Need help to increase my reading speed for step 1

[NoWheyBruh]

I know I may be get too a head of myself (still haven't started med school), but I really want to increase my reading speed for step. ( I read ridiculously slow)

I was able to get away with skimming on the verbal sections of the SAT and MCAT, but I don't think that will fly on step.

I've decided that besides from just vegetating this summer before med school starts, I might as well try to increase my reading speed.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

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[jqueb29]

I don't really think that's something you can do. "Increasing your reading speed" when it comes to Step really just means that you have studied enough to know what's going on in the question without having to sit there and think about every little thing. Another big thing is that the questions NBME writes often contain a ton of unnecessary stuff, and you should first always just jump to the very end to see what the question actually is.

But if you haven't even started med school, this is my advice: 1. just enjoy this summer. Seriously, don't try to improve anything. Med school is a slog with precious few breaks; don't waste any time in your last break before it starts. 2. study hard when school starts. You're not going to increase your reading speed per se, but you can essentially do so indirectly by having a mastery of the material.

 

[Crayola227]

try googling I know there's courses and strategies for learning to read faster

unfortunately some of it is sorta how your brain is so good luck

I wouldn't waste a lot of time on it though

 

[Marine2MD]

Execuread is a program that I was able to sample with the military. Took me up to reading roughly 15,000 words per minute with a 70% retention rate when reading from a hardcopy (paper type) source in a week long program. There is a lot of work associated with it and the upkeep isn't bad. You have to keep on it in order to maintain though, I stopped doing it once I started O-chem/Biochem and have dropped back down to roughly 6,000 wpm with an 85% retention rate. Couldn't tell you what my wpm rate is or was on a computer screen, never had it timed and the process is a little different.

The Execuread program is focused on undoing how you were taught to read and trying to alter your process. Does not work for all, only 6 of us out of the 20 person class showed significant improvement, some showed some and a few actually regressed.

 

[Espressso]

http://fourhourworkweek.com/2009/07/30/speed-reading-and-accelerated-learning/

http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/06/09/speed-reading/

Check those out.

 

[sliceofbread136]

Huh? Step questions require less reading than the mcat, there are no passages. You are being neurotic here

 

[aalamruad]

Execuread is a program that I was able to sample with the military. Took me up to reading roughly 15,000 words per minute with a 70% retention rate

15,000 words per minute..? That's gotta be a typo

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[parrotlet2016]

Simple: read more. Read higher level materials such as scientific journals/quality newspaper articles/etc.

 

[Marine2MD]

15,000 words per minute..? That's gotta be a typo

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Nope, I increased significantly. Would go through about 40-45 pages in a novel in a minute a week after the course. I kept doing the exercises each day for an additional week and followed their guidelines. My retention rate was not the greatest and I would not be reading for enjoyment but that was where I maxed out. A week afterwards without practice and maintenance my skills dropped down to about 10,000 wpm. A girl I went through the course with was roughly doing 20,000 wpm with a 90% retention rate

 

[Espressso]

40-45 pages of a novel in one minute? What?

 

[mistafab]

What type of sorcery is this? Dude on Execuread said he could read up to 250 words per second, sustained for a minute.

How is this possible? That is absolutely insane.

Edit: I just read a wiki on speed reading (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_reading) that says the average is 700 words per minute for the speed readers that use visual reading techniques. I think the guy meant minute, not second.

 

[Marine2MD]

Yeah, you rework your mind to absorb lots of data at a single time. When you read words in a book, you may skip over a misspelt word in the middle of a sentence as long as the beginning and ending letters are in the correct location. You do this because you are not reading every single letter, you are reading portions of the word and then moving on. The program teaches you to skip reading a single word, instead focusing on grouping so it is two or three words. Then sentences, two sentences, paragraphs. Running your finger along each line, then working into a Z pattern, then an S pattern. As long as you have a good method of turning pages it isn't that bad.

If memory serves correctly, there are two women who read above 75,000 wpm with 99% retention. There was a video they showed of one girl being tested and she was reading off of a wall projection. It is possible, just need to retrain your mind and spend a lot of time (3-5 times per day) practicing to increase or maintain.

 

[mistafab]

It sounds really cool - don't get me wrong. However, I think you again mistook the rate at which this person was reading. 75000 WPM means reading 1250 words per second. That is not possible. That is almost as many words that are in the entire wiki article that I linked ON speed reading, done in a second. There is absolutely no way. The article itself says that the world champion speed reader is Anne Jones, with "4,700 words per minute with 67% comprehension." There is absolutely no way that someone is reading 15000 words per minute at 99% retention or that person would be on that wiki post.

Yeah, you rework your mind to absorb lots of data at a single time. When you read words in a book, you may skip over a misspelt word in the middle of a sentence as long as the beginning and ending letters are in the correct location. You do this because you are not reading every single letter, you are reading portions of the word and then moving on. The program teaches you to skip reading a single word, instead focusing on grouping so it is two or three words. Then sentences, two sentences, paragraphs. Running your finger along each line, then working into a Z pattern, then an S pattern. As long as you have a good method of turning pages it isn't that bad.

If memory serves correctly, there are two women who read above 75,000 wpm with 99% retention. There was a video they showed of one girl being tested and she was reading off of a wall projection. It is possible, just need to retrain your mind and spend a lot of time (3-5 times per day) practicing to increase or maintain.

 

[Marine2MD]

That wiki post has to be wrong, Guinness Record is higher than that from 1990 at 25k wpm and 100% retention. That Wiki article has no citation for that and with Wiki being easily manipulated I wouldn't accept that for any sort of fact.

 

[mistafab]

Regardless, after a little study on the topic, here is a quick overview OP of what this guy is talking about (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-ferriss/speed-reading_b_5317784.html). At the end of the article, the author says "Final recommendations: If used for study, it is recommended that you not read three assignments in the time it would take you to read one, but rather, read the same assignment three times for exposure and recall improvement, depending on relevancy to testing." Anyway, maybe this type of technique could help you read faster OP.

That wiki post has to be wrong, Guinness Record is higher than that from 1990 at 25k wpm and 100% retention. That Wiki article has no citation for that and with Wiki being easily manipulated I wouldn't accept that for any sort of fact.

 

[Espressso]

Regardless, after a little study on the topic, here is a quick overview OP of what this guy is talking about (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-ferriss/speed-reading_b_5317784.html). At the end of the article, the author says "Final recommendations: If used for study, it is recommended that you not read three assignments in the time it would take you to read one, but rather, read the same assignment three times for exposure and recall improvement, depending on relevancy to testing." Anyway, maybe this type of technique could help you read faster OP.

I'm a huge fan of Tim Ferriss and used his speed reading strategies before. They work. Big time.