult or voluminous to read, bookmark it. It’s easy to bookmark pages on Windows. For Apple users, here’s a short but in-depth guide regarding bookmarks on Mac.

Bookmarking difficult text is a good way to re-test your reading speed. Even if you read a particular page before, you won’t be able to immediately memorize every word and line. To further prevent getting accustomed to a page’s content, cycle through dozens of bookmarks when performing a speed reading test.

What kind of content should you bookmark? Focus on pages with tons of difficult words, jumbled sections, and multiple headers. This ensures you can practice a lot of the other tips on this list.

Don’t Reread Text

Regressing is the process of going back to reread text you already passed. Speed readers never go back to reread passages they already went through.

Instead of rereading, force yourself to just push forward and keep reading. Don’t worry about comprehension. Your brain will catch up and process the blocks of information as you continue reading.

Group Words Together

One of the best tips to speed read is to chunk several words together. Instead of reading a line word per word, it’s a lot faster to process words as a group. Your brain will automatically process the meaning of those words due to their association.

You can start with simple paragraphs first. Some speed readers start practicing this method by reading children’s books. Focus on books with a lot of rhymes so you can sort out confusing chunks and prevent yourself from misreading lines.

As you get better at grouping words while speed reading, start focusing on more difficult lines. A good suggestion is to speed read fiction books, particularly science fiction and fantasy books. Books like The Lord of the Rings, Dune, and the Harry Potter books are all great selections.

Improve Peripheral Vision

The next step is to start reading from the center. This is perhaps one of the harder techniques to master. Since childhood, people learn to read from left to right.

Reading from the center doesn’t mean you can’t fully absorb the whole length of the text. Your peripheral vision should be able to capture the gist of the words located at the sides. If you practice reading chunks of words, your brain will automatically be able to piece the sides and the center phrases together.

One way to practice this is to start with thinner paragraphs. Copy a bunch of text you want to read, open a new MS Word or Google Docs document, and paste it. Adjust the margin, making it larger, to group the words closer to the center.

As you get better, decrease the margin size. This will spread the words further to the sides.

Enhance Your Vocabulary

Are you still struggling a bit to comprehend what you sped through? One of the biggest obstacles when trying to understand what you read is your vocabulary. The more words you know, the easier it will be for your brain to piece the information and meaning together no matter how fast you read.

Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to boost your vocabulary. Some people focus on reading literature. Others like to read through a thesaurus and dictionary.

One fun way to boost your vocabulary is to take a word and then create two separate lists in your head. The first list should focus on words that rhyme with the first word you came up with. Make sure to keep increasing the number of syllables in the words you list down.

The next list should focus on synonyms and antonyms. This will help increase your understanding of the word.

Time Yourself

Do you want to test your speed reading skills? Get a timer. At a specific time per day, get some of the most difficult passages you already bookmarked and keep reading.

When the timer buzzes, stop reading. Using your mouse, select all the passages you read and use an extension or tool to quickly perform a word count. Aim to increase the word count each day.

Boost Your Reading Speed Today

Now you know how to become a faster reader.

Boosting your reading speed isn’t impossible as long as you follow these tips. Don’t reread; stop your inner reading voice, use a tracker, and read from the center. Enhance your vocabulary and chunk words as a group while reading.

Did you enjoy this speed reading guide and want more tips like these? If you do, feel free to read our other posts today. We cover topics about travel, business, relationship, and finance.

Perhaps you are at a crossroads within your life, and you are ready to make a change. Or perhaps you are looking to start a new career or even a second career. Whatever stage or position you find yourself in, it is important to establish just what you want from college and what you hope to achieve. Going to college at any age can be both rewarding and fulfilling. It can, however, be extremely overwhelming, especially if you are in the early stages of choosing or selecting the right college for you. The choice that you make at this stage will impact your career and your future. If you rush your decision, or you do not take into consideration various factors, then you may well make a disastrous choice, which could impact or even influence the direction that your career takes. So, by taking time out now to get your decision right, you are actually taking control of the situation. You are making sure that you get what you want from your time at college, and you are making sure that you select the right degree or course for you, as well as selecting the right college.

Making the Decision

When it comes to making a final decision about what to study, where, and when, your decision will be a lot easier. You will have all of the information, guidance, and knowledge that you need to hand, and this will make the decision-making process a whole lot easier. Once you have made a decision, you have then made a commitment to change, and this is what you should be aiming to do at all times. Making a decision with confidence is what you want to happen; you want to be confident in the program you are studying, and you want to be confident about the value you are getting out of your studies. If you are not confident, then you will have doubts, and these are no good for you or for your future. Squashing doubts and squashing concerns is much easier to do when you are well informed, so the sooner that you get on with the selection process, then the easier and more enjoyable your final decision will be.

How It Will Impact Your Life and Your Future

Dedicating your time to college is a commitment that you have to give your full attention and energy to. If you are not prepared to fully and wholly commit, then college will not work as well for you, and you will certainly not get the results and success that you want. Going to college will positively impact your future, and it will change it for the better. It will give you new chances and opportunities to explore, grow and develop. These opportunities might not have been present (or even offered to you) if you do not have the college education or background that most employers expect.  When you are attending college, it will change your life because it will change how you see things and how you think. At college, you are molded to think in a certain way, and you are taught to apply yourself in a suitable manner. Moving forwards in life can help you see things differently, and it can impact the choices that you make. When you have left college, you will find that things will again change. The time you have spent at college will now be directly applied to the job or career you find yourself in. As you can see, the college has such a huge impact on your life now and in the future. So, to make sure you do yourself and your education justice, think about what you want to get from college.

Choosing The Right College

There are lots of colleges and finding the right one is not as easy (or as quick) as you think or as you hope. To get the right college, you have to focus on what is important to you both now and in your future. If you are attending college online, or if you are attending a physical campus, your needs might be slightly different, so this is something that you need to take into account. When you are looking at colleges, you need to make the right choice for you. It can be easy to let yourself get influenced by friends, family members, and work colleagues. However, you must choose the right college for you. The right college will be one that has values and attributes that closely match your own. As well as looking at values, you also need to look at success and ratings. You may visit a college or browse its website, and think it looks fantastic. However, when you get down to looking at the results, you may well discover that it has not performed as well as it could have done. When you are looking at success rates, you need to take into account where results were better. For example, some colleges have very strong departments within them, and this can be unbalanced by the weaker departments or areas. Weaker areas will bring down overall results and rankings, so you need to break down the results to establish if a college can do enough (and provide enough) for you.

Acceptance Rates

As well as looking at the success rates of a college, you also need to look at the acceptance rates on offer. Some colleges are very strict with their acceptance requirements, and this can make acceptance rates look worse than they are. It is important that you establish which college you want to attend as soon as you can because then you can start preparing and ensuring that you get the grades that you need and want. When it comes to analyzing acceptance rates, it is important that you take outside factors into account as well. For example, a college may not have as many spaces available one year as the next. When you are looking at the acceptance rate of a college, you may find it has a low acceptance rate, such as 245-25%. A lower acceptance rate can indicate that a college is more selective about who they choose and why they are chosen. Acceptance rates can indicate the quality of a college, and this may be something that you focus your attention on sooner rather than later.

Deciding What You Need and Want From a College

No two colleges offer the same in terms of student engagement or in terms of course content. Establishing what you want and what you need from a college will ensure that you get as much out of your time studying as possible. So, think about what is important, and also about what is essential. For example, is the student lifestyle and student engagement important to you. Whether you are attending college online or at a physical campus, you will want to have some sort of student life. It is important that you immerse yourself within the whole learning process, and student engagement is a key and integral part of this. You may be at college for anything from 2 years up to 4, and this is why it is important to establish what you want and need. So, think carefully, and choose carefully. Do you want the college to be heavily focused on your career? Do you want them to give you career support and guidance – is this a deciding factor for you? Also, think about what you want to get in terms of communication and involvement. When you attend a college (whether online or offline), you want to feel a sense of belonging. You want to feel wanted, and you want to feel valued. If involvement is not present, then you can end up feeling isolated, and this may negatively impact your time at college and your experience.

What Do You Want to Study

The program or the degree that you study at college is important. If you select the wrong program, then it may affect your career or post-college choices. So, what do you want to study? Do you want to launch a career as a nurse? If so, then you want to learn more, click here to get a breakdown of what you need to land a rewarding role. Or do you see yourself launching a career as an accountant? What interests you, and what drives you? Where do you see yourself in the future, and what career would you like? What you study is just as important as the contents of a program or degree, so be sure to think carefully about what it is you want from your life. If you know what career you want, then you will definitely want to focus on going for a specialist degree or program of study. Whereas if you are not entirely sure about what you want to do, then you may be wise to look at general programs of study.

The flexibility of the college

Studying can be demanding, and it can be draining too. Fitting in your studies around existing commitments can prove to be challenging. To ensure that you can fit everything into your days, you need to look at making lists and prioritizing tasks. When you have so much to do within a day, you will have to accept that you will have to make compromises somewhere along the line. You will also have to accept that you may not be able to fit in everything that you can (or want to). Having a plan of action is important for each day of the week. When you have a plan of action, you can be sure to prioritize those important jobs, and you can also be sure to prioritize your studies. If you have a lot of commitments to honor, or if you fit in your studies around work, then you might want to look for colleges that offer online learning. When you learn online, you have more control of your life and of your time, and this may be the best route for you to take. If a college does not offer flexibility, then you may want to reconsider and exclude it from your selection. You need flexibility there as a backup because you don’t know what will happen with your time in the future.

Having a Balance

Going to college is important. Getting as much as you can out of your education and time studying is important. However, as much as you can do, you need to ensure that you have a balance where possible. If you do not have a balance, then you may struggle to handle the pressure and the workload that comes with studying at college. If you get swamped by the workload or by the pressure, then you may regret going to college, and ultimately this will tarnish your experience. Thinking about getting a balance as soon as possible will help you create a way forward that works for you. For example, you get the opportunity to take control of your time and off your workload more if you know that you have to create and maintain a balance.

Location and Living

If you do decide to attend a college and its physical campus, then you need to take into consideration the location and where you will live. Fees and costs will quickly rise whether you are living on or off-campus, and this is something that you need to be prepared for – especially if you are choosing to move away from your home area. The location of a college will affect your commute time, and it will affect our living costs and tuition fees. Especially if the college is located in a desirable area or state. If you choose to live on campus, or you choose to attend a physical campus, then you need to be sure that you can afford to do so for the next 2-4 years.