I don’t have time to read.” It’s true, reading takes time. However, how important it is to read in prep! Speed reading is an effective way to get through a large amount of reading in a minimum amount of time. Let’s look at some tools to increase your reading rate and gain as much knowledge as possible.
1- Stop talking while reading
The first-speedreading technique is… Stop talking while reading Surprising, isn’t it? Indeed, when we read a text we tend to say each word in our head. However, this reflex that comes from our childhood when we llearnto read slows down our reading speed. Therefore, to start increasing your reading speed, you should get rid of it.
But then how do you do it? How do you know if you stop saying the words? Here’s a tip: reread the previous paragraph while counting from 1 to 5. If you can count from 1 to 5 while reading, then you’ve successfully passed this subvocalization milestone.
You should already feel like you can read faster than before. Congratulations, you have just taken the first step towards speed reading! You will now be able to read as many Mister Prépa articles in less time! Here are two to help you practice:
2- Use a guide for your speed reading
Your grandfather uses his finger to read a text? An old thing you say to yourself… Well, think again, your grandfather is in the middle of a speed reading session! Once again, you have been taught to stop using your finger to read, and yet, this tool can allow you to increase tenfold the number of paragraphs you read.
The guide can be the old-fashioned way of using one of your fingers, or if you’re afraid of looking ridiculous, a pen, a stick… Anything, as long as it doesn’t prevent you from reading.
There are three benefits to using a guide for reading. First, it will allow you to maintain a certain reading pace. With a cursor, nd a guide, you will not fall asleep while reading! You are like an athlete racing against the cursor!
Then the guide will gradually train your eyes to read faster and faster. In economic terms, we could talk about a learning effect. Indeed, the more you read with a cursor, the faster you will read!
Finally, the slider allows you to vary your reading speed. Do you suddenly have an emergency? The paragraph you are reading does not seem interesting to you. H ere is the miracle solution: speed up the pace with your guide for faster reading!
3- Stop reading words for speed reading
Here is the last and final tip: to read quickly, you should not read the words! Our brain naturally occupies the space we give it. If you mark each word you read, your brain will make it necessary. On the other hand, if you start to adopt a more “flexible” reading, your brain will also get used to it!
The eyes do not need to fixate word by word to understand the meaning of a text. You will have noticed that when you observe a landscape, you do not look at it tree by tree. For speed reading, it is the same thing. To increase your speed, stop reading the words individually and instead scan the sentences, the lines, or even for the more experienced, the paragraphs.
Indeed, by printing the images that you send to your brain, your eyes used to their full potential can allow you to read much faster. Thanks to this, you will be able to quickly make your Culture Pass profitable!
Opening
So, speed reading can be a more than strategic technique to adopt in preparatory classes. However, it requires some training before being able to understand a text both in speed reading and in “in-depth” reading. So don’t apply it for the first time in DS during your next synthesis!
For anyone passionate about the subject, I invite you to visit Scripta Manent ‘s channel to train and reach an even higher level of rapid speed!