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.
I am a speed reading instructor, and, as such, I was interested in finding out more about Speed Your Read. Though the text descriptions were helpful, there was no free-trial or demo version available — that would have helped to link the information with the actual process. Without being able even to see the program in action, I’m not likely to purchase a copy. My recommendation to the designers would be to provide even a minimally functional demo to hold people’s attention, and, most likely, to increase sales.
There is a demo of this software. Just search for Bullet Reader. The company Advance looks based in India which was my only hesitation in purchasing it. Speed Your Read main window looks identical. I think the speed your read people either are distributors of Bullet Reader in the USA or they don’t legally have rights to sell it because I asked them a question about bullet reader and they never responded, twice, curious. Anyway, the program (Bullet Reader)seems excellent and i can vouch that my reading speed has perhaps almost doubled inside a week. this is not saying much because my prior speed was probably less than 200 wpm (with comprehension). I tried all the other programs here but there was either limited testing to really get a feel for results or they were less effective. Speed your read is definitely worth the money IF I could get confidence about buying from them. I do believe 1000 wpm is doable but my guess, it’s going to take a month or so of practice. I will say this, the joy of mentally connecting with printed material at a much faster rate is exhilarating. I feel like a walking computer.