Ever found yourself wondering how all those uber-successful people find time to read? The secret is in their average reading speed.
While the average person reads two to three books a year, the average CEO reads four to five books a month.
To help you boost your average reading speed, here’s a list of things you need to know:
- How to Accelerate Your Average Words Per Minute Reading Speed
- 3 Tricks to Help You Boost Your Average Reading Speed
You can finally tick those books off your summer reading list by upping your average reading speed. Let’s begin!
How to Accelerate Your Average Words Per Minute Reading Speed
Your average reading speed is a calculation of how many words you can read in one minute.
Most adults read at a rate of 300 words per minute (wpm). The average college or university student reads 450 wpm. And those CEOs gobbling up four books a month? They’re averaging a whopping 575 wpm.
That’s nearly double the reading speed of most adults.
Average reading speed can make or break an attempt at tackling a long or challenging piece of reading material. If you’d like to find out how many words per minute you read, try out an online speed reading test to find your reading speed.
3 Tricks to Help You Boost Your Average Reading Speed
One of the coolest things about your average reading speed is that it’s not set in stone. If you’d like to increase your reading speed, you can! It just takes a little practice.
Here are three tricks that can help you drastically increase your average reading speed in just one hour.
1. Avoid back-skipping
If you really want to become a reading machine, you’ll have to master the urge to back-skip.
Back-skipping is just a fancy word for re-reading. You know when you find yourself reading the same sentence ten times over and still have no idea what it says? That’s back-skipping.
Now, if you’re learning something new and are tackling entirely unfamiliar concepts, a little back-skipping here and there is perfectly okay. But if reading for pleasure or general interest, try to subdue the urge to back-skip.
Onwards and forwards, friends!
2. Learn to scan
Here’s the thing: not every word you read is going to be an indispensable component of the message.
And that’s where learning to scan can become incredibly valuable.
Many people resist scanning while reading because they fear they’ll miss something important. But when reading factual non-fiction material, scanning can (and should!) become your new best bud.
3. Eliminate distractions
Too often, our reading environments are chock full of distractions. Learning to increase your reading speed means setting yourself up for success. And that means kicking those distractions to the curb!
Auditory distractions can be pretty frustrating when you’re trying to read. And before you stick some earbuds in to drown out the barking dogs, chatty co-workers, or bickering children, you should know that music isn’t necessarily the answer.
It all depends on what you’re listening to. Music can help us focus, but it has the right kind of music. Specifically, music without vocals.
A recent study discovered that music with vocals drains our powers of concentration. Ambient sounds and binaural beats, however, can help you dial into what you’re reading for optimal focus and absorption.
What is a good average reading speed?
The average reading speed of an adult is around 200-250 words per minute. This is a good reading speed, but remember that you should always understand what you are reading and not just read it fast for the sake of it.
What is the average reading speed of a college student?
We already mentioned that an average adult reads about 200-250 words per minute. If we take that an average student has to read a lot, that number can be a bit higher.
An average college student reads about 300 words per minute, or one page of content, or even around 350-400 words when he/she is not too focused on the understanding of the text read.
How fast does the average person read 100 pages?
If we take that one page has around 300 words and that an average person reads around 250 words per minute, that would mean that an average person would need around 120 minutes to read 30.000 words and these two pages.
