SPEED READING: THE COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO SPEED READING by Nathan Armstrong

• Success requires wisdom, which is the effective application of knowledge.
• Our ability to gain knowledge of important and relevant things is key to becoming wise.
• When we read, our eyes normally stop on each word. We call this fixation. Stopping at every word in the text that we’re reading slows down our reading and, to a great extent, affects our ability to understand the text well.
• The fewer the fixations or stops, the faster we can read.
• Visual reading is much faster than audible reading, even when reading silently.
• Reading isn’t worth a dime without comprehension, and comprehension of a written text isn’t possible without reading.
• Preparation helps you make the most of your time and resources and allows you to speed up your success.
• With smaller and more achievable milestones, you’re encouraged to continue and succeed.
• How can somebody have a grip on the whole book within a few minutes? That’s right, you’ve guessed it, it’s as simple as reading the table of contents. Almost all books have been outlined in this section, and if you read them and form an idea of what the book is about, it’ll make it that much faster in reading and comprehending.
• the more understanding you have of what’s going to be talked about, the faster you’ll read it.
• By knowing what’s essential and what’s not, you can easily ignore material that doesn’t contribute much to the main idea and, thus, spend less time reading.
• Your brain is not capable enough of doing two complex tasks at once.
• Keyword searching is a great technique to help you read faster because it can help train your mind to focus on what’s important and is more efficient in spotting words that can slow you down while reading.
• Chunk reading – also known as chunking – is a reading technique wherein you group together words in a way that forms an idea.
• Reading the words together as a coherent unit makes for faster reading and better comprehension.
• Chunk in such a way that the idea is clear with as few words as possible.
• Skimming is a very useful speed-reading technique and one that can be performed easily. All you have to do is read the first and last paragraph of the text and also read the first lines of each paragraph. Most of the key information will be centered on these areas. Once you read these, you will know what the basic message is and you won’t have to go through the entire text.
• The very first thing to consider is that the skimming technique must only be used when you wish to understand just the gist of something and not the whole thing.
• The answer is, if you skim first, the data present in the text will fall into place easily in your mind when you do tackle it more fully.
• The main advantage of skimming is that it is easier to finish reading a big text in express time.
• All said and done, scanning remains one of the most preferred speed-reading techniques in the world.
• Although different, scanning and skimming are two popular speed-reading techniques that are often confused for each other. When you scan a piece of material, you have a target in mind. When you skim through that material, you’re looking for meaningful ideas.
• In scanning, you already know what you’re looking for – you already have an idea in mind.
• With skimming, you don’t have an idea yet and that’s what you’re looking to find in the material.
• Stop fixating on each word and practice using your peripheral to help you read chunks of words at a time.
• Reading is one of the most complex things humans can do.
• Reading is actually a process that requires you to recognize a set of symbols or a symbol, forming a pattern that connects to another set of meanings stored and learned previously in the mind.
• Literacy requires you to understand the symbol, as well as the underlying meaning behind those symbols.
• Meta Cognition is actually the ability to “think about thinking.”
• The top readers generally read at speeds of above 1,000 wpm with around 85% comprehension; however, they represent just 1% of readers. The majority are average readers with just 200 wpm and a comprehension rate of 60 percent.
• the most efficient way to achieve top reading levels is a speed-reading computer program.
• Whether you like it or not, where you read plays a very huge role in your ability to read and comprehend materials quickly.
• With focus being the single most important ingredient for speed-reading success, you’ll need to read in a place where there is virtually no distraction whatsoever.
• One of the characteristics of a great reading environment is adequate lighting.
• Another aspect of the ideal environment is silence.
• Another important characteristic of the ideal reading environment is that it should offer you enough privacy to read uninterrupted.
• More than just the number of hours, the quality of your sleep is also important.
• Half of the trick to speed-reading is actually having topics that you enjoy reading about.
• Regression is also known as re-reading.
• The main reason for regression to occur is a lack of focus.
• They say that it’s not practice that makes perfect, but perfect practice that makes perfect.
• When practicing, remember to: Read and understand the book through the table of contents Ask questions regarding the book Meta-Guiding Visualization Keyword search Chunk read Skimming Scanning Practice these every day and you’ll increase your reading speed by 300% in no time!
• With Meta-Guiding, you can make use of a pacer or a guide that you will run under the words and sentences.