What's a good reading speed?
A good reading speed for a story is anywhere from 200 to 320 words a minute. The average is about 260. Nonfiction is a little slower, at about 238 words a minute and mostly 175 to 300, because its words tend to be longer.
The averages come from Marc Brysbaert's 2019 review of 190 reading studies with 18,573 readers, published in the Journal of Memory and Language.
How is your reading speed worked out?
Your speed is the story's word count divided by the time between Start and Done. Say you read “The lemon cake,” all 287 words, in one minute and 10 seconds. That's 287 words in 70 seconds, or 246 words a minute, a normal pace for a story. Read a second story for a steadier number.
Is 400 words a minute fast?
Yes, 400 words a minute is faster than most adults read a story. But it only counts if you understood it. Researchers who reviewed the science of speed reading found a trade-off between how fast you read and how well you understand, so you're unlikely to read two or three times as fast as usual and understand as much. At 400 with two or three questions right, that's fast reading. With one or none, it was probably a skim, and the same goes for 700, nearly three times the average.
Why is my reading speed lower than average?
Knowing questions are coming can slow you down. If you combed the story for every detail, you were studying it, not reading it. Read the next one the way you'd read a novel on the couch.
Language plays a part too. The 2019 review found that people read more slowly in English when it isn't their first language. If that's you, compare your stories with each other, not with the 260 average.
And if you got all three questions right, a slower speed just means you read carefully. That's a good place to start, because speed is the part you can build.
How can you read faster?
Read more, and grow your vocabulary. The same speed reading review says the way to read faster without losing the meaning is to practice reading and build your language skills.
Elevate has reading games built for that kind of practice:
- Processing works on your reading speed while making sure you don't lose the meaning.
- Connotation helps you understand meaning and tone as you read.
- Agility builds the vocabulary you need for advanced books and articles.
The games adapt to your progress, keeping you challenged as you build your skills. You can do one three-game workout every day for free, and Elevate Premium unlocks all 40+ games, the reading games included. Choose the yearly plan to start with a seven-day free trial.
Do you want more to practice with? Start with how to read faster and remember more, and then improve your vocabulary without making it a chore.