🔖 Determine Your "Characters Per Second" English Reading Speed [a 5-minute experiment]

[irmar]

Cool test. I got 1’56, so 116 seconds, speed 32,5.

[oriya]

28,8 cps, it seems like a good pace.

[cgwm808]

@Irmar - I can’t believe it - I also got 32.5 characters per second. And I can’t stop myself from saying the words as I read which slows me down tremendously. I used to read silently but ever since I started reading Korean I got into the bad habit of mouthing the words – even if my lips don’t move, I know I am doing it it my head to listen to my own terrible pronunciation of Korean
If there are an average of 5 characters per word, the 32.5 is about 400 words/ minute which is about right – my speed when I was in college so surprisingly I’m not reading a lot slower than when I was young.

[manganese]

@irmar

Cool test. I got 1’56, so 116 seconds, speed 32,5.

Very impressive. That’s twice as fast as what I achieved. I’ll have to have a word with the storyteller inside my mind who insists on reading aloud and savouring every word he encounters.

[manganese]

@oriya

28,8 cps, it seems like a good pace.

Very impressive! So far, I’m the slowest reader in this experiment (and I can only speak English).

[manganese]

@cgwm808

I can’t stop myself from saying the words as I read

This is exactly what happens for me. While I can turn off the voice in my mind, I find it more satisfying to let it continue.

[oriya]

I started out with reading the words in my head but halfway through the text I started to ignore the voice and read faster.

[irmar]

@manganese

I’ll have to have a word with the storyteller inside my mind who insists on reading aloud and savouring every word he encounters.

Ah, that explains it! I noticed that I tend to give a very quick glance to the whole sentence or sub-sentence and then proceed to read it, it helps understand faster what you’re reading because you more or less know what to expect.

[manganese]

@irmar

Ah, that explains it! I noticed that I tend to give a very quick glance to the whole sentence or sub-sentence and then proceed to read it, it helps understand faster what you’re reading because you more or less know what to expect.

Thanks, Irmar. I’ll try this out and see how it goes.

Because a very large chunk of my life involved reading physics, chemistry, maths and music theory textbooks, I developed a technique whereby I’d first read through a chapter’s headings, sub-headings and captions for images and graphs. Then I’d go back through the chapter and read the first paragraph in each sub-section since it is usually the opening paragraph of a section that provides the most important information. After that, I scanned through the chapter. This is similar to what you describe. Just as you say, this kind of approach assisted my understanding. I found that it also boosted my memory retention enormously.

What I find really curious is that it has never once occurred to me to approach reading novels and non-technical books like this. I’m looking forward to trying it out! Thank you

–Manganese