Speed Reading Software Reviews

AceReader by Stepware, Inc. will help you improve your reading speed both on-screen and off-screen. It focuses on breaking two slow reading habits: subvocalization (silently pronouncing each word as you read) and re–reading (accidentally reading the same line twice). Ace Reader is a great program for children and adults with 13 reading levels and over 200 included texts. It is available for both PCs and Macs, and is very easy to install.

With a simple interface, competitive price, and a variety of valuable features available, AceReader is considered one of the best speed reading softwares on the market today. The program offers more than just a quick tutorial. It also offers the tools to develop your skill and ways of measuring improvement. AceReader allows you to pick what tests and functions you’d like to perform. The choices are:

• Comprehension Tests and Reports (a series of tests to measure your reading speed and comprehension).

• Drills (AceReader flashes one word after another on the screen, gradually speeding up the display).

• Eye-Span Game (trains to refocus and reposition your eyes quickly).

• Eye-Span Comprehension Game (the objective is to improve comprehension while quickly scanning text).

• Flash Card Game (You are presented with a phrase for a fraction of a second, then with a question asking you about it).

• Tachistoscope Flash and Recall Game (another of the flash-card variety, only you’re tested on memory recall of what’s flashed).

• Search / Scan Game (You are presented with a list or a paragraph of text, and a word you must find.)

In addition, customer service is excellent. For any questions you can contact Stepware Inc. by phone or email and they will reply within 24 hours.

The Reader’s Edge Pro teaches effective and efficient speed reading. Proper reading skills are necessary in today’s information-based society, but for some reason are not being taught in schools. Using The Reader’s Edge for just 15 minutes several times a week you will double or triple your reading speed and comprehension in less than a month.

The Literacy Company, developers of The Reader’s Edge, have received the first place award for speed reading software from Top Ten Reviews (one of the premier independent review companies) in 2007, when comparing 16 software programs in the speed reading industry.

The Reader’s Edge is suitable for individuals of all ages, including readers with dyslexia, allows unlimited number of users, can be installed on up to two computers, and offers both CD and download version. It teaches how to read groups of words with a single eye-movement at 3 to 6 times your current reading fluency. Reader’s Edge Software Includes:
• Reading skill exercises
• Speed reading exercises
• Speed and comprehension tests
• Personalized program settings
• Assessment and progress reports
• Import Content
• Free Updates

When learning with The reader’s Edge, the user gets to choose the number of characters, words or phrases that will be displayed in the exercises, along with the speed at which they will be presented (flash speed). The program gives you complete control and creates a level of confidence, that you are capable to learn how to read better.

Speed Your Read by Stark Raving Software is a good method containing warm–up exercises, timed tests and speed reading tests. It uses the so-called Rapid Serial Visual Presentation technique, which is basically a series of flashing words, that is believed to be the most effective one. This is strictly speed reading course, it doesn’t contain comprehension tests.

Karen Stark, the owner of the program, claims that you can learn to read 1000 words per minute, which is a little hard to believe. Here is a quote from the homepage: ‘Within a few days of using Speed Your Read for just a few minutes a day you could easily double or even triple your reading speed. Your reading speed will increase the first time you use the software and will keep increasing to up to 1000 words a minute or more’. Her own reading speed is supposedly 1100…

The software package is pretty easy to use, except for two weak spots: the menu toolbar is missing, and the user is not able to adjust the word per minute speed. There are only 25 reading materials offered to choose from, but the students can load their own texts. The course takes from 2 to 3 hours to complete; it’s recommended to practice 15-30 minutes a day with Speed Your Read.

Raving Software delivers great customer care. They have a toll-free phone number and an email address if you have any questions. Technical support is offered in English, French and Finnish.

The product provides considerable value for the price. In addition, Stark Raving Software offers an unconditional money-back guarantee.

RocketReader improves user’s reading and comprehension fluency with flash training, grouping exercises, training, practice speed readings, comprehension testing and speed timing. This high-performance reading software that has been in the market for over 10 years will help you to become a fast and accurate reader by getting rid of common poor reading habits such as “sub-vocalization barrier”.  This award winning technique can train your eye and your brain to accurately read a line of information or a sentence with a single eye movement.

A database contains 28,000 words, 60,000 phrases and a hundred documents for readers of all ages. Unlike other softwares, RocketReader is interactive. It increases your motivation when learning speed reading techniques as you will be guided step by step.

Rocket Reader includes lessons, exercises, speed tests and comprehension tests for users of all ages. The software has a hundred documents in different categories (literature, science, history, fun stories and fiction). In addition, users are able to include their own documents.

The program works with Windows 98, 2000, XP, NT and ME and can be easily downloaded from the website.
For beginners, RocketReader’s basic level is mostly focused on reading comprehension. For advanced readers, the program is meant to increase reading speed of more complicated texts while maintaining a high level of comprehension.

Rocket Reader is user friendly and simple to navigate. Just use the buttons on the bottom of each window. The default color pattern of the program appears somewhat distracting, but the user is able to change that by choosing out of many alternatives. We would suggest using a solid background color with a contrasting font color, which is much easier on the eye.

RocketReader even evaluates users’ progress and suggests when to take a test or move to the next level.

Speed Reader-X is an efficient speed reading, comprehension, vocabulary and memory training course.

It uses the latest software, designed to help you practice speed reading exercises. This is an intense course with many practical exercises which will help you acquire lots of new skills in a short period of time. By the end of the Speed Reader-X program you will not only be able to read faster than ever before, but you‘ll considerably increase your comprehension.

Human brain is able to absorb information much faster than the average person can read. Speed Reader-X teaches a new “Vertical Wave” pattern of reading. It might sound strange, but can be very effective with practice. The program teaches you to scan text, opposite to time-taking eye moving. This is a true speed reading software which involves subconscious intake of every word appearing on the screen.

The training program consists of 10 lessons. After completing each lesson, you can see your latest reading speed results on the screen. It is recommended to take one lesson at a time, although you may tackle as many lessons as you wish.

Speed Reader-X is available for Mac and Windows. However, the Mac version is considered buggy. Another disadvantage of the program is that you can’t stop a quiz. That means, if you get interrupted, you should restart.

Speed Reader-X Training System is well-organized, efficient and suitable for people of different levels of reading speed and different age groups. It seems to be improved greatly after a few years of development and upgrades.

Speed Reading 4 Kids was developed in 1997 by George Stancliffe, a long time speed reading teacher. The course has been improved since then and is available now in its 3rd edition.

While working on this method, the author has discovered something amazing, children can learn easier and faster than adults. While regular reading is a left brained activity, speed reading is a right brained activity, just like imagination. People normally lose this ability from lack of use as they grow older. Speed Reading 4 Kids teaches children to visualize what they read while improving both speed and comprehension.

This course is designed for 4 weeks, 5 days a week and suggests that children should practice to speed read between the lessons, at least 15 minutes per day.

Although can be used by anybody, Speed Reading 4 Kids is recommended for the age of 8 to 12 and suitable for children diagnosed with ADHD, who frequently excel at it.

George Stancliffe claims that dyslexic children might reach the speed of 10 000 words per minute and faster with complete understanding. This might be a bit exaggerated, though. Our experts estimated the results anywhere between 500 and 3000 words per minute.

We would like to point out, that Speed Reading 4 Kids is a teaching manual, not software, and it requires parents’ assistance in teaching a child. It doesn’t matter whether parents know how to speed read themselves.

In addition, the course has a no-hassle refund policy. That’s always a good thing.

Ultimate Speed Reader offers training activities to help users achieve their reading goals. It will improve your concentration and comprehension, and teach you to visualize more words at once.

The course consists of 10 lessons, each lesson lasts about 30 minutes, starting with a ‘warm-up’ and moving on to timed reading exercises that are constantly increasing speed level. At the end of each lesson the program calculates user’s progress. Ultimate Speed Reader contains over 200 reading extracts and can be used with outside materials. There is also the so-called ‘Eye Max Game’ designed to test and improve your peripheral vision.

The main flaw of the software is displaying the whole paragraph on the screen instead of flashing single words or phrases, which is considered to be more effective. The main advantage is that the user is able to request the number of words per line, per page and even per minute. However, some people experience eye stress during the sessions.

Beginners might find Ultimate Speed Reader a bit difficult to navigate, as it doesn’t have a Back and Forward buttons. You won’t be able to make any adjustments after you started the lesson.

This course is recommended for older students, as it encloses really complicated and advanced practice materials. Most of the users say they learned a lot more in addition to speed reading.

Installation of Ultimate Speed Reader is very easy; takes about 3 minutes. It is compatible with Windows 95 or higher and Mac System 7.1 or higher.

Overall, this program is not the most effective one on the market, but it does help to increase user’s reading and comprehension skills. Configuration features leave much to be desired, and it could be a bit more user-friendly.

SpidiRead 2007 is a program that, according to its creators, will increase your reading speed by 2, 3 or even 10 times. That might be a bit exaggerated, but the method is quite effective. It teaches the user’s eyes to move faster when reading, and the brain to process information more rapidly while maintaining high level of comprehension. SpidiRead 2007 also helps improve one’s memory and concentration skills.

The course recommends to exercise 30 minutes a day for 2 weeks. It contains 60 lessons and 3 tests to evaluate your progress in speed reading. SpidiRead 2007 doesn’t offer that many texts (about 80), but it does allow to add your own materials. There are more than 30 training tasks developed to improve students’ coordination between the eyes and the brain, and to strengthen eyeball muscles. While most of the speed reading features are pretty standard, there is one that we find unique. It’s SpidiRead’s memory training set with the series of uncommon exercises and games.

Minimum system requirements are:
• 20 MB of available hard disk space
• Windows 98/2000/XP/Vista
• Pentium III 450 Mhz or higher

Even though the program is very easy to use and install, and even beginners shouldn’t have any problems, SpidiRead 2007 offers customer support in case you do need assistance. However, the only contact option available is email.

This is the cheapest speed reading course that we are aware of. Although it offers a certain amount of quality for the price, the software is definitely lacking convenience. The interface is nowhere close to our top choices for speed reading methods.