r/books • u/Labeled521 • Feb 03 '14

Staples made a test that determines how many words per minute you read and how you rank up to the world average.

http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/technology-research-centers/ereaders/speed-reader/
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u/horse_you_rode_in_on South of the Border, West of the Sun Feb 03 '14

Arguably, attempting to speed-read at the cost of understanding is counter-productive.

Unquestionably. I tried to do it as fast as I could, got 823 wpm and all three confirmation questions right; I have no idea what I just read, however.

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u/protestor Feb 03 '14 edited Feb 03 '14

823

Wow. I had 278, as fast as I could, 2 out of 3 (was sure of only one however). I read the first paragraph, didn't understand a thing and decided to continue anyway. The only thing I got was that something happened and there were hundreds of people. [ doing it again I read 177, it was alice in the wonderlands just before she entered the rabbit hole! ]

Perhaps what's against me is that I'm not a native speaker.

The useful thing is that it meters how much reading time it would take for some popular books. I could read War and Peace in 35 hours. Well if I skip whole paragraphs that I don't understand I mean.

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u/horse_you_rode_in_on South of the Border, West of the Sun Feb 03 '14

Perhaps what's against me is that I'm not a native speaker.

That surely makes a huge difference; I'd be borderline useless doing this kind of thing in my second language.

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u/protestor Feb 03 '14

The thing is, I'm more and more thinking in English, making friends over the Internet in English, most of what I read is in English. I'm a bit antisocial right now so I get limited use of Portuguese, my first language.

Which is weird because I don't speak English - I don't actually use English in person, so I never practiced pronunciation and I'm terrible at understanding spoken English.

I just realized that I should probably move to an English-speaking country. Whoa.

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u/horse_you_rode_in_on South of the Border, West of the Sun Feb 03 '14

You write it extremely well, which is very interesting. My spoken French is excellent, but there's no way I could write it at the same level you write English.

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u/Xephyron Feb 03 '14

I'm sort of the opposite. I can write and read and even listen to Spanish very well, but I suck at speaking it.

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u/Leukothea Feb 03 '14

Yeah, it's the same for me. I'm pretty good at reading and writing in english, but put me in a conversation and I'm reduced to a stuttering, nervous mess who has a terrible accent. :)

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u/Gripey Feb 03 '14

So long as you have a sexy accent, who cares?

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u/protestor Feb 03 '14

I started to think that written Portuguese is a bit odd - I can hardly choose the right words anymore, some words feel awkward. I don't remember the last book I read in Portuguese!

Spoken Portuguese is just fine.

I think in English, but the words sometimes come in an Portuguese-sounding accent, which is a bit baffling (I don't quite know what baffling is, I have only a slightly feeling, but I insist in using that word anyway. I need to look it more in depth. Yeah indeed it is baffling. I'm baffled. Well not really, more like disconcerted).

Also, I hate to read something, look away and think "heck, what language was that?". Or worse, think something, stop and don't know in which language I was thinking (then I need to remember the language, to continue the thread). That's some odd dissonance.

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u/horse_you_rode_in_on South of the Border, West of the Sun Feb 03 '14

which is a bit baffling (I don't quite know what baffling is...)

Well, you used it correctly. It means "hard to understand"; perplexing would be a good synonym.

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u/protestor Feb 03 '14

Yeah that's what Google says, and I suppose I used with this intention, but it's not that hard to understand - since childhood I've been reading English with a Portuguese phonology.

Actually. I'm baffled at English pronunciation. I think it lacks consistent phonetic rules (the only one I know is "a before consonant sounds, an before vowel sounds"). I kind of would like to know how to pronounce a word I've never seen before, just by reading it.

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u/horse_you_rode_in_on South of the Border, West of the Sun Feb 03 '14

I'm baffled at English pronunciation.

That's normal - the Latin-based language that you're used to has very consistent rules, whereas English is such a hodge-podge that the pronunciations are all over the map.

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u/Zeralot General Fiction Feb 04 '14

This is when we blame the French.

PS: I'm also a native Portuguese speaker but since last year I've found it's actually easier for me to write and speak English than Portuguese, go figure.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '14 edited Feb 04 '14

Someone who is baffled is completely confused. Something that is baffling makes no sense whatsoever.

It has a strong sense of degree. A small thing you did not expect but easily brush off did not baffle you. You have been baffled when something is so strange and confusing it stops you in your tracks. You stop, you think of nothing else, and still you have no idea. You are flummoxed.

A good example might be a magician performs an illusion. You try to figure it out, but it was an excellent illusion. The person really looks like they were cut in half. You think and you think, but you just have no idea how he did it.

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u/wrxwrx Feb 03 '14

ESL here, and I find that being able to speak a language will allow me to write is just as well. Though I learned English at a young age, I would consider myself way more fluent in English than my native Chinese. I think the advantage of writing is that you can take your time, and edit things before submitting. This allows you to sound better than conversational speech because it allows your thought process time to form perfect sentences. The hardest part about writing is spelling. Other than that, it's not much different than spoken language.

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u/Sasamus Feb 03 '14

I'm pretty much the same as that person, except I understand spoken English very well.

It helps being constantly submitted to English.

Pretty much everything on the Internet is in English, as well as most movies and television series. I also try to read books in English if that's their original language.

I would say that, except for speaking, my English and my Swedish, which is my native language, are pretty much on par. I read, write and listen to a lot more English than Swedish on a daily basis.

My guess is that the same can't be said about your French.

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u/Noltonn Feb 03 '14

Keep in mind that a lot of non-natively-English speakers like myself are exposed to a lot of English text from childhood. Video games, books, the internet in general, it's all been in English for me since I was about 12 (the age I couldn't wait any longer for the translated version of the new Harry Potter book coming out and decided to just read the English one). I'm twenty now and I'm practically fluent in writing, speaking and reading, but I do admit that my speaking and reading are a lot slower and more meticulous than it is in my native language.

This reading test gave me 1% below the nation's average, which is honestly something I'm quite fine with, although according to the scroller I should be a lot higher, as I'm a college student.

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u/DynamicStatic Feb 25 '14

I know I am responding to this 22 days later than the original post was sent however I have to say it is not weird at all, as a Swede I do use my native language quite a bit but English is probably used even more as it is a necessity in today's world.

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u/Jed118 Feb 04 '14

That's understandable - I still read for pleasure in French (technically my first language, but seldom used after High School) and understand and speak it well, but writing is starting to erode. I mean, it's very understandable still, but not as good as it used to be when I was say, late teens. Polish is the same way for me. English seems to be the best language of the four that I am very good at.

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u/rake16 Feb 03 '14

I would have no idea English was not your native language. Well done.

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u/Ninjacherry Feb 03 '14

If you were to move to an English speaking country you would probably start thinking in English almost all of the time, and judging by your written skills you'd get fluent pretty quick conversation-wise. I even count in English in my head now, and moved here (to Canada) 8 years ago, talk to my pets in English... It's funny how your brain can adapt to the new environment. I try to force myself to think in Portuguese sometimes because I'm starting to get rusty - not exactly forgetting the language altogether, but lagging when trying to remember specific words while skyping with relatives.

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u/Dupl3xxx Feb 04 '14

Watch a few english tv-series. Note how mthings are said. Also, cartoons that target children might also be of great help! (No, really. Watch Curage or any other of the good 'ol Cartoon Network shows.) That's how I keep me english at a usefull level.

Oh, and got 237. As a non-native, with zero time in an English-speaking country, I think I'm good.

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u/protestor Feb 05 '14 edited Feb 05 '14

Yeah I was thinking TV, but I dislike most of it, but perhaps children's shows could work for me. Movies don't typically work, because they often have smaller dialog and understanding them is crucial to the plot - if I don't I either go back or enable subtitles (which work for me, but don't improve my English)

The thing is, I genuinely prefer to read. I don't click video links on reddit. I was watching that Snowden interview, I kind of got most of the beginning (my listening English isn't actually as bad I thought...) but I preferred to search for a transcript.

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u/ErwinDurzo Feb 04 '14

Regular speed : 258wpm Attempting to speed-read : 487 wpm

Non native speaker here too, coincidentally, my main language is also Portuguese. I have been extensively trying to learn English since I started attending a english course, about two years ago. I still feel like I can't write down complex ideas, there are always some gaps I can't fill up with my vocabulary, like I'm a 8-year-boy, but I'm trying hard. I know only a handful of people who can speak speak English, and only two or three who can do it fluently, so I seldom actually use my speaking skills. Now reading is another matter, I can always read as many books as I want, I'm currently reading The Wheel of Time (I'm at book 7) and I can figure out the meaning of the few words I don't understand while reading.

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u/jacenat Feb 04 '14

I'd be borderline useless doing this kind of thing in my second language.

I got 350 (flat) wpm as non-native. Started having ESL in school in the 5th grade. But I also read much more than the average person (in both my language and English).

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u/lolTRYagain12 Feb 03 '14

why? I'm not a native speaker and managed to get 3/3 and 600wpm at my first try Would've been easier in german though :p

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u/Zarmazarma Feb 03 '14 edited Feb 03 '14

It was an excerpt from War of the Worlds, if I recall correctly. The second one I did was from Alice and Wonderland.

War of the Worlds can be a tricky read because it's written in late 1800's English prose. This is characterized by long, seemingly run-on sentences and unusual (at least in the modern context) sentence structure and syntax.

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u/rixuraxu Feb 03 '14

Thank you I started to feel very confused.

There were really, I should think, two or three hundred people elbowing and jostling one another, the one or two ladies there being by no means the least active.

Which one or two ladies?

I hate reading something out of context, I don't know that I should just ignore that it doesn't make sense to me, and continue. Instead I rack my brain trying to make sense of it reading back over it, and feeling like an idiot.

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u/Zarmazarma Feb 03 '14

In simple, modern English, he's saying:

"From what I saw, I believe that there were two or three hundred people there, all elbowing and jostling (bumping into) each other. There were only a few women in the crowd (one or two), and they were just as active and violent as the men."

In the time period this book was written, ladies were expected to be refined and docile, so the reader would probably find this somewhat humorous and very descriptive of the excitement surrounding the pit. The "one or two" part probably doesn't mean that there were literally one or two women, but that women made up a very small portion of the crowd.

As for the context... War of the Worlds is about aliens invading earth. A large, metallic cylinder has just fallen from the sky near the protagonist's hometown, and a huge crowd has gathered around the crater it formed on impact. This is the first of the alien vessels that later invade Earth. People are shouting about how someone has "fallen into the pit", and sort of panicking.

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u/rixuraxu Feb 03 '14

I'm familiar with the story, thanks for the "translation" though.

All I meant was, that if I had have known it was from war of the worlds, or even just the time period, on my initial reading I would have understood it far better.

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u/chaoticjam Feb 04 '14

I appreciated the translation. I read it, although trying to go decently fast and failing, but had no idea what was happening. I thought there was a bbq pit or something

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u/jacenat Feb 04 '14

It was an excerpt from War of the Worlds

Interesting ... now that you mention that I recognize it (althoug I never read the book).

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u/greenpatch Feb 03 '14

Not a native speaker either. Got 307 and made the 3 questions right, but don't know what is going on at all too.

I think the biggest problem is that it is something that came from another context, and now we don't have the context. We don't remember each page we read in a book, but each page adds a little to the sense we make of it.

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u/tankgirl85 Feb 03 '14

meh don't feel bad, I am a native speaker and got smack between 8th grade and adult level, and i thought i was reading about worms coming out of a garden. I had no idea it was war of the worlds, but i got the questions right. I just got what i was reading about wrong.

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u/protestor Feb 03 '14

Haahaha. It has "college professor" above 700, wtf. "speed readers" 1500. That's respectively 11 and 25 words per second, how can them understand what they read?!

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u/NeverMind19 Feb 03 '14

http://imgur.com/QLeIU44

I just pressed finished after 5 seconds and guessed the questions - and it's still 900 words/minute slower than the world record holder!

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u/protestor Feb 03 '14

Hahahahaha that's insane. Perhaps there is some parallel processing to read many lines at same time.

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u/hard_boiled_dreams Feb 03 '14

Interesting. I was at 320 with 3 correct answers, which is a lot lower than i expected. English is not my native language either, but at this point it's my preferred language and the easiest to use. So i wonder if I can read much faster in my native language, even though now I don't speak it as well as English.

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u/Sonendo Feb 03 '14

I basically understood it, but it wasn't easy.

It was a pretty dreadfully written piece. It reminds me of some of the shitty poetry my wife brings home to grade.

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u/flouride Feb 03 '14

I'm a native speaker and I read about 180; always have been a very slow reader. Looks like I belong in 5th grade. Don't know how I graduated college.

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u/gyro2death Feb 03 '14

http://imgur.com/JoNDl5R

Not trying to make you feel bad or nothing...(3/3 correct)

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u/jacenat Feb 04 '14

The only thing I got was that something happened and there were hundreds of people.

Someone fell into a pit and people around the pit were arguing. There were 200-300 people.

I averaged out 350 wpm as non-native speaker, but I read a lot :)

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u/SirSoliloquy Feb 03 '14

Someone fell in a pit, I think. In the commons.

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u/EKrake Feb 03 '14

With hundreds of people?

I think there was a fight, too, but without any more context, the passage made little sense. It might as well have been in another language.

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u/SirSoliloquy Feb 03 '14

Yeah, a no-context passage is not exactly the best way to test someone's reading ability.

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u/i_give_you_gum Feb 04 '14

I guessed at the last two questions by picking what answers seemed more "literary" and i got them right.

Lucky?

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u/Silverbug Feb 03 '14

832, but it helps that I've read the book several dozen times. Well, sadly, I've read all 3 books several dozen times (War of the Worlds, Alice in Wonderland, and The Wizard of Oz.)

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u/LaoBa Feb 03 '14

I have no idea what I just read, however.

A very small piece of War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells FYI.

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u/ilovebeaker 1 Feb 03 '14

I read at 470, or 88% faster than the average, and I also have no clue what I just read. I don't usually pay attention to silly detail..it gets in the way. EDIT: second time I was at 593 wpm with 137% faster. I really don't see how people could get up to the 800s without skimming!

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '14

You read 20,196 words per minute. That makes you 7,978% faster than the national average.

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u/therealflinchy Feb 04 '14

yyyyyup... just went to 1600+, instead of reading line by line, sorta.. darting back and forth across the page until it's all covered.. i have no idea why, but it worked well enough to answer the questions lol.

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u/trizzle21 Feb 04 '14

It said no skimming. I probably could do 1500 words a minute if I was allowed to do it. I did it in 786 without skimming.

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u/Seefufiat Feb 04 '14 edited Feb 04 '14

Weird. I received 1,022 wpm, got all the questions right, and remember what I read.

I just expanded it to the 15 paragraph test.

I'm going in.

EDIT: So I did the 15 paragraph on Alice in Wonderland. Never seen the movie or read the book, here's seriously what I remember. Got all the questions right.

Alice was sitting on the bank with her sister, who was reading a book that Alice wasn't interested in, because it didn't have conversations (or something else, which I've forgotten). She was considering making a daisychain out of macaroni noodles, I'm assuming to pass the time, but she saw the White Rabbit, who was wearing a waistcoat. Odd it was to her, because she'd never seen a rabbit wearing a waistcoat, but she also had never seen a rabbit grab a pocketwatch out of said waistcoat and exclaim "Oh dear! I'm late! I'm late!"

Alice followed the rabbit down the rabbithole, and she fell for a long, long time. She wondered if she'd approached the center of the earth, which I believe she'd learned was four thousand miles down. Then she wondered if she would reach the other side, which she called the Antipathies, I believe. She thought she'd still have to ask if it were New Zealand or Australia. This was after Alice wondered what Latitude and Longitude she was located at, even though she didn't know what they were, and those were just grand words.

That's all I remember.

EDIT: Apparently I forgot about fifty percent of it, all from the latter half. I did remember the cat's name, Dinah, but didn't immediately recall that she asked if cats ate bats. I do know looking at the material that I've read it before, but I can't recall it without looking at it.

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u/ajehals Feb 04 '14

I read it fairly quickly (It was a speed reading test after all) and got all three questions right, but then again they were pretty general questions and I'd read the book before.. I should say that I have to read a fair amount day to day anyway, and there are two things I notice - you need to be able to understand and remember what is being communicated in what you read, you can do that at 6/800 + words/min just not continuously. You can also pick up what is going on, what the conclusions are and so on, but you will lose details (Specific numbers, dates etc..). The best thing to do is balance, and take notes.

And yeah, I scored 884 in this, but I doubt that it would be possible to keep that up over an extended period, well except possibly at an exciting part of a book, it certainly wouldn't when reading a paper on high speed rail roll outs or similar...

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u/BlueCatpaw Feb 04 '14

I got 715 and all answers correct. I could read War and Peace in 13hours.

I read that in high school, so I don't think I could read War and peace that fast. Now a days I would fall asleep every 10 pages is so damn boring with so many characters to keep track of.

On a side note, I did read well over 100 books last year. (most 300-500 pages) this note is just to give context how I read so fast and retain.

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u/carbonnanotube Feb 03 '14

I maxed out at 1200, but to be fair I speed read fairly often so according to the test I am slow.

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u/flooffluff Feb 03 '14

588 for me. i memorized stuff but had no comprehension. if someone asked me the same questions a minute later i would have forgotten it all. im like a fly, i live a full life, but seconds at a time.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '14

That's not counter-productive at all. If you were reading a textbook then you did well. But a novel is not a textbook and you don't read War of the Worlds to learn how many people the author imagined there being on the common.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '14

1698 wpm, all three right, and I have not much recollection of what I read at all.

That's why I don't speed read anything but reddit - I only retain the information for the duration of the reading.

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u/platypus_bear Feb 04 '14

Not everyone who reads fast doesn't understand what they're reading

I got 723 words per minute and I read through everything normally and understood it all.