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reading genius

When people think about how to read faster, the first thing that comes to mind for most people is the Evelyn Wood Speed Reading program. This program is the oldest course of it’s kind to teach people how to read fast and is known around the world. The time-tested techniques that are presented in the course have not only delivered a reading speed improvement, but also an enhanced comprehension of the material, to generations of students.

Perhaps the Evelyn Wood program would never have existed if Evelyn had not watched one of her professors, at the University of Utah, read and grade her 80-page term paper in just ten minutes. Even though her professor was able to read at a remarkable rate of 2,500 words per minute, he had not acquired the skill through any specialized training. In fact, he was unable to explain to her how he was able to read and comprehend so quickly.

But, this was enough to pique her interest in the subject and spurred her on to learn more about how to read faster, wanting to acquire the skill for herself. Later, as a school teacher, she also believed it would be a valuable skill to share with others. Soon she learned that there were many people who knew how to read fast and she discovered that people had been doing so for centuries. And so, the beginning principles of the Evelyn Wood program began to formulate.

For the next couple years, Evelyn Wood found more than 50 people who read at speeds of 1,500 words a minute all the way up to 6,000 words a minute. And, while they were a diverse group in terms of age and backgrounds, they all also demonstrated the remarkable ability to recall the material and to comprehend it as well. By carefully analyzing the techniques of this group, she was able to formulate the principles that became the core of the Evelyn Wood Speed Reading system.

She soon learned that each reading genius she was studying had some common traits. They did not read single words, but grouped or chunked words as they read. They saw the words in meaningful patterns as they moved their eyes smoothly, rapidly and easily down the page. They changed their speed to adjust to the kind of material they read and were able to quickly identify the key phrases in a paragraph and the central idea of a book or article. Soon, these very speed reading techniques became the cornerstone of the Evelyn Wood approach.

Evelyn’s first student was herself. She painstakingly taught herself these reading speed improvement principles and practiced them regularly. Soon, she had developed to the point of being able to read several thousands words per minute. Her next task was to develop a system to teach others how to read fast and in 1959, she opened the first Evelyn Wood Speed Reading Institute in Washington DC.

While there are now many different speed reading programs on the market, Evelyn Wood and her Speed Reading courses are still highly regarded today. She is revered for the pioneering efforts she made and for bringing speed reading and reading comprehension teaching to people around the world.

Today, there are Evelyn Wood Speed Reading methods that can be learned in a number of ways. There are still courses that can be taken in classrooms, as well as her speed reading courses that are available on video or on DVD. If you want to speed your read and get more done in a shorter amount of time, then learning how to read faster is a major help, all thanks to Evelyn Wood for making the techniques widely available.