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Speed reading can be an extremely effective study tool, allowing you to extract vital information from a large amount of text. Once properly developed, this skill trains you to pick up key words and points within a text and apply it to the relevant topic. To become truly efficient at speed reading, you must devote the necessary time to develop a high level of skill. There are several methods which can be used to develop, train and practice speed reading, as well as those for retaining the information you read.

Try putting your hand across a page, then sliding it downwards as you read. This forces your eye to 'race' against your hand to keep up. You can control the pace, and gradually increase the rate of movement as you find yourself able to keep up.

Don't be discouraged if you can't keep up at first; your reading speed will improve with time. A piece of paper or index card also works well for this exercise. Obviously, use them the same way you did your hand, moving them down the page at a steady rate.

This is to train your vision so that you are able to read pages on sight, rather than reading them back to yourself in your head, as so many of us do. In this sense we tend to hear books rather than read them, which is why the prospect of learning to sight read can appear to be too difficult. This is not the case; sight reading is simply a matter of getting yourself into the right habits.

Your peripheral vision increasingly comes into play as your speed increases. This means you are learning to read sentences as a whole, rather than working your way through the text word by word. Your comprehension will remain intact once you master this technique as well, you are just getting into the habit of discarding the information not essential to the main ideas of the text you are reading.

To help develop your ability to remember what you read, try first reading a page using one of the methods featured and then make note of what essential information you have been able to gather from it. This should, of course be done without looking again at the page. You may have to try this exercise a dozen times or more before it becomes second nature, but the rewards are well worth the effort.

Speed reading can help significantly to lighten the load when it comes to study and exam preparation. If you take the time to practice these steps, you will find yourself breezing through books, course required readings, contracts and other important study without missing any vital information. Let speed reading make your life easier.