How to read faster and still understand what you read

You can read faster without losing comprehension by matching your pace to your purpose, skimming when the goal allows it, removing the causes of avoidable rereading, and growing your vocabulary. Large jumps are a different matter. A review of the research by Rayner and colleagues (2016) concludes that going from around 250 to 500 or 750 words per minute (WPM) while understanding a text as well as before is unlikely.

This guide is for adults and students with more to read than time to read it. Each section sums up what the evidence supports, and most end with a SpeedReadr tool you can use to act on it, starting with a free reading speed test.

What the research says about reading faster

Reading speed depends on how fast you can recognize words and understand sentences, and your eyes are a small part of that work. Rayner et al. (2016) estimate that eye movements take about 10% of reading time: each jump between words lasts around 20 to 35 milliseconds, while each pause on a word lasts around 250 milliseconds. Training your eyes to move in a new pattern leaves the larger part of the work, language processing, where it was (Rayner et al., 2016).

That is why speed and comprehension trade off. Understanding drops once words arrive faster than you can process them (Rayner et al., 2016). In one study the same review covers, adults who took a speed-reading course went from about 280 to about 400 WPM, and their comprehension scores fell from 81% to 74% (Calef and colleagues, 1999, reviewed by Rayner et al., 2016).

The authors put a normal pace for most readers at 200 to 400 WPM, which is faster than people take in information by listening (Rayner et al., 2016). Within that range, two methods hold up in the research: skimming, for goals that can tolerate lower comprehension, and practice that builds language skill. The rest of this guide covers both, in the order you would use them.

Measure your baseline before you change anything

A reading speed means little without a comprehension score next to it. A reader who covers 600 WPM and recalls few details is closer to skimming than reading, which is how the research describes trained speed readers (Rayner et al., 2016).

Take the reading speed test on a passage of ordinary difficulty. It times your reading and then checks your understanding with a short quiz, so you see both numbers together. For a second data point, the reading comprehension test checks understanding on its own.

Then compare your result with research averages. A meta-analysis of 190 studies with 18,573 participants by Brysbaert (2019) puts the average adult silent reading rate in English at 238 WPM for non-fiction and 260 WPM for fiction. Most adults read non-fiction at 175 to 300 WPM (Brysbaert, 2019). Reading aloud is slower, at 183 WPM on average (Brysbaert, 2019), and the speech time calculator estimates how long a text takes to say aloud.

The table converts those rates into reading time for a 10,000-word text:

To turn your own rate into time for a specific book, use the book reading time calculator. Retest every week or two on text of similar difficulty, because the text changes the number: Brysbaert (2019) traces the gap between fiction and non-fiction rates to word length.

Skim when your goal allows it

Before you start, name what you need from the text. An overview or a single fact calls for skimming. Material you will be tested on, or must apply at work, calls for reading.

Skimming is the fast mode the research supports. Rayner et al. (2016) report that skimming can run two to four times faster than typical silent reading, at the price of lower comprehension. Their review also finds that speed-reading graduates behave much like skimmers: in a 1980 study the review covers, speed readers at 600 to 700 WPM understood the gist of passages better than untrained skimmers and worse than people reading at a normal pace (Rayner et al., 2016).

Skim with a plan. Effective skimmers scan headings and paragraph structure for the information they want, then slow down and read where they find it (Rayner et al., 2016). Readers who pay more attention to headings write more accurate summaries, and spending more time on the beginnings and endings of paragraphs may improve comprehension during skimming (Rayner et al., 2016).

In practice, read the headings and the first sentence of each paragraph to find the sections that answer your question. Read those sections at your normal pace. Switch back to full reading for instructions, contracts, evidence and anything you will be tested on.

Cut avoidable rereading and keep the useful kind

Skilled readers move their eyes back to an earlier word, a regression, about 10% to 15% of the time, and many of those regressions repair a misunderstanding (Rayner et al., 2016). Researchers who blocked rereading, by masking each word once the eyes had passed it, found that comprehension suffered and that the effect held beyond ambiguous sentences (Schotter et al., 2014). On sentences built to invite a wrong first reading, readers who looked back and could reread the words answered comprehension questions with 75% accuracy (Rayner et al., 2016). Accuracy fell to around 50%, chance level, for readers who looked back at words that had been masked (Rayner et al., 2016).

Rereading to fix understanding is part of reading. The rereading worth cutting has other causes:

• Lost focus. Read with a question in mind. After each section, state its main point in your own words before you move on.
• Text above your level. If unfamiliar words or dense sentences send you back, check the passage with the readability checker, or find a comfortable level with the reading level self-check.
• Losing your place. Run a finger or cursor under the line to keep your place. Keep the guide at a pace your understanding can follow.
• A pace set too high. Words that arrive faster than you can process them produce broken comprehension, and broken comprehension produces rereading (Rayner et al., 2016).

Keep your inner voice

Many speed-reading books tell you to stop subvocalizing, the silent speech you hear in your head as you read (Rayner et al., 2016). Rayner et al. (2016) found that inner speech plays an important role in identifying and understanding words, and that attempts to suppress it hurt comprehension when texts were difficult and required inferences. Let your inner voice run and put the effort into the habits above.

Build vocabulary and background knowledge

The speed gain that lasts comes from language skill. Rayner et al. (2016) conclude that the way to get through text faster while keeping comprehension high is to practice reading and become a more skilled language user, for example by growing your vocabulary, since language skill drives reading speed.

Two mechanisms explain why. The first is word familiarity: readers spend less time on common words, and each time you meet an uncommon word it becomes easier and faster to read. Reading more, and reading varied texts, builds vocabulary better than rereading the same passage (Rayner et al., 2016). The second is topic knowledge: when you know a subject, you predict upcoming words and fill gaps with accurate inferences (Rayner et al., 2016).

The same review shows the limit of speed without knowledge. In the 1980 study described above, speed readers beat untrained skimmers on general questions about the gist of passages (Rayner et al., 2016). On more technical texts from Scientific American, where background knowledge was sparse, that advantage disappeared (Rayner et al., 2016).

For students, one practical use follows. Read a short introduction to a topic before a dense chapter on it, so the chapter’s terms are familiar when you reach them.

A practice routine that protects comprehension

Practice works, at a slow pace. Rayner et al. (2016) describe the gains from reading practice as modest, with no drastic jumps, and the practice that helps is reading real text for understanding. Drills that move your eyes faster leave comprehension behind (Rayner et al., 2016).

A routine that follows the evidence:

1. Read every day, and mix non-fiction with fiction. Variety exposes you to more words and more topics (Rayner et al., 2016).
2. Test yourself on a schedule. Take the reading speed test every week or two on passages of similar difficulty, and record both your WPM and your comprehension score.
3. Raise your pace in small steps while comprehension holds. If your quiz score drops, go back to your previous pace for a week.
4. Log what you read. The reading tracker keeps a record of your books and pages, and its printable reading log gives students and classrooms a sheet to fill in.

Expect slow change, in line with the modest gains the research describes.

When RSVP helps, and when to go back to the page

Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) shows one word, or a small group of words, at a time in the same spot, at a pace you set. Speed-reading apps use it on the claim that removing eye movements saves time (Rayner et al., 2016). The evidence gives RSVP a narrower role.

At a normal pace, RSVP works about as well as a page. In studies reviewed by Rayner et al. (2016), comprehension of short paragraphs was similar for RSVP and normal reading at about 200 WPM. Detailed recall dropped as the rate went up, and in one study performance fell by about 50% (Rayner et al., 2016). Comprehension also suffered when the display gave no pause between sentences (Rayner et al., 2016).

RSVP also removes rereading, which Schotter et al. (2014) found hurts comprehension. In a comparison using a passage from George Orwell’s 1984 (Benedetto and colleagues, 2015, reviewed by Rayner et al., 2016), readers using RSVP with pauses averaged 209 WPM against 200 WPM on the page. RSVP increased eye fatigue, and readers scored lower on questions about the literal content of the text.

RSVP earns its place in two situations:

• Small screens. On a smartwatch or a similar display, RSVP may be the one workable way to show text (Rayner et al., 2016).
• Short, low-stakes text when time is short. RSVP may be a good way to see a whole text without skipping parts, at a cost to comprehension and memory (Rayner et al., 2016). Keep the pace near your measured WPM.

To try it, open the speed reader and set the pace close to the WPM from your speed test. Pause the display whenever you need to think. The speed reader presents text and does not measure your reading speed, so keep using the test to track progress. Go back to the page for study material and for anything you need to remember in detail.

Choose an approach for each reading goal

This table pulls the sections above into one reference.

Where to start

Measure first, then change one habit at a time and measure again. Faster reading at full comprehension comes from practice and a growing vocabulary, and skimming covers the cases where full comprehension is not the goal.

Start with these tools:

• Reading speed test: your WPM and comprehension score in one sitting
• Reading comprehension test: a separate check on understanding
• Reading level self-check: text at a comfortable difficulty for practice
• Speed reader: an RSVP display for short, low-stakes text
• Reading tracker: a record of books and pages as your routine builds