7 Ways to Gauge Your Reading Speed

With no more fluff I present to you seven different methods to measure your reading speed in words-per-minute rate. Some of them are easy, some exact, some rough. I summarize advantages and disadvantages of each.

1. Tools

First of all you can use free tools available on the Net. I recommend
http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/technology-research-centers/ereaders/speed-reader/
OR http://legge.psych.umn.edu/mnread/DEMO_RS/

I’m sure there is also a multitude of premium tools.

Advantages:

• It’s super-easy to use those tools. You have the result given on the plate in no time, breaking no sweat

Disadvantages:

• Reading from the screen is slower than from the paper, so the measurement is skewed. Like with everything else, the eggheads can’t agree how much slower it is. The numbers they give vary from 0% to 30%
• Another problem is that those tools have usually the same set of texts for gauging purposes. So you can use each tool a limited number of times before you know them all

2. Exact and manual method

– prepare a stopwatch
– choose a text to read, at least one page, but no more than 5 pages; you can’t know it in advance (it must be new to you)
– start the stopwatch and read the text fast enough to comprehend the meaning; stop the stopwatch when you finish
– count the number of words in the text (it’s usually 250 to 400 words per page)
– divide the number of words by the number of seconds
– multiply the result by 60
and now you know your words-per-minute reading speed.

Advantages:
• You read longer than a minute (if you read at average speed it’s about 4-5 minutes) so the measurement is more likely to show your actual reading skill.
• It’s really hard to be more exact than that

Disadvantages:

• It’s very time consuming

3. Abbreviated, exact and manual method

– prepare a timer
– choose a text to read, long enough to read it for one minute; you can’t know it in advance (it must be new to you)
– set the timer for one minute
– start the timer and read the text fast enough to comprehend the meaning; finish when the timer goes off
– count the number of words in the text
and now you know your words per minute reading speed.

Advantages:
• It’s quite fast – you use only one minute for reading and about 1-2 more minutes to count the words
• It’s accurate, you know the exact number of words read and you read from paper


Disadvantages:

• You are able to focus better in a short period of time, so the measurement may not reflect your average reading skills
• It’s a little fuss

4. Rough and fast method

– prepare a timer
– choose a text to read, long enough to read it for one minute; you can’t know it in advance (it must be new to you)
– set the timer for one minute
– start the timer and read the text fast enough to comprehend the meaning; finish when the timer goes off
– count the number of lines in the text you’ve just read (for example, 35 lines read)
– count the number of words on five consecutive full lines of print. (for example, 55 words on five lines)
– divide this by 5 to give average number of words per line. (for example, 11 words per line)
– multiple the number of lines you have read by the average words per line (for example, 35*11=385 words per minute)

Advantages:

• you read on paper
• It takes no more than 2 minutes

Disadvantages:

• It’s less exact than 2 previous methods
• You are able to focus better in a short period of time, so the measurement may not reflect your average reading skills

5. Big data chunks method

– prepare a stopwatch
– take a book or text you’ve never read before
– start the stopwatch and read for at least 10 minutes; the longer you read, the better; stop the stopwatch when you finish
– count the number of pages you’ve just read
– count the number of words on one page; eventually count the number of words on 10 consecutive full lines of print, divide this number by 10 to get average number of words per line, count the number of lines per page, multiply number of words per line per number of lines on the page – that’s how to calculate the number of words on one page
– multiply the number of words on one page per number of pages read
– divide the overall numbers of words read by the number of seconds showed by the stopwatch (you need to convert minutes to seconds first)
– multiply the result by 60
and now you know your words per minute reading speed.

Advantages:

• You read on paper
• You read for an extended period of time, so you gauge your real level of reading skills, not the one in a period of short, focused effort
• You can do it at your usual reading session, on your new lecture

Disadvantages:

• It’s not an exact method, you don’t count the number of words read, you estimate them

6. Atomic accurate method

– find a book or text you’ve never read before in the digital form; you must be able to copy-paste the text, so not all PDFs and no scans are applicable
– print the fragment of the text long enough to read it for 10 minutes; the longer the better
– prepare a stopwatch
– start the stopwatch and read the text; stop the stopwatch when you finish; mark the place in the text where you finished reading
– go back to the digital form of the text and copy the fragment you’ve just read to the new document in the editor which shows the number of words (for example MS Words)
– divide the overall numbers of words read by the number of seconds showed by the stopwatch (you need to convert minutes to seconds first)
– multiply the result by 60
and now you know your words per minute reading speed.

Advantages:

• You know exactly how fast you read


Disadvantages:

• It’s a lot more fuss than just taking the stopwatch, the book and reading

7. Easy and rough method

– prepare a stopwatch
– take a book or text you’ve never read before in the digital form; you must be able to transfer the text somehow to the editor program with the word count option; reading in the browser window is the best example of this method usage
– start the stopwatch and read the text; stop the stopwatch when you finish; mark the place in the text where you finished reading; the longer you read, the better;
– copy the fragment you’ve just read to the new document in the editor which shows the number of words (for example MS Words)
– divide the overall numbers of words read by the number of seconds showed by the stopwatch (you need to convert minutes to seconds first)
– multiply the result by 60
and now you know your words per minute reading speed.

Advantages:
• It’s easy, especially if you use your everyday tools (eg. I read a lot in Word and in Firefox on the computer screen, measuring my reading speed is just the matter of copy-paste the text to the another document)
• You can measure your reading in the extended period of time, not the short focused reading effort

Disadvantages:

• You read from the screen, so the result is slower than your real “paperback capacity”
• You need additional resources – an editor and sometimes the means to transfer the text from your mobile device to desktop computer

Summary

The results you get can vary from one test to another. They are dependent not only on your level of reading skill, but also on external conditions: the lightning, the level of noise and so on. Even your mood and the kind of text on which you are taking a test can influence the results. My reading speed varies from 360 to 510 words per minute, the difference is huge, isn’t it?

Recommendation

If you practice speed reading I recommend to gauge your reading speed at least once a week. No matter which method you choose try to gauge your speed in the same circumstances each time, for example in the morning next to the window, with a lot of sunlight.
Then your results are comparable over time.