30 Days has passed and the challenge is over. My goal was at 350 WPM with 75% comprehension within 30 days by practicing speed reading techniques by Ace Reader. What happened to the 3rd weeks post? Well I will tell you what happened. I created a small update on the challenge with an unexpected issue. I thought I could take rest for a few days and come back tackling twice as hard…but my assumptions were wrong. My eye felt like it was swollen and dry enough where I would actually put effort into blinking. I took additional  days off and now my girlfriend mentioned that my 30 days was over! Thinking about how my 30 day challenge was not a real 30 day challenge. It was a 30 day or whenever you feel like stopping challenge. I can slowly feel the negativity coming so I will stopped chattering and cut straight to the slimmed down 30 day challenge result.

Speed Reading Screenshot – Red Highlight

The last couple of tests had the same patterns right before I broke the 270 area mark the first week. I will not know if the significant WPM jump would have happened if I continued the course.

The Result

- My average WPM before the challenge was 234 WPM with 93.75% comprehension.

- The Goal was 350 WPM by 30 days.

- My brand spanking new average is 307 WPM with 90% comprehension.

The Conclusion

I did not conquer the castle but I was able to put up a good fight. I will reorganize my troops and come back fighting for my 350 WPM in the near future. While in hibernation, I did notice my reading has become honed and I am able to enjoy reading for a longer period. Scanning through pages and coding has definitely improved and I can now surf the web 31% times faster! YEAH! Or 31% more surfing! I am glad I took this challenge and I know this is something I do want to continue improving for the rest of my life. It is the backbone to moving forward to help learn more about myself and what the world has to offer and it is something I would highly recommend for everyone. Have you done speed reading exercises in the past? What kind of results did you get from it?

Here is the report for week #2 for the speed reading challenge. My eye started to heal last week so I was able to keep my eye on the ball again. The very, very blurry ball. I was expected to not do well on the test for the first run of AceReader since my reading level has slowly dissipated the past week (or is it my bad attitude that subconsciously made me perform as well as I should ?). I took the third comprehension test and asked myself, “What if I could get the average WPM on the test by taking 3 separate tests over again?”. What I did not realize was the amount of tests AceReader can only provide per course. I ended up exhausting my supply and could not take anymore tests until I finish the course level. This was a huge a let down. It felt like I found a piece of hair in my soup after it was already half way down my throat and I did not know whether I should regurgitate it out or swallow the unknown DNA. I ended up missing 2-4 days of AceReader action because of this so I am taking this weeks challenge opportunity as loss. Lets stop here and show the half-ass results!

Speed Reading Screenshot – Red Highlight

The downfall was the addiction of looking at the progress graph. Every time I did not do well, a little bit of me dies so most important part for this week is to simply ignore the graph and just create a tunnel vision to just run through the exercises.

Measured Results

I was averaging 305 WPM from the last time I have posted and now I am at 306 WPM! 1 word improvement! I am very glad that it is on a positive number because no matter how many speed bumps are being raced through, there would always be something good on the other side. I will be coming after you 350!  Lets move forward people!

I was expecting to write an update on the speed reading challenge with graphs and stats oh my but ended up with a down time update. My right eye became a little sore/numb on Monday so it became a lot harder to do the daily exercise. I ended up resting my eye from these hardcore ace reader workouts for an entire week so I can go back at it strong the next week. I will continue to start the 15th day as of today, April 02,  and have the goal adjusted to the 26th instead of the 19th.