There are various reasons a person might want to take a speed reading course, but they will want to make sure they are not being taught only to turn the pages of text faster. They want to be assured that at the end of the speed reading course they will also be able to remember what they read and understand its meaning. This is where many people have become skeptical about the claims being made by those offering different methods to learn how to read more quickly.

Back in 1958, a teacher coined the term speed reading after she brushed some dirt of a page of text and found that her eyes followed the movement of her hand across the page, and the Wood Method speed reading course was developed, named after the teacher Evelyn Wood. It was renamed Reading Dynamics that year and has sparked numerous variations in how to offer a speed reading course.

Like all learned tasks, a speed reading course is never really finished. As children, people are taught to do many different things and all are basically taught how to read in the same manner. When, as an adult, they decide to take a speed reading course it is similar to learning to read over again, at least the way they approach reading will be different from what they were taught as children. Despite the number of claims made by purveyors of course, claims are that even a free speed reading course can produce results if the person sticks with the program.

When considering an online speed reading course, persons should focus on their ability to comprehend what they have read and not just how fast they read. There are some claims that readers in competitions have shown they can read between 1,000 and 2,000 words per minute with a 50-percent comprehension rate. There are few results that indicate how long the information was retained.

There is also some dispute about the accuracy of the measurements used to show that any one speed reading course is better than others are, as each individual may comprehend information presented in different ways. Some advocates of speed reading also point out that some of the best college graduate readers go through text at only 600 words per minute with the same comprehension rate. However, one thing is common in different courses and that is that practice will improve the person’s reading speed.