MagicLearning Tips “How to read faster”

Preparing for exams or papers often requires reading hundreds and hundreds of documents. And this not only involves a lot of time (which on the eve of a deadline or exams is often tricky to get out), but it is also exhausting for our brain and even our eyesight. That’s why today I want to tell you some magic learning tips that I think can help you read faster, learn better, and, above all, save time.

Tips for reading faster

Speed reading challenges our brains to work better and faster. As we learn to read more quickly, we force our head to absorb more information faster than it is used to. It improves not only our memory but also our brain’s functionality. How to read more quickly?

The miracle pointer

If you look back to the time when you were still learning to read, you may remember how you used your finger to guide your eyes to the words you wanted to read.

Well. The miracle pointer technique involves increasing your reading speed by using a pen, pencil, or simply your finger as a “pointer” and quickly moving it under the words you are reading. The trick is to move it steadily and at a slightly faster speed than you usually read. It will force your eyes to “chase” the pointer. The faster you move it, the quicker your reading will be.

Be careful. Please don’t overdo it at first. Otherwise, you may not understand anything. To be effective, you have to increase the speed at which you move your pointer gradually.

From words to sentences

When we learn to read, we get into the bad habit of reading words individually. It is perfectly understandable when we are learning, as we are afraid of not having understood the terms correctly, and we feel more confident saying each word in our head as we read, but when we are older, this habit slows down our reading a lot.

How to stop this bad habit? Instead of concentrating on single words, try to catch groups of 3 or 4 words or even whole sentences. The trick is to take advantage of peripheral vision from the beginning to the end of each line, focusing on blocks of words.

Initial scanning

Regardless of what you want to read, try to preview the document or book and skim the text before reading it in full. It will give you an idea of which sections of the text you can skip entirely and help you identify where the critical information is.

You can scan headlines, names, numbers, tables, charts, graphs, images, excerpts, tables of contents, or do a quick scan over the page to get a first idea of the subject matter. In non-fiction books, reading the first 3-5 sentences of each section usually provides a quick overview of the most important ideas and facts. Remember: a good reader already knows what to expect.

Resist regression

A bad habit we tend to have when reading is to go back and start over when we get halfway through a page and realize we haven’t assimilated what we’ve read. Or you come across a particular term or name that you have absolutely no recollection of reading before. It’s so common that most of us do it without even realizing it.

The reason for this is that your brain is wandering and has lost focus. To change this, we have to rekindle interest in what we are reading. When our brain wanders, it is because we have become “passive.” To avoid this, try to keep your mind active when you are reading by asking yourself questions about what you are reading: “But what does this mean?”, “How does this relate?”, “What am I looking for?” or stop for a minute every so often and ask yourself, “What did I understand from this?”.

Practice and consistency

Speed reading is also about practice. Some people mistakenly believe that speed reading is impossible to learn. Others say that this way of reading makes them not enjoy the text or not understand it well. These views fail to consider one thing: speed reading is a scientifically grounded habit that takes practice to achieve. Try timing yourself when you read and try to improve the result little by little