Can People Really Learn to 'Speed Read'?

[JeetsN123]

I can read faster than average, but I wouldn't call that speed reading as I often skip sentences without noticing. It's no problem when reading a novel, but I have to slow down when doing a math word problem or something like that.
It seems that reading faster can be taught, but when the article says speed reading they mean using certain techniques to understand a passage without having to read the words one by one, like reading a whole sentence at once.

 

[Hayseed]

I read somewhere that people can recognize words, with just the first and last letters, with the appropriate letter spaces between them. I once saw a text example of this, and I was surprised at how easy it was. But it did not increase my reading speed. It seems that I have only one gear when it comes to reading, a granny gear.

 

[kab]

I passed Evelyn Wood at ~1,200 wpm. I was not “reading” I was skimming, selecting, and then reading just a few key words. Why does this work? One of the greatest comments I ever read was “There is no non fiction book that would not have been better as a 3 page magazine article.” (textbooks are the exception, and are boring reading because there isn’t enough fluff that can be optionally read or skimmed). We read with a purpose. With the purpose in mind, we can skim to quickly locate what is worth reading-- hence, “speed reading”. Ergo, asking the question does speed reading work is asking an irrelevant question based on semantic confusion.

 

[Nooneofconsequence76]

I read extremely fast and do not skim. I get a lot of anger from other people because of how fast I read. I love to read, but avoid telling people that I finish books in just mere hours. Good example: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. 4 1/2 hours. Yes I still remember almost all of it. I can't explain it. It's not speed reading or skimming. My reading and comprehension was beyond college level at age 12 and it became better over the years.