Does Speed Reading Actually Work?

The ability to speed read may sound like an appealing skill in a prospective employee or a helpful tool for a student, but is faster reading necessarily better? And if someone claims they can speed read, are they also able to comprehend and retain what they’ve read? That’s the kicker. In fact, despite the popularity of speed reading programs, many cognitive scientists doubt that it’s even possible.

Although reading speed, processing ability, and working memory vary significantly among individuals, a skilled reader can read approximately 200 to 300 words per minute. Elizabeth Schotter, a psychology professor at the University of South Florida, says that “speeding up this process while retaining accuracy is almost impossible.” Research also casts doubt on purported speed reading techniques such as reading in a zigzag pattern or suppressing your "inner voice." Contrary to their intended effect, those techniques may actually impair fluency and make texts harder to comprehend. For example, reading comprehension dropped significantly in a study in which people hummed in an effort to eliminate their inner voice.

Schotter maintains that the ability to speed read boils down to simply skimming texts. This may provide the key ideas in a text, but it won't help you retain important details. So while it's possible to learn to get through material more quickly, your understanding of what you've read will suffer.

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