Fast reading with high retention rate. Speed Reading Basics

The ability to read quickly and remember what you read for a long time is an extremely useful skill. It is necessary for schoolchildren and students who constantly acquire new knowledge. But a person learns throughout his life, and thinking abilities decrease with age. Having said goodbye to notes, over time we notice difficulties in perceiving and remembering information.

Why is this happening? The brain needs exercise, just like the body needs movement. If we refuse regular training, abilities will become dull, and previously acquired knowledge will be erased from memory. The only way out is to develop existing skills and develop new ones. We share the most in simple ways how to learn to read faster and remember more.

Reading quickly is a skill that will positively affect your memory

Why do we read slowly?

Researchers have determined that the average American reads 200-300 words per minute. The indicator increases with the level of education. A college student “swallows” 450 words, a teacher - 600-700, and so on. If we take into account the peculiarities of the Russian language, then for us the norm will be 150 words per minute. But the conclusion is obvious. If you want to read faster, read more.

Reading speed is affected by external conditions. It is not surprising that at home, in silence, we read faster than in a crowded subway. The inability to concentrate impairs not only your reading speed, but also your ability to comprehend what you read. Thoughtful work on texts requires comfortable conditions. And in transport you can read a fiction book or article.

Reading speed depends on the concentration of vision on the text. Our gaze moves across the text in jumps. Each of them ends with focusing on a specific area of the page. To test this, sit at a table and place a book in front of you. Close one eye, gently pressing the eyelid with your finger, and glide over the text with the other. Do you feel jumping? They slow down reading.

Reading speed depends on the ability to concentrate on the text

Reading without haste, we often return to the text we have covered. This happens unintentionally: we think about our own things, lose concentration - and the subconscious takes us to the beginning of a familiar sentence. This is also a leap, but backwards. Such “travels” take up a third of reading time.

Surprisingly, the lion's share of attention is stolen... by the fields. By focusing on two or three words, we catch the rest of the text in our peripheral vision. If we read a sentence from the first word to the last, we capture the empty areas at the edges of the page. The brain spends time processing these white spots, and reading speed slows down. Shall we experiment?

One day Fyodor was reading a collection of romantic poems until three in the morning.

Read this phrase twice. First start with the word "one day" and end with "night". The second time, start from “Fedor” and finish on “three”. Have you noticed how much time you saved? This is how speed reading techniques work. Owners of e-books read more books than those who read paper books. Perhaps the secret is that the fields in the “readers” are narrower.

Owners of e-books manage to read more works

How to develop reading speed?

So, there are only two tips:

Avoid jumping around the page.
Don't waste your peripheral vision on the margins.

At first glance, everything is simple. But to use these techniques every day, you need to develop them to the level of a reflex. To do this, perform a set of three exercises:

Use a pencil to avoid jumping from one part of the text to another. Place an open book in front of you and read, moving the tip of the writing utensil along the line. Start with the first word and end with the last. You will feel your concentration increase. Then count the number of lines on the page, time the stopwatch for one minute and start reading. Try to spend no more than a second on a line. Don't stop and don't go back.
For the next minute, read with a pencil, but start with the second word on the line and finish with two to go.
Within the third minute, start from the third word and finish from the third from the end. Read at a speed of half a second per line. Don't stop, even if the meaning of what you read eludes. Focus on timing and number of lines.

Warm up for 15 minutes and then measure your reading speed. It will increase 2-3 times compared to normal. And remember: speed reading requires constant practice, but it allows you to develop performance up to 1500 words per minute!

Use a pencil to avoid jumping from line to line

Speed and understanding

Unfortunately, speed of reading impairs the understanding and memorization of the text. Even using these techniques for many years does not guarantee that you will not miss important points. An alternative to speed reading is the Spritz and Blinkist methods. The idea is the same. We spend a lot of time jumping around the page and reading fields. How to avoid this without compromising the understanding of the text?

Methodology Spritz is that words appear on the screen one at a time. The letter in the center is marked in red, which improves the focus of vision. It is impossible to switch to what you read earlier or wander your gaze through the text. English version Spritz allows you to read 600 words per minute. The company creates applications for phones, tablets and laptops on different languages. On the Spzirtz website you can translate text (including Russian) into this reading system.
Company Blinkist offers a different approach. To read faster, you need to read only the important things. The application divides the text into easy-to-read segments. Each one concludes with a different thought. This makes Blinkist useful for reading long articles and works. But let's be honest. Students were preparing for classes on introductions and conclusions to articles long before the advent of smartphones.

Let's summarize. Speed reading is interesting and useful. But mastering the clever techniques will take a long time and is unlikely to improve the ability to understand information. In some cases, it is better to focus on analyzing and remembering what you read, rather than on the speed of absorbing pages.

Remember everything

Memory is an amazing thing. We remember little things very well, like the phone number of a school friend, and instantly forget what we need to buy at the supermarket. How does our memory work? It decrypts the received information, sends it to the “archive”, and, if necessary, searches and retrieves it back.

Your phone will refuse to work if the battery is low. The brain also needs to be recharged. Get enough sleep, alternate between rest and work, have fun, drink enough water. Eat Omega-3 fatty acids - they are found in nuts, fish, linseed oil and improve thinking abilities. Play sports. Just 15 minutes of exercise - and studying will go much easier.

Be prepared for the fact that it is impossible to learn everything. Like the space of a real archive, the capacity of human memory is limited. To preserve new information, we get rid of old information. It is impossible to change this system, but it is possible to designate some memories as more significant. The best way retain information for a long time - tie it to emotions and images.

Scroll through your memory of the books you studied in your school curriculum. What were the names of the main characters, where did the events take place? You will retell some stories right away, others after a while, and others you will miss.

To train your memory, remember what books you read at school

Now think about why this happens. Most likely, you remember well the works that caused strong feelings. Perhaps you had a long discussion about this book with a friend or wrote an introductory essay on it. Or maybe you liked the illustrations - pictures evoke more emotions than text. In any case, memory connects facts with emotions and carefully stores them.

Many memorization techniques are based on this.

Abbreviation. To store several names in memory, create a new word or sentence from their initial letters. Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits - remember? The method works not only with the colors of the rainbow.
Rhyme. Poetry is easier to learn than prose. For example, you forget the date of the abolition of serfdom - 1861. Try to rhyme it something like this: “One eight six one - I will give freedom to the serfs.”
Associations. Works well when learning a foreign language. When learning new words, look for words that are consonant with them in the Russian language. “Keep it” is similar to “boiling”, “necessary” is similar to “carrying a sari”. At the same time, picture in your mind a person holding a boiling kettle, or an Indian running down the street carrying a sari in his hands ( national clothes), necessary for his wife. English words often have multiple meanings. Look for a connection between them. The word "palm" means tree and palm. Imagine a palm tree with leaves that look like open palms. Find out what the original titles of your favorite films sound like. English name Groundhog, groundhog, is hard to even pronounce. But if you remember the movie “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray, the task will be simplified.
Chain. If you need to remember several random words, connect them by meaning. A classic example is a shopping list. Let's say you go to the supermarket to buy apples, coffee and pasta. Imagine how the fruit wakes up, drinks an invigorating drink and thoroughly brushes its teeth. It is unlikely that you will forget such a vivid plot on the way to the store.
The palaces of the mind. Sherlock Holmes' favorite method. Imagine a space - a room or house that you know well. Mentally draw what you need to remember and place these items in the halls. The brighter and more unusual the “interior” is, the longer it will remain in memory. Add a chain technique. For example, you are learning Chekhov's plays. Here Anton Pavlovich enters the room, talking with Uncle Vanya, a seagull flies nearby, and in the back of the room a cherry orchard is blooming and three sisters are walking... The secret is to visit the “halls” as often as possible and not be afraid to imagine strange pictures.

The association method works well when learning foreign languages.

Tips for those who want to remember more:

Write by hand. And not just notes. By rewriting information, we remember much more than when reading. Keep a “literary diary”. Write down unfamiliar words, interesting quotes and plot details, and write reviews. The lazy option is bookmarks. Underline the most significant paragraphs and place a colored sticky note on the page. If you go back to the book, you can easily find important information.
Alternate source and disciplines. When studying a specific topic, don't limit yourself to books. Find articles, videos, lectures, images... You will form a complete picture of events and prevent your brain from becoming overtired. If you are preparing for exams, plan your day so that you can devote no more than two hours to one subject. After a difficult discipline, take on the one you like.
Connect new information with previously acquired knowledge or life experiences. When reading a fiction book, remember what historical events took place at the time described. Are you learning math formulas? Think about how to use them in your everyday life.
Retell what you read in your own words, simplifying complex points. Then skim through the text and think about what you missed or confused. Be sure to clarify any unclear terms or expressions in the text. Do this right away so you don't have to relearn the material.
Divide information into “portions” and repeat it regularly. If you need to learn 50 foreign words by the end of the week, review 25 in the morning and 25 in the evening every day. The result will pleasantly surprise you.
Forgot a foreign word, date or name? Don’t run to Google or your notes for advice, but try to remember on your own.

Train your memory

The ability to remember a lot is not a talent, but a skill that can be improved. Learn what you like, be it poetry or foreign language. Set a limit of one poem or 20 words per week. Instead of social networks Spend time on apps for training your thinking abilities (Lumosity, Elevate - Brain Training, Memory) and thematic sites:

uplift.io - a selection of games for memory and speed of thinking. At the same time, you will improve your English, geography, and history.
mozgame.ru - a few more games for development different types memory and attention.

Interactive apps are great for memory training

To train visual memory, we recommend the Aivazovsky method. To remember the “picture,” look at it carefully for five minutes. Save every detail in your memory. Now close your eyes and mentally draw what you saw. A few training sessions and your problems with remembering streets will disappear.

Developing reading speed and memory is a useful and interesting task. But it is important to understand why you are picking up a book. If you need to get a general impression of the text, a quick glance is enough. But often our goal is to comprehend the information, form an opinion about it, and apply it in life. Development comes from working on the text, not the number of books read.

Exercises for mastering speed reading techniques will be most useful to those who are dissatisfied with their speed of understanding and remembering information when reading texts various types and level of difficulty.

At what age can you practice speed reading?

For an adult, it is extremely important not only to be able to demonstrate the ability to read a piece of text “on a stopwatch” as quickly as possible, but what is really necessary is the ability to save time thanks to speed reading. Therefore, when reading a text on a particular topic, an adult simply must be able to “skip by” unnecessary, uninformative parts of the text, while looking for key words that reflect the author’s main idea.

The most common recommendation for children is that you should not teach a child to speed read before the age of 14. We agree that superficial reading “diagonally” is not the best the best option for schoolchildren who, first of all, need to thoroughly master the curriculum and learn to enjoy works of fiction.

Of course, each child and his abilities are unique, so it would be wise to focus on the key points of children’s readiness to master speed reading techniques. So, if your child already knows how to read aloud, easily reads a page in a couple of minutes and understands the meaning of what he read (can retell the essence in his own words), you can set the task of increasing reading speed using a set of speed reading exercises.

5 Key Skills for High Reading Speed

When learning to speed read, it is important to constantly train the following skills:

concentration of attention;
suppression of articulation (the habit of pronouncing text);
improved visual skill - wide field of peripheral vision;
the ability to quickly highlight valuable, useful information in the text and not waste attention on “water”;
good memory - assimilation of valuable information from the material read;
increasing the speed of thinking.

The secret to mastering speed reading techniques is regular exercises in developing memory, attention and mastering other skills. quick reading.

What exercises to improve reading speed will be useful at any age?

The greatest benefit comes from those exercises that eliminate the cause of low speed of perception and processing of visual information.

The main errors that create a barrier to reading speed in both children and adults are considered to be involuntary recurrent eye movements (regression) and unnecessary articulation, which we learned in childhood.

The main disadvantages that hinder the effective and rapid perception of information:

problems with concentration;
a small angle (field) of visual coverage of text information.

Thus, exercises for speed reading in 1st grade should be aimed primarily at developing the ability to concentrate attention and expanding the scope of information coverage. "Small field of view" is perhaps the most important reason, according to which children are taught to read first by letters, by syllables, then by whole words, phrases and sentences with an expression confirming the reader’s understanding of the meaning of what is written.

Not every adult can boast of the ability to perceive long phrases and entire sentences “at one glance.” This is where the development of visual reading skills stops for most people.

Expanding the field of view

“Development of peripheral vision according to Schulte tables”

Regular training with the help of Schulte tables will not only allow your child to have an interesting time, but will also help increase concentration, expand peripheral vision and develop memory.

"Defocused look". The main goal of the training is to use an unfocused gaze to perceive a larger area of the page or screen. The exercise can be performed in various options, for example, for searching using diffuse vision identical elements or to remember more elements that were possible to cover without moving the gaze from the central object of attention.

Improving concentration

"Activation of both hemispheres". Take a text on a topic that is familiar to you and read the paragraphs alternately with your right and left eyes. Thanks to this simple technique, you activate both hemispheres of the brain in turn.

"Highlighting the main thing". Many prominent personalities have used this technique. Just take a marker or pencil and highlight the 2-3 most important ideas from the page. It’s even better to improve this exercise and not just highlight the main thing, but use signs to indicate your critical comments: very important information - “!” or “NB”, if you agree, put “+”, if you disagree, put “-”, etc.

“Name the color”. Say out loud the colors of the words as you read the following colored text. It is the colors, not what is written.

Red . Green. Blue. Yellow. Violet. Orange. Brown. Blue .

Red . Blue. Green. Violet. Yellow. Brown. Blue. Green. Blue.

Don't rush to do it at incredible speed. It’s good if after training you basically managed to complete the exercise without errors.

"Find the Word". Exercise options:

Search a page for all words starting with a specific letter.
Search a page for all instances of a specific word or phrase.

Guessing riddles- simple and very effective method training concentration skills at any age. Trick riddles or tricky logic questions are well suited for this purpose.

Getting rid of regression

“Cutting half a line”. When reading the text, cover half the line (the top part) with a sheet of paper. In this way, you will force your brain to guess what has been written and at the same time, in such a situation, you will naturally want to see the next line even before you “cut off” part of it. This exercise will teach you to run ahead when reading and at the same time not to return to what you read.

"Pointer". To break the habit of looking back at what you have already read, let your gaze constantly follow the pen, pencil or finger, which will always lead you forward.

"Speed Reading". Let's remember the reading speed test in primary school. We take a timer and measure our current result by reading one page, chapter or article.

Suppressing articulation

"Alternate text". In parallel with reading, we say something unrelated to the subject of attention. For example, we hum the tune of a song (“la-la-la, tru-lal-la”) or pronounce another text in our minds, for example, proverbs, tongue twisters, or count in order, regardless of the number of words or lines read. The main thing is not to lose concentration.

"WITH closed mouth!» If your lips move or your tongue moves while reading, you need to keep them occupied with something. This error is often present in children after constant reading aloud in the early grades. Try chewing a pencil or crackers or chewing gum at the same time.

"Drumroll". We tap some rhythm with our fingers on the table, the more complex it is, the better. If your fingers are busy, the speech center of the brain will be at least partially blocked.

"Reading with distracting music". A great way to suppress the desire to pronounce the text you are reading is listening to music that does not have a constant rhythm. Jazz is best suited for this purpose.

Developing memory

"Non-standard reading". Reading text rotated away from you by 90 degrees, 180, 45, etc. Example of an exercise: turn the page upside down and set the task of reading the text backwards (i.e. from right to left). This training is especially useful for children in order to form in their memory standards of complete letters, regardless of how they are located.

“Recover the missing letters.” An excellent exercise for developing verbal and logical memory. While reading a text with missing letters, stopping to “guess” the next word forces you to remember the words and meaning of what you read earlier. Good training not only for memory, but also for eliminating such interferences in fast reading as recurrent eye movements and articulation.

Development of thinking speed

One of the main reasons why it is possible to significantly improve the reading speed of any person is the redundancy of information at all levels of texts (especially those posted on the Internet), ranging from headlines and introductory structures intended to attract attention, to individual words with weak or completely absent semantic meaning. load.

Regular solution logical problems develops the ability to separate the important from the secondary, develops the skill of “turning on blindness” in relation to excess information and “instant” perception of important thoughts. This is achieved, first of all, through regular exercises in quickly perceiving the conditions of the task and understanding the essence of the question being asked. Conscious analysis of the structure of tasks develops the skill of dividing tasks into conditions and groups of conditions, identifying one or more issues, understanding the optimal order of solving subtasks, and searching for solution options.

Completing tasks from LogicLike will help at any age:

improve concentration;
develop speed of thinking;
increase the ability to think logically correctly;
and as a result, significantly increase the speed of reading and memorizing important information.

20-30 minutes of training on LogicLike every day is a proven way to develop logic and speed of thinking, attention and memory.

The fast reading technique means easy comprehension of what you read, more free time, broadening your horizons, developing your intellect, improving your memory and many other pleasant effects. Even if you don’t like to read, once you have mastered the technique, you are unlikely to be indifferent to the eternal source of knowledge, because you can read one or even several books a day.

Why improve your reading speed?

In the age of Internet technology, a huge flow of information flows together, both necessary and uninteresting, pleasant and poisonous to the minds. To be able to quickly find important information in a huge stream, filter out false information and not be vulnerable to smart and cunning people, you need to read. After all, reading, like reading, improves mental activity, increases intelligence, broadens horizons, trains memory and develops imagination.

Now imagine that during quick reading, all this happens in three or even five times faster. What knowledge will you have in six months? And what knowledge can you pass on to your children?

In physical terms, by increasing the speed of reading, a person strains his eye muscles less, forgets about headaches and does not get tired of work, since high concentration allows him to quickly solve work issues.

Famous people and their records

The technique of fast reading appeared a long time ago, many famous people owned and actively used it:

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin read 2500 words per minute. Many people were amazed by such speed; some did not believe that it was possible. But despite his speed, he always understood and remembered what he read.
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin had his own huge library. His daily quota was at least 500 pages.
Maxim Gorky had his own speed reading technique. He read texts in magazines, “drawing” a zigzag with his eyes: 1 text - 1 zigzag. Its speed reached 4000 words per minute.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin had an exceptional memory. And he used the speed reading technique, which he learned from the notes of the monk Raymond Lull.
Napoleon Bonaparte read at a speed of 2000 words per minute.
The writer Honore de Balzac read with great speed. And he wrote a work about his abilities, but with a fictional character: “The absorption of thoughts in the process of reading reached him with a phenomenal ability. His gaze covered 7-8 lines at once, and his mind comprehended the meaning at a speed corresponding to the speed of his eye. Often just one word allowed him to grasp the meaning of an entire phrase.”
Evgenia Alekseenko, she read 416250 words per minute, it’s even hard to believe, but it’s a fact.

Fast Reading Techniques

There are a huge number of methods for teaching speed reading techniques, but it is worth highlighting the most effective and frequently used among fans of this method of perceiving information.

Regression is the main enemy of speed

First of all, you should get rid of habit of returning with your eyes back to the text already read - regression. With slow reading, there are more returns. What does this have to do with? Habit, complex text, lack of attention.

Our parents and teachers always told us, if you don’t understand, read it again. But it turns out that this is the first and most annoying reason for slow reading; with regression, speed decreases by half, and understanding of meaning decreases by three times. We need to get rid of this habit. This will help integral reading algorithm.

Many people read books randomly, read at the end, open the middle, they don’t have any algorithm, so the meaning is lost. This way, the information received does not stay in the head for long; the next day the person will not even remember the title of the book.

For better assimilation, a figurative representation is necessary. You can come up with your own scheme or take an existing one. The diagram consists of blocks and looks like this:

Title (books, articles).
Author.
Source and its data (year, no.).
Main content, topic, factual data.
Features of the material presented that seem controversial, criticism.
The novelty of the material presented.

You need to remember this diagram. And mentally, from the information you are reading, highlight the main thing and break it down into appropriate blocks. An integrated algorithm helps suppress bad habits - regression.

When using this scheme, the dynamics of mental processes will not leave time for recurrent eye movements. Remember, it is important to read the text to the end without backtracking. Only after reading it completely, if necessary, can you read it again, which is unlikely to be necessary using this scheme.

How to Achieve Reading Comprehension

Another important factor is understanding the essence. There are three methods:

highlighting semantic reference points;
anticipation;
reception.

Identification of semantic reference points involves dividing text into parts and highlighting main idea, which contributes to better assimilation of information. Any association that arises can be a support. It is necessary to reduce the content to short, concise sentences that highlight the main idea of the work.

Anticipation- a semantic guess. That is, the reader guesses a phrase from a few words, and understands the meaning of entire paragraphs from a few phrases. With this speed reading technique, the reader relies on the meaning of the entire text, rather than individual words. This method of understanding is developed through the accumulation of a dictionary of text cliches and semantic stereotypes. Then the processing of what you read reaches automaticity.

Reception is a mental return to what has been read. It is mental reflection on what you read, not to be confused with regression. This method helps to understand the deep meaning of the material or work.

Methods to combat articulation

Articulation during reading slows down the speed very much, so it needs to be suppressed. Reading speed depends on how speech processes work, that is, how quickly you can process and assimilate text.

There are three types of reading:

with speaking out loud or whispering (slow);
with talking to yourself (more quickly, but still not effective);
silently, but the main internal dialogue is suppressed and only key and meaningful phrases pop up in the head.

For example, psychologist E. Meiman suppressed articulation with the help of counting. While reading, he counted “One, two, three” and this greatly helped him in increasing his speed.

Researchers have developed three methods suppression of articulation:

Mechanical delay information (or forced) - clamping the tongue between the teeth while reading. But this method has a disadvantage: it inhibits only the peripheral speech-motor system, leaving the central (brain) system to work. Therefore, this method is not very effective.
Speaking foreign text out loud when reading to yourself. This method is better than the previous one, but still not ideal. Since a lot of attention and energy is spent on pronunciation of other words, they could improve the quality of information perception.
Central speech interference method, or the method of arrhythmic tapping was developed by N. I. Zhinkin. When reading to yourself, you must use your hand, beating out a special rhythm with your fingers. One of them is push-pull tapping with four percussion elements in the first beat and two in the second, with an increase in the beat in the first stage of each beat.

The peculiarity of this technique is that there is no effect on the speech organs, but at the same time, from tapping the hand, a zone of inductive inhibition appears in the brain, which makes it impossible to pronounce readable words.

Memory and attention training

Attention- this is a person’s concentration on the task he is doing at the moment. Without attention, understanding of work decreases by 90%. Only on the condition that the concentration on a certain lesson is maximum, then the work, studying the material, or any lesson will not be in vain. And therefore, when interested in speed reading techniques, it is very important to develop concentration skills.

Scientists give good advice: To develop concentration, read words and sentences backwards. You can recite the alphabet in reverse.

Memory. How often, after reading a work, a week later it is impossible to remember either the author or the title, not to mention the content. For better memorization, after reading it completely, you need to retell the content in your own words, and for better assimilation, translate the material into the language of your own thoughts. The task is to find the meaningful and semantic part of the text.

Where to start self-study

The fast reading technique does not require any material costs. You don’t have to go shopping, choose unknown materials, be surprised at prices and waste your valuable time. All you need is your desire and perseverance, this is the key to successfully achieving your goal.

You will also need books, many books. There is no need to run and buy bookstores, every person has at least a few good books in their home, start with them, and then turn to your friends, they will definitely find something interesting for you. In the end, this is the 21st century, interactive technologies and e-books will adequately replace paper publications.

One of the popular and very effective books by O. A. Kuznetsov and L. N. Khromov is “Fast Reading Technique.” The techniques are described in a very accessible and interesting way. At the end of the book there are lessons where all the stages are explained in accessible language.
S. N. Ustinova “Development of oral and written speech skills.” Good book, a lot of interesting tricks and tips.
Mortier Adler "How to read books." He writes not only about speed reading techniques, but also about reading in general. Gives interesting recommendations, it's worth reading this book.
There are also new programs that allow you to increase your reading speed, for example, Spritz.
Online speed reading trainers from Sergei Mikhailov: Flasch – speed reading training.

If you don't want to study on your own, sign up for online courses. Take a free trial lesson at the Eshko school right now.

Feel free to be smart. This will improve your self-esteem and quality of life. Love reading, it will give you great benefits and make you happier. Reading can be considered one of the best ways to maintain a sound mind and interest in life.

Working with memory is the last and very important element for speed reading skills. Many people watched the film Rain Man, directed by Barry Levinson, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. Dustin Hoffman's character, Raymond, who suffers from autism, has phenomenal memory. The most interesting thing is that this hero has a real prototype - Kim Peak. He could read two pages of a book at the same time and remembered almost all the information he read word for word. This example, like many similar ones, proves that the abilities of the human brain are truly great. Despite the fact that Kim Peak has a gift that is unusual for the vast majority of people, he was not born with the ability to read 2 book spreads at the same time and remember all the facts. He still had to learn something, and some developmental disabilities helped him concentrate on the skill of reading quickly and memorizing information.

Developing memory through speed reading is essentially a necessary skill because if you read quickly and are unable to retain information, the process is pointless. There are many paid courses available to help you develop good memory skills, but you can find some for free on our website. useful exercises and recommendations for improving memory when reading quickly.

In fact, memory work during fast reading can be divided into 2 stages:

Retention of what you read- short-term memorization of read information, which allows you to remember the learned information only for a short time. The development of short-term memory is partly related to the techniques and exercises that are proposed in the lessons on maintaining attention when reading and managing information.
Long-term memory of read material. It often happens that after reading you remember perfectly what you just read. However, after a certain time, for example, the next day, you may no longer remember much of what you learned yesterday. To avoid this, there are special repetition techniques.

1. Keeping what you read in your attention

In the lesson on training attention, it was already noted that if you read interesting book, most likely, what you read will be easier for you to remember than if you read a textbook that is boring for you. It would seem a banal truth, but it is worth paying attention to several properties that contribute to better assimilation of an interesting text:

Emotionality. An interesting text evokes emotions in you, which always help you remember better. A person remembers the most vivid (emotional) moments for the rest of his life. The emotions evoked by the text also help to remember its meaning or specific facts, even verbatim.

Visualization. If a book interests you, then while reading you become immersed in the meaning of what you read. This immersion is characterized by the fact that the body tries to reproduce the text in visual images, also involving other senses in perception. Thus, an interesting text is visualized, acquires a sound (which is not very good for quick reading), and you can associate it with certain kinetic, gustatory and olfactory reactions of your body. A text that is reproduced by various senses is remembered better, since it has more sensory associations, and, therefore, more factors that will help you remember it at the right moment.

So, to better memorize a text, you can use the same techniques as for training attention when reading. In addition, we have developed a special exercise to train you to memorize specific words and phrases in the text. In this exercise, you need to read the text carefully and try to remember the numbers, words, etc. used. After that, some of them will be removed and you will have to find the places where the words used to be and write them in.

In addition, the previous lesson contains exercises to improve the perception and understanding of the text read, which will also help increase the effectiveness of its short-term memorization.

2. Long-term memorization

Research conducted by scientists shows that long-term memorization of a text occurs not so much through its comprehension and visualization, but through repeated repetition. Moreover, what is most important is not the number of repetitions (retellings or memory sessions) of what was read, but the correct intervals between them.

Back in the 19th century, a German scientist, experimental psychologist, Hermann Ebbinghaus revealed the so-called “ forgetting curve" or " Ebbinghaus curve", which shows how the process of forgetting information occurs:

According to modern experts, there are 2 popular modes of rational repetition of studied material.

1. If you have two days to remember what you read, it is better to repeat the material as follows:

second repetition - 20 minutes after the first repetition;
third repetition - 8 hours after the second;
the fourth repetition - 24 hours after the third.

2. If your time is not limited and you want to remember information very quickly for a long time, then the following sessions of repeating information are considered optimal:

first repetition - immediately after finishing reading;
second repetition - 20-30 minutes after the first repetition;
third repetition - 1 day after the second;
fourth repetition - 2-3 weeks after the third;
fifth repetition - 2-3 months after the fourth repetition.

The speed reading technique helps to absorb a large amount of new knowledge. It will be useful in the learning process for diligent students and those employees whose work involves learning new information.

Thus, the editor of a literary publishing house has to read many books by young authors before accepting them for publication. To read at high speed and work productively, you need to learn speed reading methods.

Speed reading: how to learn to read quickly

Everyone who simply needs to study a lot of books and textbooks dreams of learning how to read quickly and remember what they read. Time flies quickly these days. Successful study, work, and career often depend on the speed with which a person is able to study, assimilate text material, make decisions based on the knowledge gained, and draw conclusions.

Experts who study this issue in depth note that reading speed usually depends on several “inhibiting” aspects:

regression;
range of vision;
viewing angle;
eye movement trajectory;
speaking to yourself and out loud what you read;
reflection time;
not selectivity.

What is regression? To read a textbook and remember what we read, our eyes scan each printed line of text from left to right, and then go back and look again. Such return jumps, which serve for better memorization and understanding of the meaning, are called regression.

A set of speed reading exercises to increase reading speed begins with doing without regressions. Try to look through the lines of the story, any information, without returning to previous words. That is, you need to train your eyes to move only in one direction, regardless of whether you managed to understand the meaning of what was written or not.

Understand that at this moment you are training to scan the line being read from left to right. To comprehend what you read, return to this a second time. This will not be a regression, but a repetition of what has been covered, since you will again try to read by moving your eyes in one direction.

Everyone's range and angle of vision is different. One person clearly sees only one long one or two short words on the line at the same time. The best readers see a few words next to each other and a few lines up and down. Someone can even discern a whole paragraph, 5-6 sentences long, at once.

This ability is developed through special exercises and training. Aces who have mastered the wide-angle reading method read in entire blocks. You can read several books in a week this way.

The vertical trajectory of the gaze can also be different. There are people who gradually lower their gaze from top to bottom, running line by line. Others move their gaze from top to bottom, sticking to the middle of the page.

It is more convenient to read diagonally third. The writer Gorky read, drawing a zigzag with his eyes from top to bottom on the page. These people are helped to read quickly and correctly by the ability to see the line from an expanded angle. The usual angle is only two degrees.

Another nuance that prevents you from quickly reading printed books is the need to pronounce the text to yourself. For some people, it is enough to reproduce the text in their minds, for others it is necessary to whisper, moving their lips and tongue, and for others, until they speak out loud, they do not understand what they are reading about.

It depends on experience. For those who read more, it is enough to pronounce the text to themselves, in their minds. But those who read little usually recite what they read out loud. This habit, naturally, greatly slows down your reading speed.

People with limited horizons have difficulty grasping the meaning of complex text. It is difficult for an adult, poorly read person, to read without errors and understand what he read. Illiterate, degraded people very slowly understand even simple information. Different ability assimilate information significantly affects the speed and memorization of text.

Each printed text contains key words that contain the main meaning and words that carry useful information. But there are enough words of connectives, prepositions, particles. There are even safe words and sentences called water.

They are written to transition from one paragraph to another, as well as to create beautiful exposition. If you carefully read all the words and stop at every comma and period, reading will be very slow.

A set of exercises to improve reading speed

The first exercise is useful for expanding your angle of vision. Without performing training, a person can easily distinguish signs located over an area of hundreds of pixels from the point of view.

Trained abilities allow you to see groups of printed characters quite well. Peripheral vision training comes in handy when your gaze moves in a zigzag pattern or from the top corner of a page to the opposite bottom corner.

Excellent peripheral vision increases speed reading, allowing you to cover several words at once with one glance. If you still isolate useful information and skip the “water”, the speed of mastering the text will increase.

The Internet offers special training, when a person concentrates his gaze on a screen with numbers and letters, and then counts the same signs visible with a side, distracted glance. You need to type the result on the keyboard.

If you counted correctly, the training circle will be colored green color and will increase. If the answer is negative, the circle turns red and narrows. This way you can learn to read quickly and correctly on your own.

Speed reading lessons are advised to start with the simplest. Watch the movement of your eyes, do not let your gaze return to previous words. Choose an interesting or familiar text for training yourself. The skill of speed reading is acquired when you try to do without regression.

Don’t be upset if, without re-reading the previous words on a line, you don’t remember everything and don’t understand something. If the information is not important, there is no loss. But, when you are interested in this information and need it for work or study, repeat reading this paragraph or block again.

But at the same time, let the gaze again move along the line without regression, without disturbing the smooth forward movement from left to right. These speed reading techniques will be successfully mastered if you devote enough time to the training and repeat the work many times.

Fast reading technique with high memorization rate

Revealing the secrets of speed reading, Pavel Bagryantsev on his virtual channel of the modern man reveals the issue from a somewhat unexpected side. He suggests learning how to read an entire book in just 20 minutes and remember what you read.

His speed reading technique is based on knowledge of the basic principles of writing books. If an adult remembers the lessons of the Russian language and literature, a lot will become clear to him. Any literature textbook advises starting an essay by drawing up a plan. The plan always contains an introduction, a list of the main chapters of the essay and a conclusion.

Also, every book has a table of contents. In order to successfully assimilate information, Pavel suggests looking at the cover of the book from both sides. Read everything that is written there. Usually the author puts the main idea of the book in the title and a short summary on the back cover.

Now look at the first pages. Find useful information. Sometimes there is a preface and a short message about the author. On the second page you can already see the table of contents. Read it carefully. You can immediately decide which chapter interests you most.

Open the page of the chapter that interests you. Read the first two sentences or first paragraph of the chapter. Typically, these sentences reveal information about the entire chapter.

The last paragraph summarizes the chapter and its brief content, summary. To quickly understand what is written in the chapter, just read the first and last paragraphs.

In principle, you have already read the book. If a topic catches your attention, you can calmly enjoy a detailed reading while swinging on a hammock on a warm summer evening. The task of quick reading is completely completed: the information to which the work is devoted is clear to you. It only took a few minutes.

Of course, this is not how you read textbooks. They are studied in detail and thoughtfully. But ordinary entertaining reading, such as stories about how to get rich, can be looked at, remembered something, focused on something, and safely put aside.

This is how they study many books, expand their horizons, drawing from large quantity information, what is useful and important for human activity, what needs to be remembered.

The most effective speed reading techniques

Oleg Andreev's Virtual School of Speed Reading for adults suggests starting to work on yourself by determining your personal reading speed.

To do this, the number of characters of the text should be divided by the reading time and multiplied by the coefficient of understanding the information read. You need to pick up an unfamiliar book and read one page with a known number of characters. A stopwatch measures reading time. In this case, 45 seconds are equal to 0.75.

After this, you need to answer ten questions based on the text. If you managed to answer 4 questions, your comprehension rate will be 0.4. If you answer 7 questions, the coefficient is 0.7.

Don't be upset if your speed isn't very high. Two hundred characters per minute or 300-400 is considered the norm for an ordinary person.

If you read little and rarely, you do not need to study many textbooks; this speed is quite enough for you. There are many professions in the world - seamstresses, cooks, carpenters, blacksmiths - who can be successful, happy, and without numerous books.

It is useful to make a graph with reading speed on one axis and lesson number on the other.

After you learn to look through the text without returning to previous characters in order to re-read it, that is, get rid of regression, let's move on to correcting the tempo.

Ordinary people read the text about consumption at the same pace washing powder, the operation of a microwave oven and Tolstoy’s novel. However, each text requires individual approach. The pace for information on the label of soap and artwork is chosen differently.

Watch yourself. If you experience articulation, that is, unexpected work with your tongue, mouth, lips, you need to learn to get rid of this. This greatly slows down reading, as does the lack of concentration on the process.

So, watch yourself, try not to mumble, move your lips, move your eyes in the opposite direction and try to cover several words at once.

Now create a new algorithm for reading an unfamiliar article. Compose the blocks of the reading algorithm:

Name of the text;
Author;
Source;
What problem is the article devoted to?
Facts, names, parameters given in the text;
Features, criticism;
Novelty.

By filling out, writing down or remembering these blocks you will already receive a lot of information about the article. By highlighting the features and critical places of the text, you remember and understand them better. Note for yourself what new things you learned from reading this article.

By filling out the cells of the integral reading algorithm blocks in class, you train yourself to look at the text thoughtfully and in a new way.

In linguistics, there is a concept of text redundancy. The fact is that each text contains words that carry useful information and the so-called “Water”. It’s good to learn how to weed out useless words from useful ones.

An unusual way of reading answers this question. If you find the answers to the queries listed above for yourself, you will get the correct algorithm. Spend your brain energy only on the semantic part of the article.

Try to properly consolidate all parts of the new algorithm in your consciousness and subconscious, deep memory. Repeat at least 5 times.

Form a mindset on how to read in a new way. Create an image in your head, in the form of a man, with the title on the cap, the author in the face, the source in the upper part of the body, the problems in the lower part. The little man rests his feet firmly on the facts and holds two suitcases with features and novelty in his hands.

Draw such a simple drawing with your own hand and label all the parts. Place one copy of such a drawing on your desktop so that it is constantly before your eyes. Always carry the second one with you, viewing it in free moments, on the way to work, on the subway, or on the bus.

Having memorized the new algorithm firmly, read new texts, putting its parts into familiar blocks. After reading the article, you need to think about it with your eyes closed. You will see in your thoughts that everything you have read is already located in the right cells of the image.

Through repeated repetition, you will develop a strong mindset about reading correctly and quickly, highlighting useful information. This drawing will be erased from memory, but a new program of mental actions will remain, more effective and useful for your activities.

You can choose any drawing for your work image, it is important that it is clear to you and drawn by yourself. When practicing the new reading algorithm, circle the blocks in the book with multi-colored pencils. You will see how much useful information you paid attention to and how much is unnecessary, water. The concept of redundancy is an important practical nuance.

How to learn speed reading at home

To avoid overloading your brain with unnecessary information, set an alarm clock for 20-30 minutes. And at this time, just read, without regression, remembering the redundancy of the text, trying to see several words at once and moving your gaze faster down, diagonally, in a straight line, as is more convenient for you.

You can trace along the edge of the book with the tip of a pencil or by pressing your index finger.

Do not be distracted at this time by TV, phone, email, or the landscape outside the window. Concentrate your attention on one reading. Immersion in the content of the book and concentrated attention plays an important role in developing a high speed of assimilation of information.

Try to remember the main points, useful thoughts, new, special facts. If you read very quickly, but do not remember anything, there is no point in such reading.

To train your memory, repeat the exercises five times, memorize poems that you like. Concentration, development of peripheral vision and memory are important points to pay attention to when you practice speed reading at home.

The best books for speed reading

There are many useful books for training fast reading. But each person, knowing his mistakes and abilities, must independently choose the training manual he likes. A recommended list of references, famous authors, is given below.

Peter Kamp "Speed Reading" How to remember more by reading 8 times faster" ()

An original collection containing specific problems, technical tips that develop speed reading abilities.

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Fast reading with high retention rate. Speed ​​Reading Basics