So, does your reading comprehension drop when you learn to speed read? Or can you keep it the same? For me, I’ve found that it’s about the same as it was before I learned speed reading.

Like anyone else, when I’m distracted or not giving my full attention to what I’m reading, my comprehension dips now, just like it did before I learned to speed read. The difference now though is that I can usually talk myself out of being distracted. Since I can read so much faster, I know that if I give a book or article my full attention I’ll be able to absorb the content very quickly and can then move on to whatever it is that’s distracting me. Whereas before, the whole time I’d be reading I’d think of all the other things I had to do.

You’ll find people who argue both that reading comprehension goes up when you learn to speed read and that it goes down and I think the reason that both sides can prove their point is that it depends on the individual reader. If you have really good reading habits already, your comprehension may go down a little bit until you get really comfortable with your new speed reading skill. If your generally a poor reader who tends not to remember much of what you read, learning to speed read will likely improve your reading comprehension because you’ll be learning to pay more focused attention.

I wouldn’t use the reading comprehension argument to decide either to learn to speed read or to not learn to speed read, personally because the benefits to learning to speed read go much further, and much deeper than its impact on your comprehension. For me, it was mostly about the increased productivity. But other people who learn to speed read report increased enjoyment or a boss who told them they “had to” as their motivation to learn to read faster. So it’s a very personal thing. What are your reasons for wanting to learn to speed read?