Speed Reading III is a utility that can be helpful for anyone who is interested in improving their reading speed. Although the application doesn't test your performance, it can be very helpful in determining how fast you can read while still comprehending the text that you are reading.
Speed Reading III comes with ten different text sources, which are displayed in two lines of text, with a width similar to that used in a newspaper. Additionally, you can load your own texts by providing a TXT file.
There are four speed settings: Very Slow, Slow, Medium, and Fast. And there is a slider that you can use to increase the speed while you are reading. The Very Slow setting goes from 50 to 200 words per minute and the Fast one goes from 800 to 1500. When you click on "Start", a snapshot of text in one of two columns will be displayed followed by another one in the second column. The process is repeated with each line of text in your text source. Based on what the application explains in its Welcome screen, the idea behind it is that if you concentrate on a middle point and read the text around it and then move on to another snapshot and don't look back to re-read text, you can substantially increase your reading speed.
I have to admit that I am not a quick reader, and I still managed to read 400 wpm with no problems. I tried using the fastest setting and I couldn't even make out words in time, which shows how much room for improvement I have. And I think that is what this application does great - show that you can read a whole lot faster if you train hard.
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