Reading Speed Tool
Margeret Fuller, a famous American journalist, and first full-time American female book reviewer quoted: “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader”
Why is reading important?
In today’s day and age, there has been a rise in the number of e-readers. Reading in any way is extremely important. Having a habit of reading is found to be helpful for people of all age groups.
Given below are some benefits of reading:
1. Enhances command over the language
Reading will improve the way you speak. It improves your spoken proficiency in the language you read. It makes you confident while speaking the language and will help you to think faster and speak more correctly.
2. Improves your vocabulary
Having a good vocabulary will make you more clear about what exactly you want to speak and enables you to understand what the other person wants to convey. The more you read, the more new words you come across, and the vaster your vocabulary becomes.
Vocabulary Building with “Lambherghini”
3. Helps to discover new things
Having a habit of reading will increase your knowledge. Reading newspapers will make you aware of current affairs, reading informative material will make you aware of a lot of new things, reading educational material helps you to excel in academics, reading will definitely introduce you to at least one new thing that you didn’t know.
4. Develops your mind
Reading is like an exercise to the brain. Reading and simultaneously understanding the content helps to develop the mind and enhance its abilities. It also enables you to become a good listener. There are a lot of good speakers in the world but there are only a few good listeners. Being a good listener makes you stand out from the crowd.
5. Enhances your imagination power
Often while reading, you end up imagining the content. Reading can make you travel the world and can even take you to a new fantasy world through your imagination. You can be an emperor or a pilot or whatever you wish to be.
6. Reduces Stress
Reading is a great stress buster. No matter how tiring your day was, reading can be a great source to seek pleasure. Reading can be a great escape for all your problems. Reading a great story will take you to another world which will lead you to forget your problems and stay in the present.
7. Improves your memory
While reading you end up remembering the characters, the plot, the story about the book. This helps in improving your memory. The more you read, the more you remember, and the stronger your memory becomes.
8. Makes you more focused
In our everyday lives, we have a lot of things to do. This leads to us not being able to focus on one single activity. But while reading, you are only into your book and focusing on the story. Reading while traveling and in your free time can make you calm and more determined.
9. Gives you peace
Reading calms you down and makes you serene. Certain books or subjects that you read about can bring you inner peace and make you stable. Like reading comics can make you feel light, reading fantasy can take you away from this world and reading spiritual content can give you newer ideas to life.
10. Improves writing skills
Reading introduces you to new words and different styles of writing. You can pick up the best of words and styles and write content that makes you stand out. You can learn a lot and use the other writer’s way of writing as an inspiration.
What is speed reading?
There are various types of reading. One of which is speed reading which makes you read faster and understand quicker. Speed reading means mainly glancing through the text and getting an idea of what the text is about. Nowadays, our lives have become so monotonous revolving around our profession and our education that we don’t have time to read. The solution to this is speed reading. It helps you to read quickly and on the go. Students can use the technique to know the concepts quickly.
How to learn speed reading?
According to studies, an average person can read about 200-250 words per minute. But, this can be easily improved and increased to as much as triple to your current reading speed using the speed reading technique. This can let you read a lot more books and a large amount of content.
Here’s how you can learn speed reading which will enable you to read faster:
1. Don’t read the text out loud
Reading the text out loud will consume a lot more time. Read it in your mind. It is a myth that reading the text out loud can make you understand it better. Reading it in mind will enable you to read a lot more of the content. If you are unable to do so try eating chewing gum, which will make your task of reading it in mind simpler.
2. Use an object while reading
Often while reading without an object, you may end up missing upon a line or words. It may even cause visual regression. Use your finger, pen, pencil or a marker. Force the object against the words as you read. You will not miss upon words and lines if you do so.
3. Set the pace faster
Don’t restrict to a speed. Try reading faster. You will realize that you can read faster than you think. You may find it difficult initially, but as you practice you will be able to read with a faster pace.
4. Try skimming the text
Skimming is mainly focusing on the main points and main words through which you can know what the text is about without actually reading it completely. This will shorten the process and give you an idea about the text quickly.
CATKing Reading Speed Tool (RST)
We at CATKing, have come up with a tool that will help you speed up your reading. The Reading Speed Tool (RST) will enhance your speed reading technique and will assist you to understand the text faster. It is extremely useful for almost all the competitive exams as all of them have a huge number of marks allocated to the comprehension section. The Reading Speed Tool will train you to read the text faster in order to save more time and complete the exam within time. The tool helps you to comprehend the text quicker.
How to use the Reading Speed Tool (RST)
Click on ‘New’ to add your custom text; in-case you don’t want to, it will use the default text on the website. Once done click on ‘play’ (highlighted in green) button to start reading. Reading speed can also be set according to your preference from the right sidebar.
This is the right sidebar which can be used to set tools according to your preference
Click on ‘new’. A white box as shown in the above image will pop up. You can paste the text that you want to speed read in the box.
Click on the ‘Play’ button on the right sidebar. You can start reading the text along with the words highlighted in yellow. The yellow highlighted box will move according to the speed that you have set.
The following things can be set according to one’s preference using the right sidebar.
- Words per minute: You can set the speed at which the words will move forward; It is suggested to start with low speed and gradually increase it. Increase the speed when you feel you have mastered your current speed.
- Words per fixations: Using this tool, the words will be highlighted to set your eye span. Initially starting with a small span and eventually increasing the same will be more effective.
- Fixation points: This tool will adjust how long/short the highlighted word should move forward. Increasing it as you excel will help you learn the technique better.
- Font Size: This tool can be used to adjust the size of the fonts based on your convenience. You can start with big size fonts, however, eventually, use a standard size to make sure you are used to smaller font sizes as well.
- Space between the lines: This tool will set the space between the lines to avoid confusion while reading and make the words more visible to read. You can keep it more during the initial stage but later on, reduce it.
