The ability to read a book in one day or even an hour is a great help in study and work, but for many people this seems like a fantasy. We look with some envy at movie geniuses who just leaf through books and get all the necessary knowledge, but it turns out that everyone can do it.
Statistics
The average reading speed of a Russian-speaking person is 150-200 words per minute. The point is in the peculiarities of our language, for example, English-speaking people have an average speed of 300 words per minute. This is also quite small, since it will not work to read the book quickly: it will take at least six to eight hours. So why do some people read faster and others slower, and what is the secret of speed reading?
Physiology
If you start to understand from the very beginning, it will become clear that the matter is in the structure of our visual organs. In any speed reading school, the student is first explainedit is this aspect, since the human eye is the main organ that helps us gain knowledge from books. Now we will analyze the main errors, the simple elimination of which will already allow you to increase your reading speed by two to three times.
Replays
Often, people come back to reread a line or even a whole paragraph they've already read. This can happen because the meaning was not fully understood, but usually the reader is distracted by some thoughts, the consciousness is no longer up to the information in the book, as it is occupied by others. As a result, a person suddenly realizes that he has completely lost the thread of the story. Sometimes consciousness itself returns a person to the place where concentration was lost. Up to a third of the time we spend on conscious and unconscious recalls.
Reading aloud
Yes, yes, many still, as in childhood, pronounce what they read. And if you talk to yourself, it's the same. This not only absorbs up to twenty percent of the speed, but also interferes with memorization, as the brain has to be distracted by an additional task. Therefore, if it is important for you not only how quickly to read a book, but also how to remember it, get rid of this mistake.
Jerks
If the first two errors are present in many, but not all, then almost every person has this shortcoming in reading, unless, of course, he studied at a speed reading school. During the reading process, the eyes move along the line not smoothly, but in jerks, as a result of each of which the gaze stops for a gap of a quarter to a half.seconds. Removing this error instantly increases reading speed by 1.5 times.
However, this shortcoming is more clearly revealed not on the text, but on a simple horizontal line. Draw a fairly clear and thick horizontal line on a piece of paper, then cover your left eye and, gently holding your left eyelid with your fingertip, look at your right eye along the line as if it were a regular line of text. Now, understanding the nature of jerks, try to move your eyes smoothly, avoiding stops.
Directly when working with text, you can first use a stylus or pencil, following its tip as a focal point. In this case, it is important not to slow down the movement of the pencil, but to follow the pointer with your eyes.
Peripheral vision
Also one of the important things to increase reading speed is to cover multiple words. Remember how at first you read by letters, then by syllables, and only after that you learned to see the whole word at once. The next step is to look at several words at once, a whole line, and even several lines. This aspect is also important because without it diagonal reading is practically impossible.
Exercise
It doesn't matter if your peripheral vision is not developed. It can be trained directly while reading: just try to keep the focus in the center of the line, and grasp the extreme words with peripheral vision. This option is suitable for those who do not want to spend time on third-party workouts. However, it will be more efficientusing a specialized exercise on Schulte tables. There are many interactive applications for this system on the Internet, including free ones.
So, what is the principle of the table? It has three blocks of numbers. The two outermost ones are presented as columns of numbers, and the central one is presented as several horizontal lines written in a smaller font. The subject's task will be to find identical blocks in the extreme columns, while maintaining focus on the central group of numbers. Thus, it is necessary to search for repeated numbers only with the help of lateral vision. If this exercise is difficult at first, you can simply zoom out or move the monitor screen away, and after a while return to its previous position.
Diagonal reading
There are many legends around the method of reading diagonally, since, according to many, it is possible to quickly read a book only in this magical way. In fact, it is not a "panacea", or, more precisely, it is not suitable for all texts. For example, reading fiction using this method does not make sense, since it will be easier to just read the summary - there will not be much difference.
Diagonal reading is great for part-time students and students with a tight curriculum and little time to read. Textbooks and technical literature, scientific papers and articles - this is the main field of activity for this method, on which it gives good results. Exam preparations will be much faster and better, because with the rightapproach, all information is remembered much better than with normal reading and even memorization.
Simple rules
The main task of the reader when reading diagonally is to cover the entire page with his eyes. This is where the exercises on the Schulte tables will help. Unlike classical reading, here a person needs to completely abstract from the process of eye movement and take a look at the entire page, as if to "photograph" it. The most difficult moment will be to learn to see the entire text without moving your eyes in a horizontal or vertical direction, that is, your gaze must remain motionless.
After the basic skill is mastered, you should move on to improving the ability to structure the information received. It is this aspect that is also responsible for the good assimilation of the material, since the reader receives a summary. Key phrases and words that require attention and carry a semantic load should be singled out from the mass of text. There is a lot of “water” in almost any material, which the author uses to smoothly connect the main sentences, and it is precisely this that is “excluded” from the text when reading diagonally.
How to read diagonally correctly and quickly? The gaze should be taken from the upper left corner to the lower right (hence the name), you need to focus only on key phrases. It is not worth rereading any segments by the classical method, as this prevents the brain from concentrating on the main idea of the material, forcing you to switch to particulars.
Concentration
Another rule that is important not only for diagonal reading, but also for speed reading in general, is concentration. There can be no talk of any understanding and quick mastering of the material if, in the background, you are thinking about some irrelevant things, be it a trip to the sea or an upcoming exam. Why learn how to quickly read a book if the knowledge gained is not deposited in the memory? Eliminate all distractions and immediately feel the result.
