Does Speed Reading Hurt Comprehension?
As you may know, I am a huge fan of speed reading. I promote it heavily and I simply love it. It's no coincidence that it comes up so often on this site:
- How to read faster: an introduction to the art of speed reading and a general approach to increasing your reading speed.
- Speed reading test: find out how fast you read and compare with friends and family.
I have received a lot of feedback on the speed reading test. Most of it has been positive, but some readers have criticized speed reading as a method. Here's one comment I received from a reader:
"Alternatively, you could be more judicious about what you choose to read. For example, I determined that the passage in the test wasn't worth reading, and so my result was 3645620345 words a minute. Speed reading is pointless."
The reader went on to quote a speed-reading "success" story from a student who sped through 105 pages of text before an organic biochemistry midterm, did well on the multiple-choice section, and then could not recall a single thing from the exam afterward. The reader added, "I hope our medical students aren't using this technique," and cited a claim that speed reading is essentially incompatible with long-term memory: you cannot speed read your textbooks and expect the information to stick.
I have to disagree. First of all, speed reading is not the same as skimming. Skimming emphasizes speed, while speed reading tries to keep the same level of comprehension. Let me clarify with a simple example.
Back in the good old days, as small children, we all had to learn to read phonetically, sounding out one letter at a time. Then something very interesting happened: we became better readers.
Did that mean our comprehension decreased? Of course not. We read faster because our brains adapted to the change. Reading is just like other activities: a frequent swimmer becomes a better swimmer, and someone who runs a lot will most likely run faster.
Likewise, someone who reads often and focuses on reading faster can eventually reach a higher speed while keeping (or even improving) their comprehension. That's my two and a half cents.
If you want to try for yourself, start with these 4 tips to catch up with speed readers.