Speed reading has long been a skill peddled by supposed experts, and recently a slew of cheap apps claiming to teach the technique have put it back in the spotlight. So, let’s take a look at the claims of speed reading and if it’s really possible to read 1,200 words a minute.
Most of us tend to read at about 200-400 words per minute. Speed readers claim to hit around 1000-1700 words per minute. To get a better idea of whether these claims have research to back them up, I spoke with professor and eye tracking researcher Keith Rayner from the University of California, San Diego.
Let’s start by taking a look at different methods of speed reading before we dig into what does and doesn’t work about it.