“Time yourself for five minutes and measure comprehension.”
Why This Ritual Matters
Imagine trying to lose weight without ever stepping on a scale, or training for a marathon without timing a single run. You might feel like you’re making progress, but you’d have no way to know for certain. The same principle applies to reading speed: without a baseline, improvement is just a guess.
Yesterday, you learned that speed begins with calm — that a settled mind creates the foundation for faster reading. Today, you take the next essential step: establishing your personal reading speed test benchmark. This number isn’t a judgment; it’s a starting point. Whether it’s 180 words per minute or 380, knowing your baseline transforms vague aspirations into measurable goals.
The baseline also reveals patterns you can’t see without measurement. You might discover that your speed varies dramatically by text type, time of day, or energy level. These insights are diagnostic gold — they show you exactly where the opportunities for improvement lie. A single five-minute test today will inform every speed ritual for the rest of September.
Today’s Practice
Your task is straightforward: read for exactly five minutes, count the words, and test your comprehension. The goal is to establish an honest baseline — not to impress yourself or anyone else. Read at your normal pace, the way you naturally read when no one is watching and no deadline is pressing.
Choose material that represents your typical reading. If you usually read news articles, use a news article. If you’re preparing for academic exams, use an academic passage. The point is to measure your actual reading behavior, not your performance on artificially easy or difficult text.
After the five minutes, don’t just count words — test your comprehension. Write down the main points, the key arguments, any specific details you remember. A reading speed that sacrifices understanding is meaningless. Your effective speed is the rate at which you can read and retain information.
How to Practice
- Select your text. Choose a passage of at least 1,500-2,000 words (roughly 3-4 pages). It should be material you haven’t read before, at a difficulty level typical of what you normally encounter.
- Set your timer for exactly 5 minutes. Use your phone, a stopwatch, or any reliable timer. Don’t estimate — precision matters for accurate benchmarking.
- Read at your natural pace. Don’t try to speed up or slow down. Read the way you always read. The goal is to capture your current ability, not your aspirations.
- Mark where you stopped. When the timer sounds, mark the exact word where you stopped. Don’t round up or finish the sentence — mark the precise stopping point.
- Count your words and calculate WPM. Count total words read (or use the method in the example below), then divide by 5 to get your words-per-minute rate.
- Test your comprehension. Without looking back, write down: What was the main topic? What were the key arguments or points? What specific details do you remember? Score yourself honestly on a 1-10 scale.
Sarah times herself reading a magazine article about urban planning. After 5 minutes, she’s read 47 lines. She counts words in three random lines: 11, 13, 12 — average of 12 words per line. Total: 47 × 12 = 564 words. Her WPM: 564 ÷ 5 = 113 WPM. She then writes what she remembers: the main thesis about mixed-use zoning, three supporting examples, and the author’s conclusion. She rates her comprehension 7/10. Her baseline: 113 WPM at 70% comprehension — a clear starting point for September’s training.
What to Notice
Pay attention to your reading experience during the test. Did you feel rushed? Relaxed? Were there moments when your attention wandered? Did certain paragraphs slow you down? These observations matter as much as the final number because they reveal the texture of your reading process.
Notice your comprehension patterns. Which details stuck easily? Which slipped away? Often readers discover they retain narrative and example material well but lose abstract arguments, or vice versa. This pattern points toward specific comprehension skills to develop alongside speed.
Consider your emotional response to the number. Some readers feel disappointed by their baseline; others feel relieved or surprised. Whatever you feel, remember: this number is simply today’s measurement. It says nothing about your potential or your worth as a reader. It’s data, not destiny.
The Science Behind It
Research in performance psychology shows that measurement itself improves performance — a phenomenon called the Hawthorne effect in its broadest form, and more specifically, the power of feedback loops. When you track a metric, you naturally attend to it more carefully, which tends to improve it over time.
Studies of reading speed demonstrate wide variation among adults, typically ranging from 200-400 WPM with good comprehension. Importantly, research by Rayner and colleagues (2016) shows that speed and comprehension are not strictly inversely related — with training, both can improve simultaneously. Your baseline establishes where you sit on this spectrum today.
The comprehension component is crucial because of what researchers call the speed-accuracy tradeoff. Readers can always go faster by skipping content, but this “speed” is illusory if understanding collapses. True reading improvement means shifting the entire tradeoff curve — reading faster at the same level of comprehension, or comprehending more deeply at the same speed.
Connection to Your Reading Journey
This baseline becomes your reference point for all of September’s speed work. When you practice sub-vocalization reduction tomorrow, pointer guidance the next day, and phrase reading after that, you’ll measure each technique against this starting point. Real progress requires real measurement.
Think of today’s ritual as taking a “before” photo. It might feel uncomfortable to look at your current state honestly, but that honesty is what makes transformation visible. In four weeks, when you retake this same test with the same methodology, you’ll have objective evidence of change — or valuable information about what needs adjustment.
Record today’s numbers carefully. Write them in your reading journal. Note the date, the text type, your WPM, and your comprehension score. This data becomes the foundation for tracking your growth throughout the 365 Reading Rituals program and beyond.
My baseline reading speed test results: I read ______________ words in 5 minutes, giving me a rate of ______________ WPM. My comprehension score was ______________/10. I noticed that ______________. This baseline makes me feel ______________ because ______________.
Consider how your reading speed might vary across different contexts. When do you read fastest? Slowest? What patterns in your reading life does today’s baseline illuminate — and what would it mean to shift those patterns over the coming month?
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