While studying and practicing can help improve test taking scores, there is something more important, especially for success on the SAT.  Because a large part of the test focuses on reading and writing skills, extensive vocabulary is a must.  This can be gained through practice.  There are lists of good vocab in SAT study books.  There are “word of the day” calendars and emails, and you can buy flash cards and study guides.  The best way to improve vocabulary, however, is to read.  By reading, I do not mean pulp, or Tom Clancy and Danielle Steel.  I mean classic books.  Authors like Dickens and Hugo can be difficult to tackle in any situation, especially six weeks before the SAT.  Even more fast-paced books such as The Three Musketeers and the Lord of the Rings Series (yeah, the books, seriously read them) can be difficult to get through.  The main point should be to focus on the vocabulary usage in the writing.

The chosen book should be by an author who really knows his or her English (for example, Tolkien was an English professor).  Fantasy and science fiction books, however, such as Tolkien’s or Herbert’s (Dune) are not the most appropriate because they may confuse some students with their made up words (character names, places).  Because of these, students with little experience in literature might confuse these made up words with real words or be unable to find good context clues.  For these reasons, works of historical fiction, biography, or simple novels would be better.  They provide normal writing structures, vocabulary, and experience in how English writing should sound (for proofreading skills).

To a recent tutee, I suggested reading “Twilight” after hearing my mother read it to my reluctant little brother.  She had to stop every few minutes to explain a word’s meaning or a metaphor to him.  Although the book does not have the most complex vocabulary, it does have the necessary depth to instill new words into a reader who is paying attention.  I suggested this book to the tutee because she, like many high school juniors, does not have much time to dedicate to reading.  For this reason, “Twilight” is appropriate because it is enjoyable, as well as being not too long or involved.

Although getting a student to read before the test to increase vocabulary skills is a good idea, the problem begins with the student’s education before his or her arrival in the junior year.  The lack of reading experience of good literature is the cause of this problem for students.  While catching up in the months and weeks before the SAT is a necessary object for students, they would be better prepared by reading in the years before the SAT.  Additionally, their vocabulary would be much improved if their parents read to them at a young age.

In summary, flashcards and rote memorization are often neglected by students studying vocabulary.  Reading is a great alternative that can be enjoayble and effective at the same time.

Well, the short answer is a resounding YES.  But there is a longer answer as well:

The appeal of speed reading is that it will save you time on homework and give you more free time to do other things.  While this is true, the real benefit of speed reading compounds over the rest of your life.

If you are able to double your reading rate (which as we’ll see later is quite possible), then that means you could spend half as much time reading through homework material.  Or, looked at another way, you could read twice as much in the same amount of time!

Imagine how your life would be different if you were able to read an extra book every month for the rest of your life.  Thats an extra 600 books if you lived just another 50 years.  I’m sure you’ll agree that reading an extra 600 books could quite literally change your life.  It could give you a new idea, change your profession, help you make more money, have better relationships, keep up with world events, etc.

To top that off, many of the greatest minds historically seem to have been speed readers.  Presidents John F Kennedy and Jimmy Carter were famous speed readers, for example.

My Own Experience With Speed Reading

Several years ago I started investigating speed reading.  I was a bit skeptical, so instead of investing in a full course I purchased a book called Break Through Rapid Reading.  

The book takes you through a series of exercises, one per day for 30 days.  Let me be clear: the exercises are downright boring and repetitive at times, so it takes some real discipline to get through it without an actual class.  There were some days I skipped it and had to continue at a later date, so it took my a bit longer than a month.

However, at the end I was quite pleased to see that I had literally DOUBLED my reading rate, and this made it all worth it.  This meager investment of 15 minutes a day for a month will pay off for the rest of my life.  Although I haven’t measured it since I finished the book, I imagine my reading rate has continued to grow as I’ve used the same techniques learned in the book.

What about comprehension?

In case you are wondering (as I was), when speed reading you are NOT just skimming the material.  You are doing “speed comprehension” as well.  When your reading rate it measured in the book, your comprehension is tested along with it.  Therefore I can say with a fair degree of certainty that I literally doubled my reading rate without sacrificing comprehension.

How does it work?

The best way to describe it is with an analogy.

When you first started reading, you looked at each individual letter, right?  You probably had to sound out each one individually (“cuh….aahhh…..tuhhh…..CAT!”) just like every child does when first learning to read.

But after some time you were able to just take one glance at the word cat and you instantly recognized it.  Your eye was no longer focusing on each individual letter, it “just saw” all of them at once and read it.

Well in much the same way you were able to move from seeing individual letters to whole words, speed reading allows you to move from seeing individual words to whole phrases or sentences in one glance.

This doesn’t necessarily come naturally to most people, and you may think it sounds like something that only a few “genius” type people would be able to do.

But that is not really the case.  By doing the exercises diligently, and continuing to practice something that doesn’t quite seem natural, you can eventually retrain your brain on how it sees words and reads.

Very few people are physically or mentally unable to speed read, but I imagine a fairly large percentage are simply unwilling to invest the time it takes to see the results.

Given the benefits it will give you every day for the rest of your life, I feel that every student should learn to speed read at some point in your life.

There are many classes available which will certainly work and help keep you on track.  For a more inexpensive option you are welcome to try the book that I read called Break Through Rapid Reading by Peter Kump.

What has been your experience with speed reading (if any)?  What questions do you have about it?  Please leave us a comment below.