Reading speed - Tips and more..

[cattie]

We generally put quite an effort in increasing our reading speed. Then why not see how we fare when compared to others. A decent reading speed could make a swell lot of diff in the RCs. I'm posting a passage below(taken from the RCs of PT, hope don't face a prob with copyrights & stuff ). I've taken care that the selected passage is not too interesting, doesn't contain much stats(ppl generally tend to skip them) and doesn't belong to any proff field.
u are requested to read it only once and record the time u take to complete it(nearest to 5sec atleast). The passage consists of exactly 631 words. Along with it also mention the speed it amounts to in words/min.
Now remember, don't simply give it an overall with u'r eyes gliding along the words neither try to sink in each & every word to get it's intended and subtle meaning, if any. Read it as u would generally read an RC in the exam.

answering the following ques would help in getting a general idea as to what extent ppl go to inc their reading speeds.
1) Do you use the well known 'fixation of the eye technique' while reading?
2) Have you been able to overcome mind-reading?
3) Do you ever regress(re-read)? how often if yes?
4) Do you note u'r reading speed reguarly(tells you how serious ppl r)?
5) Rate u'rself as a reader(out of 10, 4 being the avg.)? I mean how often do u do some reading no matter what.

[cattie]

Remember: Read the passage only once and note the time only for the 1st reading



This, at least, conservatives and liberals seem to agree on: American culture is in a perilous state. Assaulted by rap music and heavy metal, made soft-headed by the novels of Robert James Waller and Danielle Steele, stimulated by violent films, narcotized by mindless TV programs and obsessed with O.J. Simpson, we slide ever closer to a cultural abyss filled with trash and nothing but trash.
Long before O.J. Simpson, however, Americans craved trash. The scandalous penny press, which sprang into existence in the 1830s as a vehicle for the working class, subsisted on juicy tales of criminal conduct. The case of Helen Jewitt, a young prostitute allegedly murdered by a rich client named Richard Robinson, held New York City rapt for months as newspapers screamed the lurid details and ordinary citizens debated the evidence.
It didn't take long for other accoutrements of trash culture to surface. In short order, violence was joined by pornography, scandal, exploitation and the mindless celebration of fame for fame's sake. By the 1870s, the protagonists of real-life crime and moral transgression were appearing on the vaudeville stage as similar protagonists today appear on tabloid TV shows: human commodities of trash.
Many conservatives concluded that democracy itself was at fault. Give people what they want, and you will get trash. As a remedy, these cultural custodians promoted genteel literature-stories of domesticity or aristocracy or chaste romance illustrating good and decent values. They felt the masses would learn from these as we are supposed to learn from William Bennett's "Book of Virtues." We would uplift ourselves.
To read trash, to flaunt trash, to prefer trash to "better" literature was a not-so-subtle way of asserting one's independence against one's social superiors. It was a way of saying that we are masters of our own culture. It was a way of saying that we are Americans.
It still is. From crime pamphlets to dime novels to the "yellow press" to the movies to the tabloids to the trash of today, one theme keeps emerging. In a world culturally divided between the genteel and everything else, Americans opt for trash over art that is supposed to be good for them as much because they resent being told what they should like as because they like trash.
Seen this way, trash is not an escape from life, as some would have it; it is an escape from seriousness, which is no doubt why trash in the form of our movies, TV shows, music and popular literature has become one of our chief exports. You don't have to be American to want to play hooky from high culture, though Americans may be prouder of it than anyone else.
To its defenders, trash has the virtue of honesty-of not purporting to be anything other than what it is, which is, well, trash.
Today's American culture, from exploitalk programs to tabloid TV to Howard Stem, is perceived as more honest and democratic than the turgid, domesticated arts and amusements that cultural conservatives believe we should like- and would like-if we weren't being shovel-fed trash.
Trash is subversive that way. It exists to taunt.
No doubt that is why cultural conservatives hate it so. It is not because they want to save us from perdition that they rail against junk. I suspect it is because they want to reassert their dominance over a culture that long ago slipped out of their control even as conservatives have come to dominate politics.
Damning trash and pretending that it is being foisted upon us by media conspirators is a clever technique-and a very old one.
Most Americans, however, know better: Trash is how we distinguish ourselves from all the things others want us to be. Trash may not be good for us, but this we know: It is ours.


No. of words: 631

[buck_was]

D00d, where's the passage ? Or is ur post itself the "passage" ???

Edit: Sorry buddy (n modz n other members) ... happens once in a while... but the time difference between posting of passage n my post wud tell it all...

[cattie]

Here r my stats:

time taken: 2min 10 sec
speed: 290 words/min(it's generally around 250 when I read novels)


anwers:
1) have tried a lot but it's as if I have to remind myself everytime to do so. doesn't come as natural.
2) No again. still trying
3) almost never.
4) occasionaly
5) around 7-8. read quite a lot of novels and do a decent amount of reading on the net.

[Francesco CATtie]

hey cattie,
it took me 1:47:04 mins to read it... but only around 80% comprehension, i mean recalling...
words per min: 354
but the prob is that this varies largely. i go to 200 wpm in case of financial or economics related passages.

[Francesco CATtie]

cattie,
u did a gr8 work man . dunno how u typed such a big passage. that really s****.
do u have any good passages on economics?

[Gordon]

well i managed 223 wpm tho dont like to read from web pages had it been text wud have read mch faster and better....so there

[yorick]

[shadow=crimson:834c6165d6][/shadow:834c6165d6][align=justify:834c6165d6][/align:834c6165d6][highlight=seagreen:834c6165d6][/highlight:834c6165d6][username]
I completed the passage in 1min 50 sec.
As far as the other questons are concerned I do not know what is mind reading and the fixation eye technique. I avoid regressing. My general reading speed varies from 225 to 350 depending on what I'm reading.
What do most of you guys read. I just read Da vinci code and a couple of Paulo Coelho ones.

[G O V A R]

This is good. I completed the passage in about 1 min 10 sec, althougth Im not sure this is the pace I would have taken in a real RC.

PG? your figures?? 30 secs on whole??

Originally Posted by cattie

answering the following ques would help in getting a general idea as to what extent ppl go to inc their reading speeds.
1) Do you use the well known 'fixation of the eye technique' while reading?

I dont consciously any such technique.

Originally Posted by cattie

2) Have you been able to overcome mind-reading?

To a large extent yes.

Originally Posted by cattie

3) Do you ever regress(re-read)? how often if yes?

Depends on the material. Novels, newspaper and easy-readings: no. Tech material, oft times.

Originally Posted by cattie

4) Do you note u'r reading speed reguarly(tells you how serious ppl r)?

Nope. Just calculated twice or thrice. I better think I'm doing okay.

Originally Posted by cattie

5) Rate u'rself as a reader(out of 10, 4 being the avg.)? I mean how often do u do some reading no matter what.

No matter what, I read a lot. Say 7 to 8 ?

[cattie]

Originally Posted by CATman

cattie,
u did a gr8 work man . dunno how u typed such a big passage. that really s****.
do u have any good passages on economics?

That passage was meant to suck CATman. I'm sure the reading time would have been much less had it been a passage frm Harry Potter or LOTR. We should be expecting even more uninteresting topics for the D'day.
As for having eco passages, I have around 60-70 RCs from the PT(u'll have to sort out the related ones). Let me know if there r any takers, anyways I'm sure most of you must already be having them. and btw I haven't typed the whole passage(no guy in his right mind would do that I'm sure). I've just copy-pasted it frm one of these RCs.