Your concern should not be with how fast you can get through a chapter alone, but how quickly you can comprehend the facts and ideas that you need. Comprehension during speed reading is easier than during standard reading. This is because the mind is busy looking for meaning, not rereading words and sentences. The average reader spends about1/6 of the time rereading words than actually reading them. Rereading interrupts the flow of comprehension and slows down the process, that’s why the habit of rereading should be eliminated.
How to comprehend easily? Scan the chapter first. Identify the sections to which the author devotes the most amount of space. If there are lots of diagrams for a particular topic, then that must also be an important concept. If you’re really under time pressure, you can skip the sections to which the least amount of space is devoted.
Take note on headings and read the first sentence of every paragraph more carefully than the rest of the paragraph. The main idea is usually situated there. Read the important parts and the main ideas. Focus on nouns and main propositions in each sentence. Look for the noun-verb combinations,and focus the mind on these. Then, close the book and ask yourself what you now know about the subject that you didn’t know before you started.
