Speed Reading Techniques: How to Read Faster While Maintaining Accuracy In VARC

Speed Reading Techniques: How to Read Faster While Maintaining Accuracy In VARC

Do you enjoy reading? It is a universal activity that necessitates one of the most essential skills for learning new things or accessing information and matters a lot when it comes to acing the VARC section in the CAT Exam. So, how can we improve this process's effectiveness and efficiency?

This is where speed reading comes in handy, and the good news is that anyone can learn to do it. It is an excellent resource for broadening your knowledge, enhancing your learning experience, and advancing your career.

This article will teach you how to read faster and with greater comprehension so you can ace your Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) section. You can improve your skills if you understand the powerful combination of speed reading techniques available.

What are some techniques for speed reading?

To read more quickly, use techniques like previewing, skimming, scanning, chunking, and expanding your peripheral vision, as well as practicing with a pointer or hand pacing to improve focus and speed.

Here is a breakdown of the most effective speed reading techniques.

Previewing:

Before delving into a text, quickly scan the headings, subheadings, and first and last paragraphs to get a sense of the content and structure.

Skimming and scanning:

Skimming is the process of quickly reading a passage to get the main points and overall meaning. On the other hand, scanning entails searching for specific information or keywords within a text.

Chunking:

Improve your reading speed and comprehension by conditioning your eyes to read groups of words (phrases or ideas) rather than individual words.

Expanding Peripheral Vision:

Try to absorb more words with each glance, minimizing the number of eye movements required to read a line.

Pointer/Hand Pacing:

Use a finger, pen, or other tool to guide your eyes through the text, improving focus and keeping pace.

Eliminating Subvocalization:

Subvocalization, or silently repeating words in your head, can reduce reading speed. Try to reduce it by concentrating on the meaning of the words rather than just sounding them out.

Practice Regularly:

Consistent practice with texts and techniques is essential for improving and maintaining speed reading abilities.

Set attainable goals to increase your reading speed:

Even in the case of speed reading, practice makes perfect. Aim to improve your speed reading daily by doing speed reading exercises or tracking your words per minute. Set a milestone for yourself using these average speeds:

The expected reading speed for someone aged 12 and up is 200 to 250 WPM, whereas a college student reads at 300 words per minute (WPM).

It usually takes two to four weeks to double your reading speed, so be patient with yourself and keep trying.

Why is it important?

There is no point in reading quickly if you can not understand the meaning of the text or if you can not integrate new information into your existing memory structures. However, there is much you can do to improve your comprehension rate, which will benefit you as you learn how to speed read.

Follow these guidelines to time your average WPM

Set a timer for 10 minutes and see how much you can read during that time. You can also measure your reading speed by multiplying the number of pages by the number of words per page.

Some other tips to be followed are as follows:

Move your eyes less while reading-

While reading, your eyes move, stopping on some words and skipping others; however, you can only understand what you are reading if your eyes stop moving. Learning to move your eyes less can help you read faster, so concentrate on one line at a time without gliding your eyes over the words.
According to research, a person can only read 8 letters to the right of their eye position and 4 to the left, which equates to about 2 or 3 words at once.

Reduce your amount of self-talk and avoid sounding out each word-

Some readers subvocalize or sound out each word they read in their heads. This may assist readers in remembering concepts, but it can also be a significant impediment to speed. Remember that you do not have to read every word to grasp the sentence's meaning.

Is it possible to read over 20,000 words per minute?

Some claims about speed reading can be dismissed immediately. Claims that you can read a book as quickly as you can flip through a phone book are false on anatomical and neurological levels.

First, there are anatomical reasons to reject absurdly high reading rates. To read, the eye must stop at a specific point in the text, a process known as fixation. Next, it must move quickly to the next fixation point, which is known as a saccade. Finally, after you have jumped a few points, your brain must gather all of this information so you can understand what you have just seen.

According to eye-movement expert Keith Rayner, going beyond 500 words per minute is improbable because the mechanical process of moving your eye, fixing it, and processing visual information cannot be much faster.

Conclusion

We all prefer to read faster to save time. You can study more quickly, read for work more efficiently, or enjoy your movie books. Reading faster allows us to experience and learn more in less time.

These are some of the things a quick reader can accomplish. And it all begins with reading more quickly.

Smita