I Was Wrong About Speed Reading: Here are the Facts.

Exactly. Speed-reading with any degree of comprehension is basically not possible. If I am very alert, am reading something not that complex, and have no distractions, I can read about a thousand words per minute.

This is very fast — in the top 1/10 of one percent or above of readers — but nothing near the speed-reading rate claimed by any of those bogus programs.

Most of the time, though, I read about 500wpm or so. Still fast but nothing that amazing. I guarantee you that no one can read with any comprehension at 5,000wpm, and that very few people even with speed reading training can read that much faster than I can with full comprehension.

It is just not physiologically possible.