College Student Success: Improve Your Reading Speed and Comprehension

One of my goals for 2009 is to increase in my college related topics. Many readers are college students and I want to help with tips that I used that worked. If you have any ideas for future topics, please contact me.

Photo Credit: The Master Shake Signal

Learn to read faster

Readng faster is one goal when you’re a college students, especially if you attend full-time. The amount of labs work, papers, and projects given to you eat up a huge amount of your time. It’s important to read faster and comprehend the material.

You can improve your reading speed by widening your visual lens. Don’t just look at one word at a time, try to group words together. Start off with three words at a time and continue until you only need two to three glances to read per line. Instead of lowering your comprehension, this technique will help you understand the main points much easier.

Mind Tools offers a description of your goals for each process.

• Increasing the number of words in each block:
  This needs a conscious effort. Try to expand 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 further from your eyes. The more words you can read in each block, the faster you will read!

• Reducing fixation time:
  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. Again, this is a matter of practice and confidence.

• Reducing skip-back:
  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.

Take a reading speed test to see how fast you are currently reading. After you’ve practiced speed reading for a couple of weeks, test yourself again.

Photo Credit:  helmet13

How to improve your memory is when reading

• Quickly scan the chapter to get an idea of the main points. Don’t start reading the paragraphs, you’re just trying to an overview of the topic.
• Review the subtopics after you completed of them. Don’t wait until the end of the chapter to review. What was the main point of the last section? Highlight all the main points.
• Write in the margin a quick note of how this section is related to what you are ready know. Studies point now that learning by association tends to improve retention. In fact it has been noted that reviewing material immediately after studying will increase your memory.
• Review again right after you finished the whole chapter. If you want to test yourself use the chapter review questions provided in the text and see how much you remember. Writing down your answers on a separate sheet of paper for later.
• Review again in a day or two to retain information. Without looking at your last answers try going through the chapter review again.

Most of your classes would benefit if you increased your reading speed and comprehension. If you do, you may also want to consider using the time you saved to tutor a classmate for some extra cash and to keep your class material fresh in your mind. If you have any suggestions or ideas, leave a comment or join me today on Flexo’s forums to discuss.

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