Can your brain keep up?

[swee'pea99]

Apparently some people have been reading at 1000 words/minute. I can't. My brain just can't keep up.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I heard about "spritzing", but does it help comprehension and retention? In other words, people can read very fast, but will the information stay with them?

 

[Dangermouse]

WOW I can read at 500 wpm, wheres the 100 wpm test though

 

[ASC1951]

I've always read quickly. When I was in my teens and twenties I would reckon to read a typical novel in a couple of hours, with excellent retention, although it's a bit slower now. I have instinctively read down the middle of each page, rather than learning a technique, so I found it harder than some people do to slow down when I was studying and needed to read some stuff word by word.

 

[MikeG]

I'd get eye ache/dry eyes very quickly. Staring without blinking doesn't do eyes any good at all, so I'd need to see this is action rather than as a demonstration before making up my mind. I just know how sore and tired my eyes can be after a day of working at the computer, and there I have the freedom to move them anywhere around the screen. With Spritzing, they are fixed staring at one spot.........

 

[SquareDaff]

I remember having a test done when I was younger. Back then I had a reading speed of around 400 words per minute with a 90% retention rate - which came in really handy for exams!! These days I suspect my WPM is around the same but the retention rate would be lower!

 

[swee'pea99]

Did anyone ever see the Derren Brown pub quiz programme? There's a clip here. That really was fascinating. In a week, he took an ordinary bloke - a low-level insurance salesman, if I remember correctly - and turned him into a one-man pub quiz team who took on the (8 man team) finalists in the all-Britain Pub Quiz of the Year event, and came second.

 

[Nihal]

5 Covert One books in 4 days,i could keep up with 500wpm

Although if i read textbooks at that speed,i would end up remembering nothing.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

I never read books, my English skills are piss poor really, however I was easily able to the 600 words per minute on the spritz website with no training or building up. Me like!

 

[byegad]

I taught myself to speed read when I was in College and yes you do retain but not as completely as reading at 'normal' speed. However re-reading the same text the next day fills the gaps so you actually retain more than a single 'normal' read through. I used it to read the text books as revision reading and re-reading them in a much faster time than a slower read through would take. It's hard work and you have to concentrate but even now, retired and with no need to go flat out when reading, I read much faster than other people. When I was working a colleague brought a highly confidential document of two closely typed A4 pages in with a request to read it while she waited and then give her it back. This I did. She said, 'No you must read all of it!' and really could not believe it when I told her I had, twice.

 

[ScotiaLass]

I am very fast at reading and also picking up mistakes etc. I reckon I would have made a good proof reader!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I am very fast at reading and also picking up mistakes etc. I reckon I would have made a good proof reader!

Should there be a comma before the etc.? Just askin' like...

 

[ScotiaLass]

Should there be a comma before the etc.? Just askin' like...

 

[Melonfish]

i enjoy reading slowly, i savour novels.
however the 500wpm posed no issues, so theoretically i could read that quick. meh. worth a try i guess.

 

[ASC1951]

Should there be a comma before the etc.? Just askin' like...

Nope. Fowler says "only where it is necessary to avoid ambiguity". In American English, yes.