Intro to Speed Reading Strategies Wooooooo Hoooooo!

Journal Entry Now that you performed two speed reading tests, which one were you more successful on? Why do you believe that is? Is there a particular subject that you tend to read faster than the others? Again, why do you believe that this happens? What do you think you could do to improve this?

Why are we practicing speed reading?  According to a study done at Kettering Univsersity, most colleges recommend that a typical undergraduate college student should study at least 2 hours outside of class each week per unit credit. So for a 4 credit hour course, this common guideline suggests that a typical student should spend at least 8 hours outside of class studying for that course each week.  Many people read at an average speed of 250 words a minute, which averages 1 to 2 minutes a page.  And, as you know, studying involves a lot of reading!  So, learning how to effectively speed read is a plus and will cut your studying time in half!

Things to Keep in Mind...  Each type of reading has a different rate  It is therefore important to know your reading speed for things you read for fun, and your reading speed for scholarly texts.  Text books vary in how well they are written  Every professor/ instructor is different; sometimes they REALLY rely on the text, sometimes they don’t

Tip # 1: Scan the Whole Text First!  Identify sections where the author devotes the most amount of space  If there are lots of diagrams for a particular concept, then it is most likely an important concept  That way, if you are pressed for time, you can skip the sections to which the least amount of space is devoted

Tip #2: Read the first sentence of every paragraph!  If you think about it, the topic sentence of a paragraph is generally the first sentence  Skim the rest of the paragraph  Take notes on the headings of each section and the first sentences that you read even BEFORE reading the chapter itself

Tip #3: Focus on Nouns and Main Prepositions in Each Sentence  Look for the noun- verb combinations, and focus your learning on these  Example: Classical conditioning is learning that takes place when we come to associate two stimuli in the environment. One of these stimuli triggers a reflexive response. The second stimulus is originally neutral with respect to that response, but after it has been paired with the first stimulus, it comes to trigger the response in its own right. Notes:  Classical conditioning = learning = associating two stimuli  1st stimulus triggers a response  2nd stimulus = originally neutral, but paired with 1st --> triggers response.

Tip #4: Read in Clusters  Instead of reading each word in a text, group them together while reading to improve speed.  This is NOT something your eyes do naturally, it takes practice  Try practicing this on something that you actually like reading as opposed to something that is a little tedious