Is Speed Reading Good for Comprehension? (Helpful Examples)

Speed reading involves utilizing your peripheral vision and eliminating subvocalization (silent speech) to scan blocks of text. Speed reading can not only save you time, but it can also help improve the comprehension of what you read and the ability to recall that information.?

Speed reading can help you consume large volumes of text and understand it in a short amount of time. Professionals like doctors, lawyers, research scholars, and pretty much anyone can improve their reading comprehension and retain more information utilizing this reading technique.?

In this post, we will talk about the benefits of speed reading in improving reading comprehension, followed by some useful tips that will help you improve your recall.?

So, let’s get straight to the point!?

What is reading comprehension??

Reading comprehension is why you want to read anything. Comprehending involves reading a piece of text, processing it, and extracting its meaning to understand what you are reading.?

When you comprehend something while you read, you don’t exactly remember the sequence of the words. Rather, you form a mental model of the information being conveyed by integrating the sense of what the words say into a meaningful picture.?

Good comprehension is crucial for reading to serve its purpose. After all, you are reading something not just for the act of it, but to understand and recall it in the future.?

Going through large tomes in a short time is useless if you are unable to understand what the text says and, more importantly, not able to recall what you read.?

Once you have mastered the art of speed reading without losing comprehension, you might want to check out our course on?maximizing memory?so you can recall the information you comprehended.?

Does speed-reading lower comprehension?

There is no point in being able to read fast if it compromises the ability to comprehend the information. Some people might think that when you are speed reading, you will skip several words leading to a loss in comprehension. However, this?notion is incorrect.

Let’s take a small example to understand the relationship between reading speed and comprehension. When a student reads a textbook, they tend to read every word thinking that it will help them understand and remember the information better.?

However, when the same students read novels or other extra-curricular books, they tend to skim through the book and read it at an increased speed. Despite reading the book at a greater rate, they can still follow the story and understand what is being said in the novel. You might have had a few similar experiences yourself.?

But why is it so? The simplest answer to this question is that most words in a sentence are not essential to understand the meaning it is trying to convey. Consequently, if you can train yourself to scan a text block rather than going through each word, you can still get the information you want. It means you can save time while reading without losing the ability to comprehend the text.

We can glean from the example above that speed reading does not reduce your ability to comprehend. However, it must be pointed out that speed reading might not be a good solution if you read a scholarly text like a research paper, where you need to internalize very specific information regarding a complex topic.?

Keep reading here...