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Concourse 2

Improve your reading speed

speedometer

How quickly do you need to read?

In your own language, you probably read about 250 to 300 words per minute.  In English you probably read a lot more slowly than that.
To read in English and understand a text, you need to get to 200 words per minute.
The exercises linked from this page will help you do that and read faster with better understanding.


2

Two ways to read

  1. By looking at the letters and pronouncing the word in your head.
    You probably do this with words you do not know, so, for example, when you see a word like
        tempestuous
    you will break the word into parts:
        t - e - m - p - e - s - t - u - o - u - s
    and try to say the word.
    More quickly, you can also look at the syllables and see:
        temp - est - u - ous
    This is a slow way to read but sometimes you must do this with new words.
  2. By looking at the word and knowing it at once.
    You can do this with words you know so, for example, when you look at this word:
        wonderful
    you probably see the whole word and do not have to break it up.
    This is a much faster way to read.

exercises

The exercises

Begin with the easy exercises and work your way up!
There is a time limit for all the exercises.  If you do not finish in time, try again until you can do the exercise in the time limit.

Hit on the Go back button to return to this page.

Recognising words Exercise 1 (easy)
Exercise 2 (more difficult)
Exercise 3 (difficult)
Recognising phrases Exercise 1 (easy)
Exercise 2 (more difficult)
Exercise 3 (difficult)
Recognising sentences Exercise 1 (easy)
Exercise 2 (more difficult)
Exercise 3 (difficult)