When I was young, I would inhale books. The Hunger Games, The Selection, Divergent; I was that kind of kid. Over summer break, all day long, my eyes would fly over pages, until I looked up and it was two hours later. I miss being ten years old, staying up past my bedtime with a flashlight under the covers, flying through Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix until I fell asleep holding it like it was a really stiff teddy bear. But now, I’m nineteen, and instead of flying over pages, my eyes bore into my laptop screen as I try to digest three hundred pages of Canvas readings a week. Sometimes, I look up and it’s suddenly dark outside, and I can’t remember a thing I’ve just read and it feels like my eyes are going to fall out of my head.
To fight the overwhelming mass of readings that comes with studying English and philosophy (am I a masochist?), I’ve developed a few handy tips and tricks to boost both comprehension and reading speed, in the hopes that I can free up some time to let my eyes heal during the day. The quicker I read, the more time I have to stare into the distance and question my choice of degree. Hopefully, these tricks will serve you, too!
- Trace the lines
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By simply running a pen or your finger across the lines as you read, you’ll stay better focused, you can nudge yourself to pick up the pace and you’ll stop skipping back with your eyes as frequently. I tend to use a knitting needle, and yes, my friends take candid videos of me scanning my pages like I’m a near-sighted ninety-year-old, but I’ve read three pages in the time they’ve spent snickering!
- quiet your mental voice
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The main reason we struggle to break through to speed reading is that we only read as fast as we can speak, since we’re speaking all the words silently in our heads. But you’ll notice, if you look at any word on this screen, you’ll be able to understand it without saying it in your head. So, if you practice removing that inner voice, your reading speed will reach unprecedented heights. Sure, it’s hard to maintain. But it’s a skill that can be developed, and with practice, you’ll be flying.
- summarize each page
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To prevent that annoying feeling of having read a page and remembered nothing, get in the habit of doing a little one-sentence summary at the end of each page. I only do this for academic reading, for denser, duller work. It keeps me focused, and it helps make reading less passive and more active.
- write down major takeaways
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Another comprehension tip for school readings is to write down major takeaways as you go. Have a little notebook where you write down chapter headings and bullet points. It’ll be so much easier to study or jog your memory later on. This tip is a lifesaver for weekly reading quizzes; reviewing my notes brings to the surface everything I’d read days before.
- Put Google to good use
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For really tough pieces of work, like philosophical texts or pre-19th century literature, I like to Google little online summaries. If the book is juicy and I don’t want spoilers, I’ll read the summary after each chapter; if I have no idea what’s going on and I just want to survive this battle with this text, I’ll read the summaries before. This way, you can a) read quicker, and b) spend more time thinking about deeper themes and patterns in the text, rather than simply trying to understand what the heck is happening.
- Adopt a good reading posture and environment
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Lastly, reading is a mental exercise. That means doing it on your phone while you’re in line for a dining hall is perhaps not the environment most conducive to retention (I tend to save fanfiction for dining hall lines). Take a proper seat, breathe deeply and really let yourself engage with the work. It takes double the time when half of your brain is focused on something else. If reading is a conscious activity, you’ll stay on track more often, retain more and get through it faster.
I joke, but it really is a pleasure to spend four years simply reading a ton. Hopefully, these tips will give you the time to read even more. Because once you get through all that school reading, that’s when you can go back to the fun stuff. I don’t know about you, but this summer I plan on breaking out the old childhood favorites. You can catch me at four in the morning, in my bed in suburban Canada, reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix like I’m ten years old again. And I’ll want it to last, so maybe I won’t speed-read; that’s just how good it is.