We discussed ‘eye fixations’ and ‘vision span’ earlier. The wider your vision span, the more words you are able to take in at a time and the higher your speed. When you have a narrow vision span, you restrict yourself to reading just words- not ideas. You are not able to see the ‘larger picture’ so to speak. And, as mentioned in the previous lesson, visualizing ideas instead of reading words at their face value is essential to speed reading. To be able to take in meaningful bits of information, you will need a wider vision span. Once you see all (or most) of the constituents of an idea in the same instant you will immediately comprehend the idea the material wants to convey.

The following exercise will make you aware of your current vision span and eye movement as well as help you in practicing taking in more information in a single fixation. Columns 1 – 4 have 4, 5, 6 and 7 digit-numbers respectively. Your task will be to practice and proceed from one column to the next as you manage to take in a bigger number in a single glance.

1. Take out a piece of paper and a pencil.
2. Use a pacer (such as a small piece of paper) to direct and focus your vision. Move the pacer down column 1 and take just one glance at a number. Resist the urge to linger.
3. Without looking at the chart above, try to reproduce the number you just saw.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until your pacer has moved all over the chart and you have written down every number.
5. Compare the numbers you put down with the actual ones in the chart. Find out how many you got right and wrong.

A few incorrect entries are to be expected- especially for the 6 and 7 digit numbers. But if you keep practicing at expanding your vision span, pretty soon you will be able to reproduce every number accurately with just a single eye fixation.