Content Page 4 Post Secondary/Tertiary

What Your Effective Reading Speed (ERS) Tells You

While your Reading Speed is based on how fast you read the test passage, Soundway’s Effective Reading Speed takes into account how much of what you read you actually understand. It takes your Reading Speed score and factors in your Comprehension Test score. Effective reading comprehension is the ability to find meaning and usefulness in a text. It is the purpose of reading.

Some comprehension skills include summarizing, analysing, predicting, memory of details and drawing conclusions. A combination of high speed reading and a high level of comprehension makes for very productive reading. Essentially, there’s no value in reading super-fast, if you don’t understand much of what you read. Soundway’s ERS is a more accurate assessment of your actual reading speed.

How Do You Interpret Your Effective Reading Speed (ERS)?
  • Reading
    Speed
  • Effective
    Reading
    Speed
1
  • Poor
  • Poor
2
  • AVERAGE
  • AVERAGE
3
  • ABOVE
    AVERAGE
  • ABOVE
    AVERAGE
4
  • SPEED
    READER
  • SPEED
    READER
5
  • ADVANCED
    SPEED
    READER
  • ADVANCED
    SPEED
    READER

Your ERS can either be lower than or equal to your Reading Speed. The score depends on how well you did in your Comprehension Test. Here’s how you determine what your ERS score means :

IF YOUR ERS AND READING SPEED SCORES ARE THE SAME

If you got all the questions in the Comprehension Test correct, your ERS score will be the same as your reading speed score. So whatever your reading speed (high or low), you do have excellent comprehension.

NEXT STEP: Improve your reading speed and maintain your excellent comprehension skills.

IF YOUR ERS SCORE IS 1 LESS THAN YOUR READING SPEED SCORE

If you scored one level less in your ERS than your reading speed (for example your reading speed level is “Speed Reader” and your ERS is “Above Average“) then your comprehension skills are behind or lagging your Reading Speed, but not by that much.

NEXT STEP: You can get them on par quite easily, with the right training and practice. A good speed reading course will easily remedy this,
while significantly increasing your reading speed.

IF YOUR ERS SCORE IS MORE THAN 1 LESS THAN YOUR READING SPEED SCORE.

If you scored more than one level less in your ERS score than your Reading Speed example your reading speed level is “Speed Reader” and your ERS is “Average“) then your comprehension skills are lagging too far behind your reading speed.

NEXT STEP: You’ll need to take action to improve your ERS score. A good speed reading course will help you significantly narrow or eliminate the gap in as little as a day. And you’ll be reading much, much faster.