Things You'll Need:
- Book/reading material that is comfortable to you.
- A timer with an alarm/buzzer that can be set for 10 minutes.
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Step 1
Having your reading material directly in front of you, set the timer for 10 minutes.
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Step 2
Begin reading at your normal pace and forget about the timer until it buzzes. Mark your place where you stopped.
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Step 3
Count how many words are in a line of your material (if you were reading fiction, go down to a full line if the first line is indented.)
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Step 4
To give an example, suppose you have 9 words in one line. You'll want to take that number and multiply it by the number of lines you read. So if you read 270 lines, you'll want to do 270 x 9 = 2430 words. Obviously some lines are going to have more than 9 words and some are going to have less, but you're wanting a quick average.
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Step 5
Take that resulting number--in my example the 2,430, and divide it by 10 (the number of minutes). This will give you your words per minute (WPM). So in this example, the person reads 243 words per minute.
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Step 6
An average range for adults is 200-250 words per minute. You can improve your reading rate by using speed reading techniques, which can be found in other articles. A lot of it also depends on the type of material you're reading--it takes more effort and thought to read poetry than it does material that is more straightforward.
