Speed Reading With a Purpose
Do you have purpose when you read? Okay, sometimes you’re just reading a novel or magazine article for entertainment and your purpose is entertainment and relaxation. While speed reading can help you, it’s not really where its power lies.
If you’re not reading for pleasure and entertainment, you must have some purpose for reading. What’s your purpose? It may seem simple, but explicitly stating your purpose is a big deal. It allows you to focus and plan your approach.
This is a site about speed reading, but it’s also about information mastery. When we think of mastery, we think of complete understanding of some discipline, field or topic. Mastery is at the other extreme from reading for pleasure. In between lies most of our reading.
Reading Purpose
Let’s break down reading purpose in several general categories. Each will have a slightly different approach.
- Reading for Pleasure
- Searching for a fact
- Reading for Background
- Reading for a Test
- Reading for Understanding
- Reading to Write or Present
- Reading for Decision Making
- Reading For Mastery
Think of reading for pleasure as the least focused purpose requiring the least attention, time and intensity. Then think of reading for mastery as requiring the most attention, time and intensity.
Speed Reading will help you with all the different purposes, but as you go up the scale to mastery, additional tools like note taking, mind-mapping and re-writing will be needed.
The point is that different purposes will require different approaches. Over the course of the next several weeks and months, we will provide a plan or approach for each of these different purposes. We will introduce many tools, most will be free.
For now, know that as you go up the scale, more time and effort is required. If the information you are pursuing is complex, it may take several passes for you to understand and retain. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as it’s the material that is presenting the challenge. If it’s your approach, focus and plan that’s causing difficulty in mastery, then you need to make some changes. That’s where we come in.
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SpeedReaderX Speed Reading Program Progess
Does the SpeedReaderX work? I bought this speed reading program last week and started going through the program. This week, I’ve continued using and testing the software.
I’ve now completed through lesson 4. As I reported last week, my reading speed after the introduction was 464 WPM (words per minute). After taking the test for lesson 4, my speed was 661 words per minute. To put the increase in perspective, my reading speed for the program’s tests have increased by 42.5% after 4 lessons.
Now, as I reported last week, this is not my first speed reading course, but it’s my first in over 10 years. After the other courses, my speed topped out at 600 WPM. That means that I’ve set a new personal record after only a few lessons with this program.
What I Like About SpeedReaderX
Here are the things I like about SpeedReaderX:
- It’s an online program so there’s no software to install and nothing to store. I tend to misplace things I need to store, so this is a big benefit for me. I will never need to reinstall and it can be accessed on any machine without installation.
- Family members can get their own login without any additional fee.
- The lessons are short. After the first lesson, the introduction, I thought it might drag out, but it’s not. The lessons are short and can be done in less than 10 minutes.
- Navigation is easy.
- It’s working – my reading speed is increasing.
What I Don’t Like About SpeedReaderX
No program is perfect and this one has it’s quirks. I don’t see anything wrong with the program and its content, but there are a few detail issues that bother me:
- You’re instructed to click a “Begin Practice” Button that doesn’t exist. It’s the “Start Test” button that starts the practice and then after the practice, the test is made available.
- The highlighted text jumps during the practice sessions. It’s not a big deal and it doesn’t make a difference in what you’re learning, but it just bothers me.
- The graph didn’t record my baseline reading speed. Only the results of lessons 2, 3 and 4 are showing.
Lesson 2 was very slow for me, but then I started at 464 WPM. If you’re starting at a lower reading speed, it will be much more useful. However, by lesson 4, I was fully challenged. This is the first lesson that helps to eliminate or reduce sub-vocalization and the highlighted text is starting to move fast.
The great thing about this course is that you can go back and redo the practice if you’re struggling. You can go at you own pace. I went though lessons two to four pretty fast, but I suspect I’ll be slowing down with later lessons.
So to summarize – I’m very happy with the program after the first four lessons. My reading speed is up 42.5% and I’ve reached a new personal record. I know that I’m reading faster too. I’m zooming through material much faster. The difference in comprehension is better if anything. I believe this is from sharper focus and that I’m not re-reading because I’m not fully engaged.
So far, so good.
