A Easy To Take Speed Reading Test

Do you know your reading speed? In this article, I will give you a simple speed reading test that will easily measure your initial reading speed. All you need is a countdown timer set for one minute. Once you have it, continue with this article.

Read the following passage from Robinson Crusoe at your normal reading speed using a timer for one minute. When you are done I will tell you how to measure your initial reading speed:

I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York,

2 of a good family, though not of that country, my father

3 being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull.

4 He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off

5 his trade lived afterward at York, from whence he had

6 married my mother, whose relations were named Rob

7 inson, a good family in that country, and from whom I

8 was called Robinson Kreutznear; but by the usual cor

9 ruption of words in England we are now called, nay,

10 we call ourselves, and write our name, Crusoe, and so

11 my companions always called me.

12 I had two elder brothers, one of which was lieu-

13 tenant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flan-

14 ders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel

15 Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk

16 against the Spaniards; what became of my second

17 brother I never knew, any more than my father and

18 mother did know what was become of me.

19 Being the third son of the family, and not bred to

20 any trade, my head began to be filled very early with

21 rambling thoughts. My father, who was very ancient,

22 had given me a competent share of learning, as far as

23 house-education and a country free school generally

24 goes, and designed me for the law, but I would be sat-

25 isfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclina

26 tion to this led me so strongly against the will, nay, the

27 commands, of my father, and against all the entreaties

28 and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that

29 there seemed to be something fatal in that propension

30 of nature tending directly to the life of misery which

31 was to befall me.

32 My father, a wise and grave man, gave me seri

33 ous and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was

34 my design. He called me one morning into his cham

35 ber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostu

36 lated very warmly with me upon this subject. He asked

37 me what reasons more than a mere wandering inclina

38 tion I had for leaving my father's house and my native

39 country, where I might be well introduced, and had a

40 prospect of raising my fortunes by application and in-

41 dustry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it

42 was for men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of

43 aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went

44 abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and

45 make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature

46 out of the common road; that these things were all ei

47 ther too far above me, or too far below me; that mine

48 was the middle state, or what might be called the upper

49 station of low life, which he had found by long experi

50 ence was the best state in the world, the most suited to

Look at the number to the left of the line you finished reading in one minute. Multiply that number by 10 to get your initial reading speed. This simple speed reading test has enabled you to determine your initial reading speed. Did you know it is possible to increase this reading speed by 100% or more in just under four hours? You can learn more about how to accomplish this on my web site www.HowardBergSpeedReading.com