How to Study

What Decreases Speed/Comprehension
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Reading aloud or moving your lips when you read. 
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Reading mechanically—using your finger to follow words,
moving your head as you read. 
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Applying the wrong kind of reading to the material. 
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Lacking sufficient vocabulary. 
To Increase Reading Speed
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Focus your attention and concentration. 
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Eliminate outside distractions. 
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Provide for an uncluttered, comfortable environment. 
Chapter 3 
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How to Read and Remember
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Don’t get hung up on single words or sentences, but do look up
(in the dictionary) key words that you must understand in
order to grasp an entire concept. 
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Try to grasp overall concepts rather than attempting to under-
stand every detail. 
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If you find yourself moving your lips when you read (vocal -
ization), practice reading with a pen or some other (nontoxic,
nonsugary) object in your mouth. If it falls out while you’re
reading, you know you have to keep working! 
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Work on building your vocabulary. You may be reading slowly
(and/or having trouble understanding what you read) because
your vocabulary is insufficient for your reading level. 
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Read more…and more often. Reading is a habit that improves
with practice. 
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Avoid rereading words or phrases. According to one recent
study, an average student reading at 250 words per minute
rereads 20 times per page. The slowest readers reread the
most. 
To Increase Your Comprehension
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Try to make the act of learning sequential— comprehension 
is built by adding new knowledge to existing knowledge.
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Review and rethink at designated points in your reading. 
Test yourself to see if the importance of the material is 
getting through. 
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If things don’t add up, discard your conclusions. Go back,
reread, and try to find an alternate conclusion. 
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Summarize what you’ve read, rephrasing it in your notes in
your own words. 
How to Study
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Most importantly, read at the speed that’s comfortable for you.
Though I can read extremely fast, I choose to read novels much 
more slowly so I can appreciate the author’s wordplay. Likewise, any
material that I find particularly difficult to grasp slows me right down.
I read newspapers, popular magazines, and the like very fast, seeking
to grasp the information but not worrying about every detail.
Should you take some sort of speed reading course, especially if your
current speed level is low?
Reading for speed has some merit—many people who are slow read-
ers read as little as possible, simply because they find it so tedious and
boring. But just reading faster is not the answer to becoming a good
reader.
I can’t see that such a course could particularly hurt you in any way.
I can also, however, recommend that you simply keep practicing read-
ing, which will increase your speed naturally.