9. Acceleread Lesson 8, 9, & 10

Acceleread Lesson 8 is 7 min long, and consists of Hopscotch, Columns Highlighter, Hopscotch again, Sight Stretcher, and Word Flash exercises.  Nothing too new here besides increasing speed and increasing word chunk size generally.  The Columns Highligher this time had only two columns, at a speed less than 600 WPM (well below my regular practice speed); but the word chunks were of a size that made quick comprehension challenging.  I suppose that is the point — for although I had expected later exercises to have more columns (which is how I practiced speed reading with The Time Machine and continue to do so with The Three Musketeers), to my surprise is was the opposite, which I suppose makes sense for the sake of training.  In this sense, the Columns Highlighter and Hopscotch are beginning to merge in style and speed.  Very interesting!

Acceleread Lesson 9 is also 7 min long, integrating previous lessons' objectives, and exhorts the reader to process larger groups of words at once.  It's exercises are Hopscotch, Columns Highlighter, Hopscotch again, Sight Stretcher, and Word Flash.  It is an extension of what was exercised in the last lesson, so there is nothing new to report.

Impatient to wait for the final day, I've decided to take on Lesson 10 right away.  I can always repeat it if I feel it was too soon to dive into it.  My curiosity to too strong to wait and see.

Lesson 10 is a full 10 min.  First was Word Flash at about 560-590 WPM.  Then came  520-520 WPM Columns Highlighter.  Hopscotch was a full 2 minutes at about 230 WPM; I find I can keep up with the story without too much effort now.  Another Columns Highlighter at 550-600 WPM, and finally a rather brisk Word Flash starting at 560 WPM and ending at 620 WPM.

The program ends with a final reading speed test.  As I have been taking periodic reading tests anyway, I was not surprised to see my reading speed increase from the initial test speed of 345 WPM to 462 WPM, a total improvement of +43%.  My fastest score a few days ago was 481 WPM.

Conclusion: Acceleread works. Appearances suggested that Acceleread would be an extremely effective tool and course, and it really is!  I couldn't be happier.  If there is just one silver bullet to speed reading, this is it.  Most importantly, I can see the improvement in my day-to-day reading, and that's where it really counts.

As soon as I finished the Beginner Course, I was prompted to take yet another speed test to determine my next level of progression.  Getting a 452 WPM score there, the app judged me to be a "strong reader, capable of absorbing multiple words at once."  It says that subvocalization and inconsistent concentration may be problem still.  I now have the option to retake the Beginner Course with the new 452 WPM baseline score as the foundation; or I can move on to the Intermediate or Advanced Course.

The Intermediate Course is for readers who have a "strong foundation" in the basics provided by the Beginner Course. Since I feel that I fit this description, and am eager to see what else the app has in store, I'll begin the Intermediate Course tomorrow.