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Schedule of Drills

What follows is a list of drills. Each drill has nine entries. Each entry has parts; speed and units. The speeds are

• S, for Slow;
• N, for Normal;
• F, for Fast;
• V, for Very Fast.

The units are

• 1, for single words;
• 2, for word pairs;
• 3, for trios of words;
• 4, for sets of four word;
• ph, Phrases;
• cl, for Clauses;
• sn, for Sentences;
• 1/4, for one-fourth of a line;
• 1/3, for one third of a line;
• 1/2, for one-half of a line.

The speeds have already been explained, but we need to spend a little time on the units. Single words, sets of two, three, and four words are clear enough. The fractions are fairly clear as well. If you are looking at one-quarter of a line per beat, then you will be reading at four beats per line, at one of four rhythms.

When the units are sentences you are looking at all the words between an initial capital letter and the period at the end of the sentence. This leaves just clauses and phrases. For out purposes, the first clause in a sentence is all the words from the beginning capital letter to the first punctuation mark such as a comma, colon, semi-colon, or parenthesis, period, exclamation mark, or question mark. If there is more than one clause in the sentence, then and all but the last, will be the words grouped off by different punctuation marks. The last clause of a sentence is the group of words that ends with the period. As you practice the drills you will realize you know exactly for what you are looking. Phrases are even less clear, but that much more important. The only way to spot a phrase is to ask yourself if a group of words fit s together.

The first six days of drills are focused entirely on words grouped by counting. When you look at a group of four words, you are asking the same question you asked in the earlier exercises, "Which of these words fit together?" On day seven you will start using what you learned the first six days to spot phrases at slow speed. Phrases are the most important block you can learn to read, because spotting them is entirely dependent on your ability to process the words in them. Counting words, or beats per line, or even looking for punctuation are all crutches to get you to look at larger groups of words. There is no point to any of it, however, if you aren't processing the meaning of all those words, and it is reading by phrases that really trains your brain to process that way.

• Day One: S1, N1, F1, V1, S2, V1, F1, N1, S1
• Day Two: N1, F1, V1, S2, N2, S2, V1, F1, N1
• Day Three: S2, N2, F2, V2, S3, V2, F2, N2, S2
• Day Four: N2, F2, V2, S3, N3, S3, V2, F2, N2
• Day Five: S3, N3, F3, V3, S4, V3, F3, N3, S3
• Day Six: N3, F3, V3, S4, N4, S4, V3, F3, N3
• Day Seven: S4, N4, F4, V4, Sph, V4, F4, N4, S4
• Day Eight: N4, F4, V4, Sph, Nph, Sph, V4, F4, N4
• Day Nine: Sph, Nph, Fph, Vph, S1/4, Vph, Fph, Nph, Sph
• Day Ten: Nph, Fph, Vph, S1/4, N1/4, S1/4, Vph, Fph, Nph
• Day Eleven: S1/4, N1/4, F1/4, V1/4, Sph, V1/4, F1/4, N1/4, S1/4
• Day Twelve: N1/4, F1/4, V1/4, Sph, Nph, Sph, V1/4, F1/4, N1/4
• Day Thirteen: Nph, Fph, Vph, S1/3, N1/3, S1/3, Vph, Fph, Nph
• Day Fourteen: S1/3, N1/3, F1/3, V1/3, Sph, V1/3, F1/3, N1/3, S1/3
• Day Fifteen: S1/3, N1/3, F1/3, V1/3, Scl, V1/3, F1/3, N1/3, S1/3
• Day Sixteen: N1/3, F1/3, V1/3, Scl, Ncl, Scl, V1/3, F1/3, N1/3
• Day Seventeen: Scl, Ncl, Fcl, Vcl, S1/2, Vcl, Fcl, Ncl, Scl
• Day Eighteen: Ncl, Fcl, Vcl, S1/2, N1/2, S1/2, Vcl, Fcl, Ncl
• Day Nineteen: S1/2, N1/2, F1/2, V1/2, Scl, V1/2, F1/2, N1/2, S1/2
• Day Twenty: S1/2, N1/2, F1/2, V1/2, Ssn, V1/2, F1/2, N1/2, S1/2
• Day Twenty-One: Ncl, Fcl, Vcl, Ssn, Nsn, Ssn, Vcl, Fcl, Ncl

On day one you drill at speeds from 60 wpm to 180 wpm. On day twenty-one you might drill as fast as 320 words to 900 words per minute average; but because clauses and sentences come in different sizes, you might drill as high as four times that, which would be 3,600 words per minute. Comprehension at high speeds is quite different from that of low speeds. Experiencing this difference is an important part of your training. You will challenge your brain to make sense of information faster than you might have thought possible. Let your experience be your guide. By pushing up from the early speeds of 60 words per minute all the way to 3,600 words per minute you will gain experience with three vital tasks:

• Seeing larger and larger meaning groups,
• Accurately assessing the speed and rhythms that work best for you,
• Sensing the difference between clear, meaningful reading compared with reading at lower levels of involvement and comprehension.

These experiences will help you choose the best approach to take with different reading material. When you read for pleasure you can work at a speed and word group size that gives you the most satisfaction. When you reading for a test you can pick a speed and word group size that fits gathering data. Doing the drills helps you automatically know which speeds and which word group sizes work best for different goals. With this knowledge firmly planted in your mind, as result of your own experience, you will naturally do what works best for you.

There is one problem with setting up drills of this kind. Meaning groups come in different sizes. Some sentences are exactly one word long. Some paragraphs are exactly one sentence long, which means some paragraphs are exactly one word long. It is hard create smoothly increasing levels of difficulty when the meaning groups vary so much. The drills take this into account two ways. First, you do some drills based on number of words or based on dividing a line of print into two or more parts. Other drills work with different meaning groups. Those groups have reliable averages. The average sentence might be 12 words, the average clause five words, the average phrase two words. "The Rationale" will explain why it is better to read by clauses than by lines. For now it is enough to know the difference between reading a number of words and reading a meaning group. The drills teach that difference.

Plenty of people learn to speed read without ever doing a drill. The drills in this section are set up for a three week course. "Other Stuff," section three, also has three weeks of drills. The three-weeks format gives the most results in the least time, but it is not set in stone. If, after attaining a reading speed of 1,000 words per minute, you decide you have had enough, great! Reading isn't a race. If sometime later you want to pick up a little more speed, you can always start fresh. Start at the beginning, or at least a couple of notches below your most comfortable speed and group. You can repeat these drills as often as you like.

If you plateau at a certain speed, you can do drills for that speed. If your plateau is reading Two Beats per Line at Slow speed, look for the first day of drills with that speed. Repeating this drill will help stretch your ability; you can do it as many times for as many days as you like. There is always room for improvement, and improvement will always take practice. Natural speed readers READ! They enjoy reading so much that they stumble on to some of the habits of speed reading. They practice reading better every time they read. If you practice more, you are likely to have better results.

What are the limits? It is hard to say. With the natural speed readers I studied, a paragraph was the biggest meaning group used, and the speed ranged from normal to slow. While a paragraph is a variable length, think of it as about eight lines with fifteen words per line. At Slow speed this is one paragraph per second, about 7,200 wpm. Some researchers define any speed over 1,000 words per minute as "skimming," but if that's how you enjoy reading your novels, then who cares what researchers say? The only important limits are the ones you put on yourself. If you have no desire or need to read faster than 800 words per minute, guess where you are likely to stop. Let your needs and desires dictate how much time and effort you spend, and what levels of reward are right for you.

If you are the kind of person who likes to know the reasons for what they are doing, then proceed straight-away to the next chapter, entitled, The Rationale. If, however, you are satisfied for now, with the drills and their effects, you might prefer to skip ahead to section three (not available on line) "The Obstacles." Section three deals with mental and emotional blocks. It may sound strange, but many people have learned to speed read without ever using the skill on a consistent basis. "The Obstacles" takes a look at some of the reasons for this, and provides information that can affect whether or not you make the most of your new found ability.