Speed Reading - Key to Comprehension Problems

In a typical aptitude test, comprehension is one of the major portion besides QA, verbal and others. In comprehension section, you have to master large volumes of information and solve the questions based on them. With speed reading you'll be able to quickly understand the given text and solve the questions in a lot less time.
As the time to solve comprehension questions is same for all, if you are a speed reader, you'll be able to solve more questions in given time span. Below we discuss, how one can increase the reading speed and quickly understand the text.

The most important trick about speed reading is to know what information you want from a document before you start reading it: if you only want an outline of the issue that the document discusses, then you can skim the document quickly and extract only the essential facts. If you need to understand the real detail of the document, then you need to read it slowly enough to understand it fully.

Technical Issues

The reading speed can be enhanced by following these technical improvements:

• Eye span - Increasing the number of words read in each block.


• Fixation - Reducing the length of time spent reading each block.


• Regression - Reducing the number of times your eyes skip back to a previous sentence.

Eye span
Try to increase the number of words that you read at a time: With practice, you'll find you read faster. You may also find that you can increase the number of words in each block by holding the text a little farther than usual from your eyes. The more words you can read in each block, the faster you will read.

Fixation
The minimum length of time needed to read each block is probably only a quarter of a second. By pushing yourself to reduce the time you take, you will get better at picking up information quickly. By working on reducing fixation time for a week or so, you will realise that your reading speed has increased to a great extent.

Regression
Try to reduce the number of times that your eyes skip back to a previous sentence, run a pointer along the line as you read. This could be a finger, or a pen or pencil. Your eyes will follow the tip of your pointer, smoothing the flow of your reading. The speed at which you read using this method will largely depend on the speed at which you move the pointer.

Try to read a daily newspaper and follow these tips and after 10-11 days, you'll observe that your reading speed has almost doubled.

Online tools are also available to test your reading speed e.g. One is available here.

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Efficient Reading Practice for comprehension

Comprehension is one of the main portion of any entrance or selection test. The key to succeed in this area is efficient reading. With efficient reading, you'll be able to answer the questions that follow the comprehension easily and will also be able to save time and attempt more questions to have an edge over others.
The points given below illustrate the qualities of a good and efficient reader.

1. Good readers look over the text at first and note the structure of the text and the sections that might be useful to their reading goal.
   


2. Good readers usually make predictions of what is about to come next.
   


3. Good readers read selectively and decide what to read quickly, what to read carefully or what not to read.
   


4. The compare and assimilate their prior knowledge with the given text.
   


5. They think about the belief, intentions and style of the author of the text.
   


6. They observe their understanding of the text and adjust their reading accordingly.
   


7. Good readers make efforts to determine the meaning of unacquainted words and concepts in the text.
   


8. Good readers not only process the text during reading but also during short breaks taken while reading the text and even after completing the reading.
   

Comprehension is both time consuming and complex activity, but if you practice efficient reading then comprehension will become both prolific and fulfilling.

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