Fast reading technique with high level memorization is the only way to master millions of gigabytes of information around. If you are a curious person and strive to get to know the whole world, we recommend that you start classes immediately. It will take 2-3 months to master the course, during which you will train your memory, attention and observation.

What books are worth studying for a quick reading

A few articles are not enough to understand the kitchen of fast reading. We recommend referring to books: this is a source of concentrated information written in chronological order.

Purchase or download:

• “The art of reading. How to understand books ”Thomas Foster. Read before you begin your quick reading. Using the works of classics as an example, the author teaches to understand the meaning between the lines and perceive information from a different angle. “Memories, symbols, parallels are what separates the professional reader from the amateur,” says Foster. Adopting a different book reading model will help you better remember information, which will now be based on associative thinking and related to past experiences.
• “Speed ​​reading in practice. How to read quickly and remember what you read well "Pavel Palagin... The book was recognized by millions of book lovers and received a good response. The techniques are simple and straightforward, they allow you to master the technique of fast reading in a few weeks. The author harshly criticizes slow readers, thereby motivating to finish the study of the issue as soon as possible. At seminars, Palagin, without hesitation, advises to read only 25% of the book and discard the rest for uselessness. This statement fuels the interest of the public, seeking to refute the words of the author.
• Memory Development by Harry Lorraine... The ideal book to train your memory and imagination. After reading, you will become better at perceiving information, remembering dates and large numbers, playfully continuing the storyline of any story.

How to Develop Concentration for Fast Reading

The already mentioned Pavel Palagin said: “If there is main secret efficiency, it is concentration. " Indeed, you cannot read quickly without it. The point is in the types of human attention, about which we wrote in detail. You need to have strong voluntary attention in order to keep your gaze on the book, to be drawn into it and not be distracted by extraneous noises. Let's give some exercises:

• Take a blank sheet of paper and a pencil: without lifting the lead from the paper, draw a line in arbitrary directions. Watch her. As soon as your attention turns to something else, start over. Do the exercise, gradually increasing the time daily. The ideal result is 5 minutes.
• Sit in a chair. Raise your hands to chest level and connect your index fingers. Spread them 2-3 mm apart and twist clockwise. The circumscribed circle should be small. Follow your fingertips for 7 minutes without taking your eyes off. If your eyes jumped, start the exercise over.
• We propose to master the exercise "Concentration on a point" on the example of a video. Do whatever the commentator says and you will get the effect after the first workout.

We have already given tips on fast reading in this one.We will supplement what has been said and suggest a few more life hacks:

• you can read quickly only in two positions: sitting or standing with a straight back. In these cases, concentration is at the limit, you absorb information better. If you are reading while sitting on a chair and feel that you are falling asleep, get up for 15–20 minutes;
• before you sit down at the book, let in the energy: dance 3-4 minutes, do finger gymnastics or do
• before reading, smile at the book you are going to pick up. For all the stupidity of the sound, the book will "smile" at you in return. At the level of psychology, the technique helps to tune in to the positive. In this state, any information is perceived more easily and memorized faster;
• take Glycine D3: it saturates the brain with oxygen. This increases attention and allows you to better concentrate;
• advice suitable for non-fiction literature: open the conclusions of the chapter and carefully analyze them. Slowly and thoughtfully. Then read the entire chapter. You will be able to review the material covered and remember it better. Thanks to the known facts, the reading speed will increase - you will slide on new material, capturing the already known from the corner of your eye.

Finally, I would like to say in the words of John Witherspoon, an American actor: "Never read a book just because you started reading it." Look for your "literature" and devote to it free time... So the quality of knowledge and the level of skills will increase significantly. Have a good day!

Exercises for mastering the speed reading technique will be most useful to those who are dissatisfied with their speed of understanding and memorizing information when reading texts of various types and levels of difficulty.

At what age can you practice speed reading?

For an adult, it is extremely important not only to be able to demonstrate the ability to read a piece of text “on a stopwatch” as quickly as possible, but really needs to be able to save time thanks to high-speed reading. Therefore, when reading a text on a particular topic, an adult is simply obliged to be able to “skip by” unnecessary, uninformative parts of the text, while catching his eyes on key words that reflect the main idea of ​​the author.

The most common recommendation for children: you should not teach your child to read speed until the age of 14. We agree that a cursory reading "diagonally" is not the most the best way for schoolchildren who first of all need to master the curriculum with high quality and learn to enjoy the works of fiction.

Of course, each child and his abilities are unique, so it would be reasonable to focus on the key moments of children's readiness to master the speed reading technique. So, if your child already knows how to read aloud, easily reads a page in a couple of minutes and understands the meaning of what he read (he can retell the essence in his own words), you can set the task of increasing the reading speed using a set of exercises for speed reading.

5 Key Skills for Fast Reading

When learning to read speed, it is important to constantly train the following skills:

• concentration of attention;
• suppression of articulation (the habit of pronouncing the text);
• improved visual skill - wide field of peripheral vision;
• the ability to quickly highlight the valuable in the text, useful information and not waste your attention on "water";
• good memory - assimilation of valuable information from the material read;
• increasing the speed of thinking.

The secret of mastering the speed reading technique is regular exercises in the development of memory, attention and mastering other skills of fast reading.

What exercises to improve reading speed will be useful at any age?

The greatest benefits are those exercises that eliminate the cause of the low speed of perception and processing of visual information.

The main mistakes that create a barrier in reading speed in both children and adults are considered involuntary recurrent eye movements (regression) and unnecessary articulation, which we learned just in childhood.

The main disadvantages that impede the efficient and quick perception of information:

• trouble concentrating;
• a small angle (field) of the visual coverage of text information.

So, exercises for speed reading in grade 1 should be aimed primarily at developing the ability to concentrate and expanding the field of information coverage. "Small field of vision" is perhaps the most important reason why children are taught to read first by letter, by syllable, then by whole words, phrases and sentences with an expression that confirms the reader's understanding of the meaning of what is written.

Not every adult can boast of the ability to perceive long phrases and whole sentences “at a glance”. This is where the development of visual reading skills for most people stops.

Expanding the field of view

"Development of peripheral vision according to Schulte tables"

Regular training using Schulte tables will not only allow your child to have an interesting time, but also contribute to increased concentration, peripheral vision and memory development.

"Defocused gaze"... The main task of training is to use a dispersed gaze to perceive a larger area of ​​the page or screen. The exercise can be done in different options, for example, to search for identical elements with diffused vision or to memorize more elements that were able to be captured without moving the gaze from the central object of attention.

Improving concentration

"Activation of both hemispheres"... Take the text of a topic familiar to you and read through the paragraph alternately with your right and then with your left eye. Thanks to this simple technique, you in turn activate both hemispheres of the brain.

"Highlighting the main thing"... Many prominent personalities have used this technique. Just take a marker or pencil and highlight 2-3 of the most important thoughts from the page. It is even better to improve this exercise and not just highlight the main thing, but put down your critical remarks with signs: very important information- "!" or "NB", agree - put "+", disagree - "-", etc.

"Name the color"... Call out loud as you read the following colored text in the color of words. It is the colors, not what is written.

Red . Green. Blue. Yellow. Violet. Orange. Brown. Blue .

Red . Blue. Green. Violet. Yellow. Brown. Blue. Green. Blue.

Don't rush to do it with incredible speed. It's good if after training you, in principle, managed to complete the exercise without errors.

Find the word... Exercise options:

• Search the page for all words starting with a specific letter.
• Search the page for all occurrences of a certain word or phrase.

Guessing riddles- simple and very effective method training of attention concentration skills at any age. Trick riddles or trick logic questions work well for this purpose.

Getting rid of regression

"We cut half a line"... When reading the text, cover half of the line (top) with a sheet of paper. Thus, you make the brain guess about what has been written and at the same time in such a situation it will naturally want to see the next line even before you “cut off” a part of it. This exercise will teach you to get ahead of yourself while reading and not return to what you read at the same time.

"Pointer"... To unlearn the habit of returning your gaze to what you have already read, have your gaze constantly follow a pen, pencil, or finger that will lead you forward all the time.

"Reading at speed"... Let's remember the test for reading speed in primary school... We take a timer and measure our current result by reading one page, chapter or article.

Suppress articulation

"Alternative text"... In parallel with reading, we say something that has nothing to do with the subject of attention. For example, we hum the motive of a song ("la-la-la, tru-lal-la") or say another text in our mind, for example, proverbs, tongue twisters, or keep counting in order, regardless of the number of words or lines read. The main thing is not to lose concentration.

"With your mouth closed!" If your lips move or your tongue moves while reading, you need to keep them busy. This mistake is often present in children after constant reading aloud in elementary grades. Try chewing on a pencil or crackers in parallel, or chewing gum.

"Drumroll"... We tap some rhythm on the table with our fingers, the more difficult it is, the better. If the fingers are busy, the speech center of the brain will be automatically at least partially blocked.

"Reading to distracting music"... A great way to suppress the urge to speak the text you are reading is to listen to music that does not have a constant rhythm. Jazz is best suited for this purpose.

Develop memory

"Non-standard reading"... Reading text rotated 90 degrees away from you, 180 degrees, 45 degrees, etc. An example of the exercise: turn the page upside down and set the task of reading the text backwards (i.e. from right to left). Such training is especially useful for children in order to form in memory the standards of complete letters, regardless of how they are located.

"Recover missing letters." An excellent exercise for the development of verbal and logical memory. While reading a text with missing letters, the stops to "guess" the next word are forced to keep in mind the words and the meaning of the previously read. It is a good workout not only for memory, but also for eliminating obstacles to fast reading such as recurrent eye movements and articulation.

Developing the speed of thinking

One of the main reasons why it is possible to significantly increase the reading speed of any person is the redundancy of information at all levels of texts (especially those posted on the Internet), ranging from headings and introductory constructions intended to attract attention, to individual words with weak or completely absent semantic load.

Regular solution logical tasks develops the ability to separate the main from the secondary, develops the skill of "turning on blindness" in relation to redundant information and "instantaneous" perception of important thoughts. This is achieved, first of all, thanks to regular exercises in the speed of perception of the conditions of the problem and understanding of the essence of the question being asked. Conscious analysis of the structure of tasks develops the skill of dividing tasks into conditions and groups of conditions, highlighting one or several questions, understanding the optimal order of solving subtasks, searching for solutions.

Completing tasks from LogicLike will help at any age:

• improve concentration of attention;
• develop the speed of thinking;
• increase the ability to think logically correctly;
• and as a result, significantly increase the speed of reading and memorizing important information.

20-30 minutes of LogicLike classes every day is a proven way to develop logic and speed of thinking, attention and memory.

Speed ​​reading- a useful skill for modern man which develops reading speed. In order to master high speed reading, you need to try to master other skills that will become fundamental.

1. Attention

   Concentration

   Peripheral vision

In addition to the above, you need to learn how to work correctly with the text and perform exercises to train your reading speed, which you can read about in this article.

What are Regression and Reception? Similarities and differences, impact on the reading process

Regression- involuntary return of the eyes to previous words and phrases during reading. Why is this happening? Most of the readers have this bad habit. It arises because our concentration is poorly developed and the words to which attention was returned are forgotten.

Regression can be provoked deliberately after you realize that you did not understand what you read a little earlier. Can be triggered subconsciously.

Try to get rid of external stimuli that distract and interfere with the reading process.

Regression takes about 5% of the entire reading time. If we consider this fact in large volumes, then 5% is a decent part.

Concept "Reception" It is similar to the concept of "regression" in that this return to a previously read text is still in progress, but reciprocity is not subconscious returns, but yours, due to the appearance of incomprehensible moments.

These deviations in reading take up time, which means that the reader must fight them. It depends only on you, it is important:

Be able to properly tune in to reading

Train concentration

Isolate from irritants

Fight the urge to go back

Read aloud or silently?

Reading aloud or moving the lips silently while reading is called articulation.

Articulation Is a habit to give up if the goal is to improve reading speed, and I'll explain why.

Speaking aloud, the reading speed is significantly limited, since the pronunciation of words takes longer than their perception mentally.

Silent articulation also affects reading speed negatively. Without sound, you can either speak with your lips alone without a voice, or you can mentally and both options are not suitable. Lip movements are limited in the same way as reading aloud. Speaking mentally is a little faster, but again imposes a limitation.

Ideally, you need to learn how to suppress speaking, both aloud, with your lips alone, and mentally. If the attempts are successful, then the reading speed will increase several times.

Why are memory and attention training important?

At the beginning of the article it is said that attention and memory are some of the most important skills to improve reading speed.

Attention training will have a significant effect on speed reading. Reading is often absent-minded, which leads to regression and reciprocity. You are already familiar with these concepts and the fact that they slow down the process. With attention training, understanding of the text will improve, more information will be absorbed than before and there will be no craving for returning in the text.

Concentration plays a lot important role... A high level of concentration will make it possible to completely immerse oneself in the book, better perceive, understand information, and not be distracted from reading.

Memorizing material at high speed

Readers of the article may have a question: "Is it possible to memorize all the information, reading at high speed?" Speed ​​reading - the skill of fast reading with the highest percentage of memorization, that is, close to 100%.

Foreign scientists conducted research on the effect of speed reading on intellectual development and thinking, which, of course, gave positive result... Fast reading activates thinking processes much more efficiently than slow reading.

About intellectual development you shouldn't even speak negatively, because more information comes in, which means that development is going faster!

How to assimilate information at high speed?

The development of reading speed and understanding of information occurs at different stages and, usually, in different exercises:

You must set yourself up, concentrate on working with the text, in order to be extremely attentive.

Get in the habit of highlighting the main idea of ​​the text or its constituent parts as you read. If you highlight the main idea from a group of paragraphs, it will be easier to navigate in the material learned.

Leave time for assimilation and reflection on the material received.

There is also good way remember the main idea of ​​a piece of text - come up with an association to it, at the thought of which the topic will pop up. The main thing is that the association is memorable and vivid.

Pause after each chapter or longer passage and ask questions about the content and topic. For example, "What is the main point of the chapter just read?" or "What are the main ideas of this passage?" You can do short retelling on the main points.

Development of memory and attention in a child 5-10 years old

Purpose of the course: to develop memory and attention in a child so that it would be easier for him to study at school, so that he could better memorize.

After completing the course, the child will be able to:

1. It is 2-5 times better to memorize texts, faces, numbers, words
2. Learn to memorize for a longer period
3. The speed of remembering the necessary information will increase

Super memory in 30 days

Memorize the necessary information quickly and for a long time. Wondering how to open a door or wash your hair? I am sure not, because this is part of our life. Easy and simple exercises to train your memory can be made part of your life and done little by little during the day. If you eat the daily ration of food at a time, you can eat in portions throughout the day.

Speed ​​reading in 30 days

Increase your reading speed by 2-3 times in 30 days. From 150-200 to 300-600 words per minute or from 400 to 800-1200 words per minute. The course uses traditional exercises for the development of speed reading, techniques that speed up the work of the brain, the method of progressively increasing the speed of reading, the psychology of speed reading and the questions of the course participants are discussed. Suitable for children and adults reading up to 5000 words per minute.

Brain fitness secrets, train memory, attention, thinking, counting

The brain, like the body, needs fitness. Exercise strengthens the body, mental exercises develop the brain. 30 days useful exercises and educational games for the development of memory, concentration, intelligence and speed of reading will strengthen the brain, turning it into a tough nut to crack.

Speeding up verbal counting, NOT mental arithmetic

Learn to quickly and correctly add, subtract, multiply, divide, square numbers, and even root. I will teach you to use easy tricks to simplify arithmetic operations. Each lesson has new techniques, clear examples, and helpful assignments.

Surely, you have often heard such an expression as the fast reading technique. But have you done anything to master your speed reading skills? And what is the normal reading speed and how to measure it? Let's talk about what reading speed is and how exactly you can increase it. In addition, we will touch upon such issues as checking the reading technique, its types, and also consider the most effective exercises that will help to significantly increase the speed of perception of text information.

What is reading technique?

Before we figure out how you can read quickly while memorizing the material, let's talk about what reading speed is and how it is measured. We will also touch upon the speed reading technique, which allows you to process texts fairly quickly and with high quality. Note also that speed reading and memory development are quite closely related.

Reading speed is the ratio of the characters read to the time during which they are read. This takes into account the understanding of the text, that is, how carefully the reader read it and remembered it.

In school practice, reading speed is measured in words, but experts recommend measuring it in symbols, since the length of words is different.

Speed ​​reading is a set of special techniques and techniques that can significantly increase the speed of reading, the perception of the content of the text. People who are proficient in the technique of speed reading, have a wide ability to filter the material read, to highlight the main thing in it. And most importantly, they can quickly find the information they need in the text. That is why it is quite important to know what the fast reading technique is and how to master it in a short time.

Types of reading

Before talking about the reading technique and let's say a few words about the types of reading. By the way, we note that most of them are quick reading methods.

Psycholinguists and people involved in teaching speed reading distinguish several types of familiarization with the text. So, it is possible to distinguish in-depth, fast, panoramic, selective, as well as reading-viewing and reading-scanning.

Let's briefly describe each of these types and analyze their features.

• So, during in-depth reading, an analysis of all the details is carried out, the read is criticized, conclusions are formulated. This is usually how scientific literature is handled.
• Fast reading implies not only high speed of the process, but also excellent reading comprehension. This includes acquaintance with fiction.
• Panoramic reading uses the peripheral vision enhancement technique. That is, a person reading in this way covers a rather large area of ​​the text with his eyes, which significantly affects the speed. This way you can study almost any book.
• Selective reading processes only some parts of the text. These can be individual chapters, sections, paragraphs, or even sentences. This is used by students when preparing for exams.
• Reading-viewing is usually used by specialists and students in the selection of one or another literature. Looking through a book - annotation, preface, table of contents, a person decides whether he needs it or not.
• When reading-scanning, a quick page scan is performed in order to find individual definitions, dates, surnames and first names.

The main components of reading speed

Before we look at what a fast reading technique is, let's talk about the components of the speed of this process. In order to check the reading speed, you first need to know about them.

So, the formula by which the reading speed is usually calculated is as follows:

• V = Q x K: T.

Let's now decipher each of these conventions.

Reading speed standards

There are several reading speeds. It is measured in signs, since such a parameter is more objective than such measurements in words.

In this case, the speed of 900 characters per minute is considered very slow. Slow is equivalent to 1200 cpm. A person reading 1,500 characters per minute reads at medium speed. 1,800 characters are considered above average. Fast reading implies a speed of 3000 characters, very fast - 5000, and people who master more than 10,000 characters in a minute are considered to have mastered ultra-fast reading speed.

Checking the reading speed

Before talking about exercises that can dramatically improve your reading speed, it's worth checking it out. To do this, you can either use special programs or check it yourself, although this may not be entirely accurate data. If you decide to use the second option, then you will definitely need the help of someone from your relatives or friends, a text, a stopwatch.

We start by picking up an unfamiliar text, then we ask you to mark the time in which you will read it. We begin to read. At the end, you should be asked a couple of questions about the text. If you answered them, that is very good. If not, it's worse. By the way, we note that speed reading and memory development are two inseparable things. If you read quickly enough and do not remember what you read, then there can be no question of any speed reading.

Next, we count the number of characters read in the text (this can be done using the Word program (Statistics) by selecting the desired segment). We then use the above formulas and calculate our reading speed. Here we note that the coefficient of understanding is not worth calculating.

Thus, you can determine for yourself whether you should improve your reading speed or not.

Why develop your reading speed

The main reason to develop speed reading skills is to increase the perception of information. We are constantly surrounded by a variety of messages, and it is quite important that we have time to perceive and remember them in time. And if the perception of sound and visual information occurs rather quickly and it is almost impossible to develop this skill, then the perception of text messages is rather slow and directly depends on our reading speed. That is why speed reading skills should be developed, and this should be done not only for adults, but also for children. And that is why speed reading for children is quite a necessary skill.

In addition, this process develops memory and attention. It is reliably known that what more people reads, the more literate and developed he is. And in order to read a lot, you need to be able to read quickly.

We also note that people always strive to master special skills that are not inherent in everyone. So, speed reading also applies to them. Having mastered it, you will be able to tell your friends and acquaintances about your achievements with a clear conscience.

Reasons for slow reading speed

These and many other things significantly reduce the ability to quickly master speed reading. For children and adults, there are special exercises that help solve these problems.

Methods for the development of reading techniques

If you want to master any method of fast reading, then you definitely need to know about a variety of techniques and methods that will help you significantly improve the perception of information.

In principle, each psycholinguist and specialist in this field develops his own method of teaching speed reading, focusing on one or another set of exercises.

The most famous of them are the quick reading technique of Oleg Andreev and Andrei Spodin.

All of them are based on the same principles - to expand the field and angle of view of a person, to teach him to avoid regressions, articulatory movements when reading, to develop memory and thinking, the ability to critically perceive and memorize the text.

It doesn't matter whose method you choose, the main thing is that it is easy and interesting for you to study it.

Below we offer you the exercises that underlie almost every speed reading course.

Reading Speed ​​Exercises

If you want to develop your speed reading skills, we recommend that you work on it daily. To do this, you need to allocate at least an hour of free time for classes and perform simple exercises, which we will tell you about now.

• As you read the text, cover each line you read with a blank sheet of paper. You can use your hand instead of a sheet of paper. The main thing is not to go back and not open the lines you have already read.
• Work with a gradually widening angle of view. By the way, the fast reading technique also implies a wide angle of view.
• When reading, be sure to keep your index finger on your lips - this will help prevent articulation, that is, pronouncing the read text with your lips.
• Do not be distracted by extraneous sounds, try to read in silence and concentrate your attention on the text as much as possible.
• After reading, retell yourself what you have read, check if you remember everything or if something escaped you.

Install special programs that help you quickly read texts. So you can change the pace of reading, gradually get used to it. Below we will offer you several such programs and talk a little about what kind of fast reading technique for children exists.

Speed ​​reading programs

We figured out what reading is, its speed, remembered a few fairly simple exercises that will help us improve our performance. Let's now look at programs for fast reading. Here are three of the most famous and used ones.

• Spritz helps you quickly read texts. You enter the part you want in the field and set the speed at which the program reads it. It is very good in order to check not only the speed of your reading, but also to master the material in record time.
• The second program is Psy games. This is a whole complex of various exercises that will help expand the field of vision, improve memory and attention, and reaction.
• We also note one more complex for improving reading skills - Speed ​​reading software. With its help, you can also significantly improve the reading speed.

Teaching children to read speed

The last thing worth mentioning is teaching children to read speed. As we already said, this skill will be quite useful both for the development of memory, the attention of your son or daughter, and for further education at school or university.

A few tips for those who want to learn how to teach a child to read quickly. In order to teach children to read quickly, you must first show them that they can do it. To do this, you can carry out the following experiment. Let the text read, while the reading time should be limited to one minute. Then count the number of words in the section of the text read and ask the child to read it again. At the same time, note the time again. The second time the text will be read faster, which means you can prove to your child that the more he reads, the more reading speed increases.

Be sure to ask your child after reading what exactly he learned from the text. This will help teach you to read not only quickly, but also carefully.

Note that any method of fast reading for children will be interesting only if you try to interest the child, study with him in game form without forcing him to do what he does not want.

conclusions

So, we have figured out what a fast reading technique is and how important it is to master it. We figured out what types of reading exist, what prevents us from reading quickly, and how these obstacles can be overcome. We also talked about how to teach a child to read and develop his skills.

We hope our article was helpful.

The ability to read quickly and memorize readings for a long time is an extremely useful skill. It is necessary for schoolchildren and students who are constantly assimilating new knowledge. But a person learns all his life, and thinking ability decreases with age. Having said goodbye to the notes, we eventually notice difficulties with the perception and memorization of information.

Why is this happening? The brain needs exercise as the body needs movement. If we give up regular training, abilities will dull, and previously acquired knowledge will be erased from memory. The only way out is to develop existing skills and develop new ones. We share the most in simple ways how to learn to read faster and remember more.

Reading quickly is a skill that will positively affect your memory

Why do we read slowly?

Researchers have determined that the average American reads 200-300 words per minute. The indicator grows with the level of education. A college student swallows 450 words, a teacher 600-700, and so on. If we take into account the peculiarities of the Russian language, then 150 words per minute will be the norm for us. But the conclusion is obvious. If you want to read faster, read more.

The reading speed is influenced by external conditions. It is not surprising that at home, in silence, we read faster than in a crowded subway. The inability to concentrate impairs not only reading speed, but also reading comprehension. Thoughtful work on texts requires comfortable conditions. And in transport, you can read a fiction book or article.

Reading speed depends on the concentration of sight on the text. Our gaze moves through the text in leaps and bounds. Each of them ends with focusing on a specific area of ​​the page. To test this, sit at a table and place a book in front of you. Close one eye by gently pressing the eyelid with your finger, and slide the other over the text. Do you feel jumping? They inhibit reading.

Reading speed depends on the ability to concentrate on the text

Reading without haste, we often return to the passed text. This happens unintentionally: we think about our own, lose concentration - and the subconscious mind throws us at the beginning of a familiar sentence. This is also a leap, but backward. Such "travels" take up a third of the reading time.

Surprisingly, the lion's share of attention is being stolen by ... fields. By focusing on two or three words, we capture the rest of the text with our peripheral vision. If we read a sentence from the first word to the last, then we grab the blank areas at the edges of the page. The brain spends time perceiving these blind spots and the reading speed slows down. Let's experiment?

Once Fedor read a collection of romantic poems until three in the morning.

Read this phrase twice. First, start with the word "one day" and end with "night." For the second time, start at Fedor and finish at three. Have you noticed how much time you have saved? This is how speed reading techniques work. E-book owners read more books than paper lovers. Perhaps the secret is that in the "readers" the fields are narrower.

E-book owners have time to read more books

How to improve reading speed?

So, there are only two tips:

1. Avoid glancing across the page.
2. Don't waste peripheral vision on the fields.

At first glance, everything is simple. But in order to use these techniques every day, you need to develop them to the level of a reflex. To do this, perform a set of three exercises:

1. Use a pencil to avoid jumping from one part of the text to another. Place an open book in front of you and read along the line with the tip of the pen. Start with the first word and end with the last. You will feel the concentration of attention increase. Then count the number of lines on the page, count one minute on the stopwatch, and start reading. Try to spend no more than a second per line. Don't stop and go back.
2. Read the next minute with a pencil, but start with the second word on the line and finish two words before the end.
3. Within the third minute, start on the third word and finish on the third from the back. Read at half a second per line. Do not stop, even if the meaning of what you read will slip away. Focus on time and number of lines.

Warm up for about 15 minutes and then measure your reading speed. It will increase 2-3 times compared to the usual one. And remember: speed reading requires constant practice, but it can develop up to 1500 words per minute!

Use a pencil to avoid jumping from line to line

Speed ​​and understanding

Unfortunately, speed of reading impairs comprehension and memorability of the text. Even using these techniques for many years does not guarantee that you will not miss important points. An alternative to speed reading is the Spritz and Blinkist methods. The idea is the same. We spend a lot of time jumping around the page and reading fields. How can you avoid this without compromising your understanding of the text?

• Methodology Spritz is that the words appear on the screen one at a time. The letter in the center is marked in red, which improves the focusing of the vision. It is impossible to switch to what you read earlier or to wander around the text. The English version of Spritz allows you to read 600 words per minute. The company creates apps for phones, tablets and laptops in different languages. On the Spzirtz website, you can translate text (including Russian) into this reading system.
• Company Blinkist suggests a different approach. To read faster, you only need to read the essential. The application divides the text into human-readable segments. Each one contains a separate thought. This makes Blinkist useful for reading long articles and essays. But let's be honest. Students were preparing for classes on the introduction and conclusions of the article long before the advent of smartphones.

Let's summarize. Speed ​​reading is interesting and useful. But mastering ingenious techniques will take a long time and is unlikely to improve your ability to understand information. In some cases, it is better to focus on the analysis and memorization of the reading, rather than the speed of absorption of pages.

Remember all

Memory - amazing thing... We remember little things like a school friend's phone number and instantly forget what to buy at the supermarket. How does our memory work? It decrypts the information received, sends it to the "archive", and, if necessary, searches and retrieves it back.

Your phone will refuse to work if the battery is low. The brain also needs to be recharged. Get enough sleep, alternate between rest and work, have fun, drink enough water. Eat omega-3 fatty acids - found in nuts, fish, flaxseed oil, and improves thinking ability. Go in for sports. Just 15 minutes of exercise - and learning will go much easier.

Tune in to the fact that it is impossible to learn everything. Like the real estate, the amount of human memory is limited. To preserve new information, we get rid of old ones. It is impossible to change this system, but to designate some memories as more meaningful in reality. The best way preserve information for a long time - to bind it to emotions and images.

Scroll through the books you went through school curriculum... What were the names of the main characters, where did the events unfold? You will retell some plots at once, others - after a while, miss the third.

To train your memory, remember what books you read in school.

Now think about why this is happening. Most likely, you have a good memory of works that evoke strong feelings. You may have discussed this book with a friend for a long time or wrote an introductory essay on it. Or maybe you liked the illustrations - pictures evoke more emotion than text. In any case, memory bonds facts with emotions and stores them carefully.

Many memorization techniques are based on this.

• Abbreviation. To store multiple names in memory, create a new word or sentence from their initial letters. Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant is sitting - remember? The method works not only with the colors of the rainbow.
• Rhyme. Poems are easier to learn than prose. For example, you forget the date of abolition of serfdom - 1861. Try rhyming it like this: "One eight six one - I will give freedom to serfs."
• Associations. Works well when studying a foreign language. When learning new words, look in the Russian language that are consonant with them. "Keep it" is like "seething", "necessary" is like "carrying a sari." At the same time, draw in your mind a person holding a boiling kettle, or an Indian running down the street carrying a sari (national dress) needed by his wife. English words often have multiple meanings. Look for a connection between them. The word "palm" refers to a tree and a palm. Imagine a palm tree with leaves that look like open palms. Find out what the original titles of your favorite movies sound like. The English name for the groundhog, "groundhog", is hard to pronounce. But if you remember the movie "Groundhog Day" ("Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray, the task becomes easier.
• Chain. If you need to memorize a few random words, link them in meaning. A classic example is a shopping list. Let's say you go to the supermarket for apples, coffee and pasta. Imagine a fruit waking up, drinking an invigorating drink, and thoroughly brushing its teeth. You will hardly forget such a vivid story on the way to the store.
• The palaces of the mind. Favorite method of Sherlock Holmes. Imagine a space - a room or a house that you know well. Mentally draw what you need to remember, and place these objects in the halls. The brighter and more unusual the "interior" is, the longer it will remain in memory. Add chain reception. For example, you are teaching Chekhov's plays. Here Anton Pavlovich enters the room, talking with Uncle Vanya, a seagull is flying by, and in the back of the room a cherry orchard is blooming and three sisters are walking ... The secret is to visit the "palaces" as often as possible and not be afraid to imagine strange pictures.

When learning foreign languages, the association method works well.

Tips for those who want to remember more:

• Write by hand. And not only synopses. When we rewrite information, we remember much more than when we read it. Start a literary diary. Write out unfamiliar words, interesting quotes and plot details, and write reviews. The lazy option is bookmarks. Underline the paragraphs that matter most and attach a colored sticker to the page. If you go back to the book, you will easily find important information.
• Alternate source and discipline. When studying a specific topic, don't limit yourself to books. Find articles, videos, lectures, pictures ... You will form a complete picture of events and will not let your brain overwork. If you are studying for exams, plan your day so that you can devote no more than two hours to one subject. After challenging discipline, tackle the one you like.
• Link new information with previous knowledge or life experiences. When reading a fiction book, remember which historical events occurred at the time described. Learn math formulas? Think about how to use them at home.
• Retell what you read in your own words, simplifying difficult points. Then run your eyes over the text and think about what you missed or confused. Be sure to clarify any incomprehensible terms or expressions in the text. Do it right away so you don't have to retrain the material.
• Divide the information into "chunks" and repeat it regularly. If you need to learn 50 foreign words by the end of the week, scan 25 in the morning and 25 in the evening every day. The result will pleasantly surprise you.
• Forgot foreign word, date or name? Don't run to Google for advice or synopses, but try to remember yourself.

Train your memory

The ability to memorize a lot is not a talent, but a skill that can be improved. Learn what you like, be it poetry or a foreign language. Set a quota of one poem or 20 words a week. Instead of social networks take the time to train your thinking skills (Lumosity, Elevate - Brain Training, Memory) and thematic sites:

• uplift.io - a selection of games for memory and speed of thinking. At the same time, you will improve your English, geography, history.

  mozgame.ru - some more games for development different types memory and attention.

Interactive apps are great for training memory.

To train visual memory, we recommend the Aivazovsky method. To memorize a "picture", look at it carefully for five minutes. Keep in mind every detail. Now close your eyes and mentally draw what you see. A few workouts and problems with memorizing streets will disappear.

Improving reading speed and memory is a rewarding and challenging task. But it is important to understand why you are picking up the book. If you need to get a general impression of the text, a cursory glance is enough. But often our goal is to comprehend information, form an opinion about it and apply it in life. Development brings work on the text, and not the number of books read.