Reading Speed Test
Read a short passage at your usual pace, answer four questions from memory, and see your words per minute, how much you took in, and how that sits next to a published average.
Choose a passage
Read at your usual pace, the way you read something you want to understand. The clock starts when you press Start, and you cannot go back to the text after Done.
Your answers and scores stay on this page and are not sent to ParrotNotes.
How the reading speed test works
- 1
Choose a passage
Three short non-fiction passages of about 300 words, on everyday subjects. Start shows the text and starts the clock.
- 2
Read, then press Done
Read the way you normally read something you want to understand. Done stops the clock and takes the text away.
- 3
Answer and see your numbers
Four multiple-choice questions, then your words per minute, comprehension and effective speed, with the answers. Take another passage if you like.
How the score is calculated
Words per minute (WPM) is the number of words in the passage you read, divided by your time in minutes. 300 words in 75 seconds is 300 ÷ 1.25 minutes = 240 WPM. The page counts the words of the passage on screen rather than using a rounded figure, and the title is not counted.
Comprehension is the share of questions you got right: 3 of 4 is 75%. Effective WPM multiplies the two, so 240 WPM at 75% is an effective 180. It is a simple way to see speed and understanding together, and it is a convention rather than a measure taken from the research below.
What is a normal reading speed?
The best summary we found is Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies with 18,573 participants. Adults reading English non-fiction silently average 238 words a minute, and fiction 260. People differ a lot and reliably, so the paper says a better summary is a range: most adults read non-fiction at 175 to 300 words a minute.
Those figures hold for native readers aged 18 to 60 without reading problems who stay on task. Children, older adults and people reading in a second language are slower, and the paper expects everyday reading with interruptions to be slower too. If you are reading English as a second language, a result under 238 says nothing about how well you read in your own language.
What this test says about speed reading
It does not teach anything, so it cannot tell you whether speed reading works, and we make no claim that you can multiply your speed. Brysbaert opens with a review by Rayner and colleagues (2016) explaining why reading above 1,000 words a minute is not possible without severe loss of understanding, and adds that setting a target of 300 words a minute is unrealistic for most people.
A faster result on a later passage does not show that you improved. The passages differ, you know the format by then, and one sitting moves around. Going faster than usual while your comprehension falls is what the effective figure is there to show.
A result is one sitting on one text. Three things limit it: four questions move your comprehension in steps of 25 points, the questions test memory of details as well as understanding, and the passages were written for this page and have not been calibrated against each other. It is not a diagnosis of anything and not a school or job assessment.
Reading a whole recording takes time
A full transcript of an hour-long meeting or lecture is thousands of words, and reading it can take half an hour or more. ParrotNotes records and transcribes it and gives you a summary, so you can read that first and go to the full text when you need it.
Get ParrotNotes freeRelated tools
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Reading speed test FAQ
Sources