Read a short original story, answer three questions, and get your words per minute adjusted for comprehension
The Reading Speed Test measures how many words per minute you read with the meaning intact. You read one short original story, written for this site so you cannot have seen it before, at the pace you would read a book. Press the button at the end and three questions about the story appear with the text hidden. The result is your raw words per minute, how many questions you got right, and your speed adjusted for comprehension, which is the number worth comparing between attempts.
Press Start reading. The clock starts and the story appears.
Read it at your normal pace, the way you would read a novel or an article you care about.
Press I've finished reading as soon as you reach the end. Do not go back over it.
Answer the three multiple-choice questions from memory; the story is hidden while you do.
Read your result: words per minute, questions right, and the comprehension-adjusted speed.
Try another story. There are three, and the test rotates to the one you have not read for longest.
Words per minute is the story's word count divided by your reading time in minutes, rounded to the nearest whole number. The clock runs from Start reading to I've finished reading; answering the questions is not timed.
The comprehension-adjusted speed multiplies words per minute by the share of the three questions you got right, so 300 words per minute with two right counts as 200. With fewer than two right, the result is labelled as skimming. Your last ten results are kept in this browser, and the best adjusted speed is shown as your best.
Reading fluency: taking in ordinary prose quickly while keeping hold of who did what and why. Asking questions afterwards is the important part, because reading speed on its own is easy to inflate by skimming, and a faster number that loses the details is not faster reading.
The most thorough estimate of normal reading speed comes from a 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies with nearly 18,600 participants. It puts the average adult reading English silently at about 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction, and it found that many figures quoted online, often 300 words per minute or more, overstate what typical readers do.
A major review of reading research for the Association for Psychological Science examined speed-reading claims and found a consistent trade-off: as reading speed goes up, comprehension goes down. The eye can only take in a few letters clearly on each fixation, and techniques that promise very high speeds work by skipping text. The review concluded that the reliable route to faster reading is more reading and a larger vocabulary.
That trade-off is why this test asks questions afterwards and reports a comprehension-adjusted speed. A number measured without checking understanding rewards skimming, which is a different and sometimes useful skill, but not the one most people mean by reading speed.
Read the way you normally read. The test is a measurement, not a race, and a rushed number tells you nothing useful.
Take the test at a time of day when you usually read, since tiredness slows everyone down.
Compare the comprehension-adjusted number between attempts rather than the raw one.
If you catch yourself re-reading lines, notice it. Going back is the most common thing that slows readers down.
Your second story will usually feel easier because the format is familiar; judge progress over several attempts.
Words per minute is the number of words in the story divided by the minutes you spent reading it. A 300-word story read in 72 seconds, 1.2 minutes, is 250 words per minute.
Your words per minute multiplied by the share of questions you got right. 300 words per minute with two of three right is 200. It stops a skim from counting as a fast read.
A large review of reading studies puts the average adult reading English silently at about 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction, with most adults between roughly 175 and 300. Anywhere in that range with the questions right is a normal, healthy pace.
Not without understanding less. Reviews of speed-reading research find that the big speeds promised by courses come from skimming, and comprehension falls as speed rises. Reading more, and building vocabulary, is what raises speed without that cost.
Three questions keep the test short enough to repeat, and each checks a specific detail from a different part of the story. That is enough to tell careful reading from skimming, which is all the adjustment needs.
Your last ten results are saved in this browser only. Nothing is sent to an account, and there is no sign-up.