People today read no faster than they did a century ago. Reading, as taught in schools, is archaic and stops around the third grade. Few schools teach advanced reading techniques. As a result, the reading speed most people attain varies from about 100 words per minute for technical material to 240 words per minute for light-reading material. Reading a 400 page novel takes about 12 hours, while a similar size textbook would take over 30 hours. Since reading takes so much time, many people avoid it in favor of TV or video games which are fast paced. However, people with slower reading skills are at a severe disadvantage in today’s fast-paced information age.

A study of American 8th graders by the US Department of Education in 1998 found that 66% were unable to summarize what they read! Although they averaged over 21 hours a week watching television, the time spend reading was less than 2 hours a week. In 1991, 40% of all households did not buy a single book. With so little general interest and commitment to reading it is easy to gain a competitive advantage at school and in the work place by becoming a fast and accurate reader.

Learning speed reading is almost a necessity today with the rapidly increasing amount of information that one must absorb, whether at school or at work. Increasing one’s reading speed ten-fold means that a 400 page novel could be finished in a little over an hour. Students can get far more accomplished during their study time, giving them a significant advantage over their peers. Finishing their assignments faster also gives them more free time for other activities,

Why do most people read slowly?

Most people learn to read the way young children read - either letter-by-letter, or word-by-word. For most adults, this is probably not the case - think about how your eye muscles are moving now. You will probably find that you are fixing your eyes on one block of words,  then moving your eyes to the next block of words, and so on. You are reading blocks of words at a time, not individual words one-by-one. You may also notice that you do not always go from one block to the next: sometimes you may move back to a previous block if you are unsure about something.

 A poor reader will become bogged down, spending a lot of time reading small blocks of words. He or she will skip back often, losing the flow and structure of the text and overall understanding of the subject. This irregular eye movement will produce eye strain and make reading tiring. Poor readers tend to dislike reading, and may find it harder to concentrate and understand written information.

Most of us learned to read by sounding out the words. The trouble is, most of us never stopped. Sure, maybe we no longer audibly sound them out, or even move our lips, but in our heads we are "reading to ourselves." This bad habit is called sub-vocalization. To become a speed reader one must discard this habit.

A skilled reader will read many words in each block. He or she will only dwell on each block for an instant, and will then move on. Very rarely will the reader's eyes skip back to a previous block of words. This reduces the amount of work that the reader's eyes have to do. They also do not sub-vocalize. This increases the volume of information that can be covered in a period of time.

By speed reading you can read information more quickly and efficiently. You may also get a better understanding of it as you will hold more of it in short term memory.

What are your options?

There are speed reading schools and seminars. They are effective during the period you are taking the course and have access to their reading machines. The downside is that they are expensive. This is by necessity since they must pay the rent, staff salaries and large advertising budgets. You must attend at the scheduled course times which may not always be convenient. And when the course is over, you’re on your own.

The advantages of speed reading software are that it is inexpensive and always available for your use. You can continue to improve your reading speed at your own pace and timing, for as long as you desire. It only takes 15 minutes a day to dramatically increase your reading speed in a short time.

The speed reading course in the Student Power Pack utilizes both standard speed-reading techniques, as taught in the expensive courses, and additional technologies that synergistically combine to accelerate the learning process. It allows training at reading speeds up to 5,000 words per minute.

You are given the freedom to choose training material that is age appropriate and matches your interests. It can be light fiction, textbook, or technical documents.

The software consists of two main components. The first is the WordSpan screen which trains your peripheral vision to absorb larger blocks of words within a single eye movement. Pairs of words appear at increasing separations. You are taught a “soft eyes” approach that allow you take in more visual information at a time without an eye scanning movement that slows down your reading speed.

As you’ll see in our video, the main speed reading screen trains you using real reading material. You learn to take in larger and larger blocks of words at increasing speeds. You control both the number of words in a block and the speed at which this word block moves through the text. The linear movement of the word blocks trains your eye to move smoothly through the text without backwards movement to previous blocks. As your speed increases to a certain point, sub-vocalization becomes impossible and you give it up. Your reading speed is displayed in words per minute after each training session. This feedback (watching your reading speed increase from session to session) acts as a great motivator to continue your progress.

These tools are very powerful on their own, but the Power Pack allows you to uses its other features to significantly enhance your speed reading progress. Prior to a speed-reading session, you can use our Alpha State tool to go into an alpha brain-wave state that both relaxes you and increases your alertness. During the speed reading session, you can run on-screen subliminal learning messages and play our tailored background music to enhance your learning ability. Finally, our concentration tool teaches you to maintain a focused attention on the material you are reading for longer periods of time. No other speed reading course or software provides all these tools to assist you.

This combination of technologies makes the Power Pack a very powerful way to master speed reading as rapidly and effectively as possible. Don’t let the low price fool you. You get a powerful tutor who is available to train you any time you are ready.

If you haven’t already done so, watch the speed reading video now.