{"id":2990,"date":"2014-12-15T09:00:15","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T09:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/?p=2990"},"modified":"2015-04-14T20:25:16","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T20:25:16","slug":"speed-reading-how-it-can-help-you-ace-sat-critical-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/speed-reading-how-it-can-help-you-ace-sat-critical-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Speed Reading: How It Can Help You Ace SAT Critical Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

The critical reading section of the SAT can be especially terrifying if you\u2019re a slow reader. With so many passages to analyze and so many questions to answer, this section can quickly become overwhelming. But, despair not! For all you slow readers out there, there is alas a solution!<\/p>\n

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No. No, it\u2019s not pizza. Not this time. (That\u2019s getting a bit cheesy, to be honest.) The solution is: SPEED READING! Speed reading is a technique pioneered in the 1950\u2019s, which has recently found a spike in popularity.<\/p>\n

Basically, the average American reads around 200-300 words per minute. Most of this time, however, is taken up\u2014not by understanding the text\u2014but by moving from word to word.<\/p>\n

Speed reading eliminates efficiencies in reading, and surprisingly, you can learn to speed read while retaining comprehension levels.<\/p>\n

So. How do you gain access to this magical skill?! It\u2019s actually not as hard as you\u2019d think. Follow these easy tips, and if you want even more guidance, there are tons of more detailed guides online!<\/p>\n

Disclaimer:<\/strong> Though speed reading can really speed up your reading ability, you should make sure you aren\u2019t losing comprehension on the way. There are some critics of speed reading that claim you can\u2019t retain as much information when you\u2019re going over 500 words per minute. Therefore, you should try to restrain from training yourself to read too<\/em> quickly. This isn\u2019t a race. This tool can be great if you\u2019re running out of time, or if you\u2019re a little too slow of a reader for comfort, but like anything, it should be used with discretion. This technique\u2014like regular reading\u2014still requires your full concentration.<\/strong> Especially on the SAT.<\/p>\n

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Start to speed read!<\/h2>\n

1) Measure where you are!<\/strong><\/p>\n

A good place to start is to find out how slow or fast of a reader you are! This way you can more easily measure how much you should improve\u2014and even start setting goals. These websites have great tools to measure how many words per minute you can read as of now.<\/p>\n