Welcome to Practical Speed Reading.

My name is Ashley Rae, and I have loved to read since I was in 2nd grade.
Ten years ago it took me all day to read a novel. When the final Harry Potter book came out, it
took me over 24 hours of reading with minimal stopping. Back then I read at the rate of 360
words per minute.
Now I read easier books at 1300 words per minute and harder books at 900 words per minute.
My comprehension has remained the same or improved, depending on the material, and youll
find your comprehension and retention also improve in the coming weeks as you apply the skills
you learn in this class.
I first became interested in speed reading when I heard about it in college. I bought a book on
the subject, but found the skill difficult to learn from that book. Now you can find websites,
YouTube videos, and many more books on the subjects.
There are many programs teaching in person the skills Im about to teach you, as well as more
advanced techniques, some of them going for hundreds of dollars. To save you time and the
frustration of trying to figure out what will work for you, Ive created this inexpensive class to
provide you with everything you need to know to increase your reading speed starting today.
This technique is going to improve your comprehension and help you get more work done in less
time. Increasing your reading speed will allow you to learn new skills quickly, reduce the time
you spend reading for work or school, freeing up time for other activities.
Speed reading is an easily mastered skill once you know the basics. The purpose of this class is
to give you those basics.
My goals in this class are to teach you the following:

how to measure your reading speed

when to read slower; when to read faster
habits that affect your reading speed
how to train your eyes to take in more words at a time
how to train your eyes to move more efficiently across the page
how to allow your brain to comprehend what you read at faster speeds

My final goal is for you to significantly increase your reading speed within an hour of taking this
class and by significant, I mean increasing the amount of words you read per minute by 100 or
more with the same or improved comprehension.

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Materials for This Class:

1. A paperback or hardcover book that you want to read fiction or nonfiction, but not
poetry or a script. Borrow one, buy one, or check one out from the library.
2. a pencil or erasable pen; or sticky notes like Post-its
3. 45 minutes a day, or at the very minimum, 15 minutes a day to practice the technique.
4. The graph at the end of this packet; or a notebook, phone app, or graph on which to
record your reading speed
5. A timer you can set for one minute (which you probably have on your phone)
6. Optional: a calculator (which you probably have on your phone)

Lets get started.

Lesson 1: Find Your Current Reading Speed & Set Your Reading Speed Goals
In order to calculate your reading speed, you need to know how many words your book tends to
have in each line. Here is how to do this:
1. Open your book to a page that has full lines running from margin to margin.
2. Pick one line running from margin to margin. Count every single character in this line,
including all letters, numbers, symbols, AND SPACES.
3. Divide the number of characters by 6. The result gives you the average words per line
(WPL) in your book (since the average word in English consists of 6 letters.)
4. Record your WPL number in the place where you will record your reading speed results,
such as on the last page of this packet.

Figure 1 - The numbers in purple count the characters in the middle line. There are 73
characters in the middle line of this book including all letters, punctuation, and spaces.
Dividing 73 by 6 and rounding to the nearest whole number gives us 12 WPL for this book,
which is The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield.

Now that you know how many words per line your book has, you need to start reading your
book. In order to get an accurate idea of how fast you read, you should read as your normally do
for 3 minutes, or a few pages.
Next, using a pencil/erasable pen or sticky note, mark the last full line that you read. After
setting a timer for one minute, you will start reading from the next line down.
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Set your timer for one minute, and read until it goes off. When your timer goes off, lightly mark
the last line you read, or mark it with a sticky note.
Now count every line made of three words or more between the two marks. This is your lines
per minute score, or LPM. For example, lets say I counted 30 lines in the minute that I read.
For our purposes, line means row of 3 or more words. It does not mean sentences. In Figure
1, there are 3 lines and 3.5 sentences. See the difference?
Record your LPM and multiply by your books WPL number. For example, if your LPM is 30
and your WPL is 12, multiplying them together will give you 360 words per minute.
This result is your current reading speed, your baseline. Record it so you can see at the end of
this class how much faster you will already be reading!

Reading Speed Goals

Now that you know how fast you read, I will tell you how fast you need to read, and how fast
you could read using the skills you will learn in this class.
For good comprehension, you need to read at least 250 words per minute. 250wpm is how
quickly the average person speaks. If you read slower than that, it will be difficult for you to
comprehend what you read. Reading too slowly makes reading boring, like listening to someone
talking super slowly in a monotone.
Also, reading too slowly makes it difficult for you to understand the full concept of a paragraph
or even a long sentence, because you might forget what you read at the beginning of it by the
time you get to the end. If it takes you a week or longer to finish a book, your comprehension
and retention both suffer.
If your reading speed is less than 250wpm, then your first reading goal is to increase to 250wpm.
If you are already reading at 250wpm or more, great! Reading faster will still improve your
comprehension, because you will be able to hold more information in your head at a time.
Make your first goal 50-100wpm faster than your current speed. You will reach that goal today
if you correctly practice the technique I give you in Lesson 3 for at least 30-45 minutes. Practice
these skills every day for 30 minutes or more (at the very least, 15 minutes a day) and your
reading speed will easily increase until you have reached the speed that suits your lifestyle.

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Lesson 2 Benefits of Speed Reading & 3 Habits to Overcome

Imagine being able to read an entire book in an hour or two. How much could you learn if
reading only took that long? How many books would you read then? How might that ability
change your life?
When I serve as a reading comprehension tutor, I have to read every book my students read.
Before learning to speed read, it would take me a full day to read the books my students were
reading. Now it takes me 2-3 hours depending on the length of the book, and I can simply arrive
early in the bookstore where I tutor and read the weeks assignment before tutoring starts. This
frees up half of my week!
Recently, I got the notion in my head that I wanted to master the basics of gluten-free vegan
baking. So I did. I read for 45 minutes and cooked for two hours, and the next day I was able to
cook from scratch without recipes.
You can learn new skills just as quickly. Speed reading is a skill. It simply takes practice.
As I mentioned in the introduction, before I learned how to speed read, I read 360wpm. The day
I learned the techniques in lesson 3, my reading speed increased to 540wpm. In less than 2
months, not even practicing every day, my reading speed increased to 900wpm in more difficult
books and 1300+wpm in easier books such as young adult fiction and books Id previously read.
I comprehend and remember everything I read at these speeds, and so can you.
How is it possibly to read so quickly and comprehend what you read?
It is possible because your brain is a super computer. There is a common myth that humans only
use 12% of our brains. This is not true. In reality, we use all of our brains at different times and
for different purposes. Our consciousness is the 12% that we are aware of using. Our
subconscious uses the other 88% of our brains to process crazy amounts of data every second most of which consists of data our consciousness does not need. For example, our eyes see
almost 180 degrees while open. That data enters our brains, but our consciousness does not need
to see every teeny detail that our eyes pick up. Our subconscious processes the little details
while our consciousness zeroes in on what we need to see the road we are driving on, the street
signs that tell us where we are, the face of the person in the passenger seat we are conversing
with as we exchange quick glances.
Once you have memorized that 2+2=4, you dont need to count your fingers to figure out what
2+2= anymore. Similarly, when you memorize that c+a+t=cat, you dont need to sound out the
letters in your head to figure out the word, or think hard to figure out what the word means. You
see the word cat on the page and automatically know what the word means.
We learn to read word by word. This causes the muscles that move our eyes jerk from word to
word across the page. Our brains then interpret each word individually and put them together in
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patterns that make sense to us. Sometimes our brains make us see a word we expect to see
instead of the word that is there, much like autocorrect does when we text, changing the meaning
of what we read in a small or big way.
In lesson three, you will learn how to read phrase by phrase, line by line, rather than word by
word. You will learn how to train the muscles in your eyes to move smoothly across the page
rather than jerking from word to word. All you need to learn these skills is:
1. your fingers
2. and a book made of paper (See the tips at the end of Lesson 3 for modifying the
technique to use it with an e-reader or computer screen.)
There are three main habits to overcome in learning to speed read. One is the habit of
whispering or mouthing the words you are reading, or hearing them in your head. Another is
reading one word at a time, and the third is the inefficient jerking eye movement caused by
reading one word at a time. We will fix all three in lesson three.
Sub-vocalization is the term for hearing the words you are reading in your head, or even
mouthing the words or whispering them to yourself as you read. When you are reading difficult
material and having a hard time focusing, it is good to read or mouth the material aloud to
yourself, and even to repeat it a few times if its something you need to memorize. You want to
slow down then in order to figure the material out.
However, when you are reading for pleasure, or reading easier material, moving your lips just
slows you down. Many of the books and even some of the sites I will recommend at the end of
these notes recommend that you eliminate even the voice in your head as you read. Personally, I
like the voice in my head. Rather than trying to silence it, I encourage my students to make it
read faster. When I am reading 900 words per minute, the voice in my head is still there and I
can still make it out. When I am reading 1300 words per minute, the voice disappears because I
am totally absorbed in the story I am reading, like having a waking dream. I dont have to
consciously turn off the voice. It falls away naturally.
Reading one word at a time and the inefficient eye movement caused by reading word-byword are both directly resolved by the technique you are about to learn.

Lesson 3 Essentials of Speed Reading

Hand-Eye Coordination is going to be your best friend on this journey to speed reading. Your
fingers will train your eyes to move smoothly across the page AND to read more than one word
at a time when your practice the exercise that follows.

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Figure 2 - My middle finger is much longer than my index finger, so I had to get used to
bending my middle finger while I read so the two fingers form a line beneath 3-5 words at a
time, as shown.

The Essential Technique: Training Your Eyes with Your Fingers

1. With your writing hand, line up the tips of two or three fingers as show in the image
above and place them just beneath the line you are about to read in your book.
2. Move your fingers in a smooth motion across the page to the end of the line, and then
quickly glide your fingers down to the beginning of the next line.
3. Continue this movement, reading the 3-4 words above your fingers as they glide
smoothly across the page.
Once you get the movement down - smooth/zip-smooth/zip-smooth/zip - increase the speed of
the smooth movement across the page just a bit faster than what feels comfortable. This is the
key to increasing your reading speed over the next few days and weeks. Practice at the new
speed until it becomes comfortable, then increase the speed just past your comfort zone. You
will get used to the new speed within three 30 minute reading sessions, and then you increase the
speed a bit more until you reach your goal.
Tips:
Use your fingers. In my experience, I have found that using my fingers is much more
effective than using the end of a pencil or an index card. Therefore, I ask that when you
practice for this class, start off using your fingers. Give it two or three 30 minute practice
sessions so you can get used to the skill before you try using the end or your pencil or a
card, so you can see the difference for yourself.
Minimize distractions while you are learning this technique, and when reading.
Turn off the TV, phone, and music with words in it during your 30 minute practice
sessions so you can really focus and get the most out of them. Choose a quiet, peaceful
reading environment. Youll also get more out of your book that way!
Test your reading speed once a week and chart your progress, both for motivation,
and to alert you when you reach a speed plateau.
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 When using e-readers and screens, put a piece of cardstock, or better, thick microfiber,
between your fingers and the screen so you can slide your fingers without scratching the
screen, accidentally turning the page, or covering the letters.
Check out other sites and books for more ideas on how to improve your reading speed
and break through those plateaus! Here are a few I found useful:
http://www.mindtools.com/speedrd.html
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/10/18/how-to-speed-read-like-theodore-roosevelt/
http://fourhourworkweek.com/2009/07/30/speed-reading-and-accelerated-learning/
Squirt.io is a cool, different way to read faster online. You can adjust how fast or slow the words
scroll as you read, so its an easy way to see the difference between 200wpm and 900wpm, and
to train your eyes to read faster. Check it out: http://squirt.io/install.html
Common Issues
Discomfort in hands or arms. This results from using your hands and arms in a new
way. After practicing for at least 15 minutes at a time for a few days, your muscles will
adjust and the discomfort will fade and then cease altogether.
Fingers move in a jerky motion across the page. This means you are probably pushing
down too hard with your moving hand. Your fingers should lightly touch the page,
gliding along it, and quickly zipping from the end of one line to the beginning of the next.
Using a pencil or card instead of fingers. Your eyes are biologically primed to follow
your fingers. This is not true of pencils or cards. You also will not see enough words at a
time using a pencil. You can use a card beneath your fingers to help you block the words
above and below the line you are reading, if needed, but make sure your fingers are lined
up just beneath the words you are reading.
Picking your hand up and placing it at the next line instead of zipping to the next
line. This wastes energy, might make your muscles sore, definitely tires you out faster,
and slows you down. Zip from the end of the line to the beginning of the next. After the
first 45 total minutes of practice, zipping will become part of your muscle memory and
you wont have to think about it anymore youll do it automatically.
Forgetting to use your hands when you read. Youve read without your fingers since
elementary school, so its not surprising that youll forget to use your hands at first. You
have to remind yourself to use your fingers, and the best way to remember is to set aside
a minimum of 15 minutes a day just to practice speed reading. The more you practice
with your hands, the more naturally using them will become. Also, use your fingers in a
smooth motion across the page even when you need to read slowly when you are
reading something unfamiliar, information dense prose such as those found in scientific
or business reports, or textbooks, writing in other languages or that use jargon with which
you are unfamiliar.
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Improving Your Comprehension

Recap what you just read. Its best to whisper to yourself a summary in your own words of
what youve read so far or some detailed information you need to master before reading on. You
can do it in your head, but hearing yourself whisper it gives you an audio memory, a spoken
memory, AND a thinking memory, which helps you retain information longer and understand it
better than a thinking memory alone. The more you repeat information to yourself, the longer
and better you will remember it.
How often you need to recap depends on how difficult you find the material you are reading. If
you are reading for pleasure, you might recap to yourself every chapter, or every few chapters.
You might recap to yourself before picking up where you left off when you go a day or more
between reading sessions. If you are reading a textbook or an article containing unfamiliar
information, you may need to repeat the information to yourself in your own words after every
paragraph or section, or maybe just after the parts you are having trouble with.
Look Up Unknown Words and Review Them Until You Know Them. The biggest
impediment to comprehension is a too small vocabulary. If you dont know what a word of
phrase means, you miss out on key information in the sentence, paragraph, even the whole work.
Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com can be accessed from any smart phone, tablet, or computer
with internet access. E-readers such as nook and kindle even let you highlight an unknown word
and look it up immediately. One of the easiest ways to learn new words is to find synonyms of
the word that you already understand, and repeating the unknown word with a couple of known
synonyms until you have them memorized. It also helps to keep a file on your phone, perhaps in
the Evernote app, or in a paper notepad with all the new words you are mastering, so you can
review them once a week or once a month and make sure you still know them.
Take Notes. When you need a thorough understanding of what you are reading, use your fingers
to move smoothly if slowly across the page to help you focus. Keep a list of vocabulary words
with their definitions, as well as a summary of all the main ideas and supporting details in each
paragraph or section that you read. Main ideas are what the paragraph or section is about what
its trying to communicate. Supporting details are the details the paragraphs use to prove or
explain the main idea.
If you are taking notes for yourself and not just for a class, consider also putting your own
thoughts and questions in the notes, your opinions or experiences that relate to what you are
reading. Relating whatever you are learning to your own life and experiences is one of the best
ways to learn and understand.
Talk it out with a friend or someone else who has either read the same work or is familiar
with the topic. Active discussion, be it online, over the phone, or in person, improves
comprehension and mastery of new information
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Make it fun! Humans are wired to learn best through play. If you need to master new material,
find a way to make it fun. Get creative. Make a game out of it, or challenge yourself to a
competition see how many new vocab words can you master in 15 minutes, perhaps, or color a
doodle in your notes.

Second Timing
After you have practiced this technique for at least 15 minutes, and you are feeling comfortable
with the motion, time yourself to see how much you have already improved.
For this timing, and every timing from here out, read using your hands a little bit faster than you
are comfortable while maintaining high comprehension.
1. Just like in the first timing, read for a few minutes before timing yourself, but this time
use your hands.
2. When you are ready, mark the last line you read.
3. Set your timer for one minute, then
4. Read a little faster than you are comfortable until the timer goes off.
5. Mark the last line of three words or more that you read before the timer went off.
6. Count the lines of three or more words between the two marks.
7. Multiply the number of lines you read in one minute by the average words per line of
your book.
8. Graph that number on the chart at the back of this packet, or record it somewhere else if
that works best for you.
If your reading speed did not improve, consult the common issues on page 7, practice for another
30 minutes, and then test again. If you still find yourself having issues, or if you have any
questions, do not hesitate to contact me at authorashleyrae@gmail.com.

When Your Fingers Seem to Slow You Down

Eventually, if you keep practicing, you are going to read too quickly to move your fingers all the
way from margin to margin. This happens around 500 wpm.
If you want to read faster than 500wpm, you can:
use more fingers so you see more words at a time, or
make a shorter movement in the middle of the line.
I do both, as I demonstrate in the video for this class.

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Thats it! Once youve read these notes, watched the video, and practiced the skills, youve
mastered the essentials of practical speed reading, the least you need to know and do to increase
your reading speed and comprehension today.
I would love to hear about your progress and answer and questions or concerns you have about
improving your reading speed and comprehension. Please dont hesitate to contact me with any
feedback

Thank you!
And now, for some shameless plugs.
Feel free to friend me on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ashley.rae.31
And to follow my blogs at www.authorashleyrae.weebly.com
And with SageWoman Magazine: http://www.witchesandpagans.com/AwakeningGoddess/Blogger/Listings/ashley-rae.html

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Reading Speed Progress

1,000.00
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750.00
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650.00
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550.00
500.00
450.00
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350.00
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150.00
100.00

Book Title: ___________________________

Book Title: ___________________________

Words Per Line: _____

Words Per Line: _____

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Remember: To calculate Words Per Minute, count how many lines of 3 words of more
you read in one minute, and multiply that number by the Words Per Line in your book. See
pages 2-3 for more details.

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