Many of us are surprised by the amount of reading we are required to do in post-secondary studies — even those of us who read for pleasure. History chapters, whole novels, lengthy research reports… university demands hours and hours of reading each day. There are, however, some strategies we can employ to help us get through our required readings a little faster.

First of all, the long-term habit that will help the most is to read for pleasure. You already know that you will get better at anything you do a lot, so naturally, you will be able to read faster if it is something your brain is accustomed to doing. However, if you want to develop some strategies in the shorter term….

Most people can read faster than they think they can; they just need to force themselves to go faster. One of the best ways to do this is to use your index finger or a pen as a pointer on each word as you read it, and run it along the line of words faster than you think you can read. Your eyes will follow, and you will actually be reading and understanding everything (unless of course, you are going unreasonably fast — it may require some testing to see exactly where your comprehension starts to falter.) The brain often does not need to see the entire word in order to process it; in the case of highly formulaic phrases, it sometimes even fills in the blanks before the eyes have seen the word, so don’t wait for the conscious mental process to feel complete — just keep going!

One mistake people often make while they are doing this is reread sentences or groups of words because they are convinced that they have not caught everything. While it is possible (and we do sometimes miss details), time spent going over sentences you have already read is going to add up, and ultimately, you will not have saved any time at all. It is better to keep going, and at the end of a text (or a section, or a chapter) check yourself for any gaps in your understanding. If there are no questions looming in your mind, you probably caught everything you needed. One way to prevent yourself from compulsive rereading is to use an index or business card to cover words you have already read instead of just using your finger as a pointer.

Another tip for people who would like to read faster is to stop sub-vocalizing (saying the words in your head.) As we read, most of us hear a voice in our head saying what we are reading. This is common but not really necessary — in fact, it slows you down. Your brain does not need to “hear” the word in order to understand it. If you are using your finger as a pointer to help yourself speed up, you are probably going too fast for the internal voice anyway.

Finally, as with all things, the more practice we have, the better we get, so if you are reading regularly, you are likely improving your general abilities bit by bit, and reading faster will be easier for you. In the meantime, these small tweaks to your reading will help you get through your next pile of required reading a little faster than your last one!

Hope this helped! Please contact us if you have any questions or comments, or if you’d like to book a free appointment to see how we can help! Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next time with another mini-lesson in the ASA Blog!