After getting smashed in the reading section of the N2 due to having a fairly slow reading speed and having to skim and guess for several of the passages, I was wondering whether those who have read books with the books clubs here have noticed an increase in your reading speed? I assume that the best method to improving one’s reading speed is just to read as much as possible, but I was curious about your guys’ experiences.
Thanks : )
I’ve never measured my reading speed, though it feels a bit faster. That’s possibly because I’ve started to just skim without actually taking in what I’m reading, though…
Edit: I never joined a book club but…
I started out with 2 minutes per manga page.
I stopped reading manga for a few months but recently came back to the habit and this time around I’m somewhere between 1min - 90 seconds per page so my reading speed is increasing slowly.
Once you become familiar with rather frequently appearing words and phrases you will be able to skim though them super quickly.
I definitely have, words have started flowing easier and I find myself reading smoothly instead of having to break it up like I used to
I did the JCAT before starting to read Kiki, and then 6 months later.
The first time I felt I was skimming the reading comprehension passages and had barely any time to read the questions. The second time I could read, answer and still have time on the clock. As I wasn’t doing any other study beyond WK at the time, I definitely thank book club for my improvement.
I’m definitely faster. Obviously, I see the biggest difference for things where I’ve been reading one series (like Aria), because I’m used to the writing style and so on, but even just generally I read things faster and more confidently now than a year ago.
I think a key aspect is exposure to those long winding sentences. You get better and better at processing them on the fly, rather than having to deconstruct them.
I do think, if you’re specifically trying to increase your speed, that it can be helpful to spend at least some on your reading practice time on that skill specifically. In other words, rather than making sure you’re understanding absolutely everything as you go, sit down sometimes to read, say, one chapter without stopping.
Reading in the book club has definitely helped with my reading speed. I think part of it for me is that I can better process sentences as I go along, as opposed to having to pause, go back, and figure out grammar structures individually. It also helps with exposure to new vocab. Even if you don’t necessarily know the word offhand, you may recall it from a previous context and can better guess its meaning within the sentence. So actually sitting down and reading is definitely worthy as a study method, in my opinion.
I also have yet to join in on any book clubs but I read light novels on my own. After 6 books ive gotten much faster and its definitely not something you can manage without reading. You just get a lot better at both parsing stuff and sorta knowing whats gonna come next so you read it faster.
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