What is the best speed reading course and software? A review.
Knowing how to read fast can positively influence any person’s life, knowledge, and career opportunities. However, while reading seems a basic skill to most people, only a few will actually take the effort to learn more advanced techniques.
An online speed reading course is a time-effective solution and offers chances to learn more efficiently. Below is a list of the best speed reading courses 2021, each designed to increase pace and develop comprehension, recalling and memory skills.
The Best Speed Reading Course 2021 – Top 5
Iris Reading | 7 Speed Reading | Rev it Up Reading | SuperLearner 2.5 | Spreeder |
---|---|---|---|---|
from $50 | $79.90 | from $49.95 | from $11.99 | $67 |
★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ |
View Course | View Course | View Course | View Course | View Course |
1. Iris Speed Reading Course
Iris Reading (view course website) is a highly recognized and accomplished company that focuses on speed reading and memorization courses. With mentions in the Wall Street Journal and Entrepreneur.com, learners can be assured of the quality of their online courses or in-person classes. Students have lifelong access to all online video tutorials.
Online – An Iris online speed reading course is video-based and students can access classes at their convenience and own pace. Three online modules are available: ‘Speed Reading Foundation Course’, ‘Speed Reading Mastery’ and the ‘Advanced Comprehension and Memory Course’. The Foundation module is best for beginners while the other ones build upon the skills learned in the basic class. You may get each tutorial separate, but Iris also offers all their online courses as a bundle at a reduced rate.
Live Class – In-person speed reading classes (view city options) are also available and held in all major United States cities, such as New York, Boston, Washington or Los Angeles. International lessons are available at certain popular cities, including Toronto, London, Moscow, Singapore or Mumbai. There is a nice bonus that comes with each booked live class: A one-year license of the AceReader software to keep practicing.
Bootcamp – A series of virtual live-webinar sessions designed as an alternative to an in-person speed reading course. It runs for 5-weeks and contains Q&A sessions and speed tests. Lessons will be recorded to easily access them afterward. View schedule here.
Availability – Online courses work on all browsers and operating systems. Iris offers additional apps and tools to further increase your reading and memory skills. Iris would be the best speed reading course if you like a real classroom or video learning.
Pricing: From $50 to $100. Live classes from $199. Bootcamp from $197.
Info: View course website.
2. The 7 Speed Reading Course
7-Speed-Reading (view website) was developed by eReflect, a world leader in educational and self-improvement software. It consists of various video tutorials featuring leading experts in speed reading, including Abby Marks Beale, one of the top reading experts in America. Furthermore, you will get access to hundreds of exercises, drills, fun games and will be able to create classes with your own material or content from the web.
Features – The 7 Speed Reading course will take only seven minutes a day for two weeks to achieve success. Training exercises are scientifically designed, easy and effortless. Learners receive coaching from experts who will teach them the skills necessary to improve speed. The software also offers adaptive learning technology and will suggest working on weak areas that have been identified during exercising. It uses seven different strategies to allow you to improve your skills in a fast and effective way.
EDU version – The is an EDU Edition available which is designed with a school set up in mind and is the most advanced accelerated reading program for schools. Suitable for all curriculum, texts can be created according to the class with easy administration and accurate reporting.
Accessibility – 7-Speed-Reading is available as software for Windows, Linux, Chrome and MAC machines. It is cloud-based, allowing access to shared information from any device with continuous syncing. eReflect offers a full refund of the product and an additional $50 if you are not fully satisfied with your results. The best speed reading course when you want data based learning, statistics, drills, expert videos and exercises.
Price: $79.90.
Info: View website.
3. Rev It Up Reading Course
Rev It Up Reading (view course website) is a popular course designed and developed by Abby Marks Beale who is a recognized expert in the field of reading improvement. Abby created this online tutor to help people worldwide improve their performance.
What it does – This time-effective speed reading course will develop essential and advanced skills through a module-based program taking only 5 hours. There is a long list of success stories from acknowledged companies to back up this system.
Best for – Rev It Up Reading is best for professionals, students and those who enjoy reading as a leisure activity but want to speed it up. What makes the class really interesting is its highly personalized approach since students have direct contact with Abby. Hence, ask any questions and you will get an answer back within 24 hours.
Features – Rev It Up Reading is passionate about the importance of reading on an educational level. The course focuses on the specific needs of each learner, helping them to be more conscious when reading but also understand the material better and extract important information faster. Students can also track their progress with the 17 timed exercises available and with a self-evaluation of habits assessment.
Pricing – Day-pass system with 7/90/365 days available (view course website).
$49 for 7-days. $199 for 90-days. Includes unlimited personal email support.
Coupon: Use REV2021CL and save 50% on 90-days and 365-days passes.
4. Become a SuperLearner
Become a Super Learner 2.5 (view course website) is available on Udemy, a popular eLearning platform with thousands of courses. SuperLearner is by far the best-selling speed reading course on Udemy. Designed for students and professionals in all industries, this class will teach you some great life-hacking, reading and memory skills. It is hosted by instructors that hold top records for speed reading and memory.
Features – Become a Super Learner 2.5 is an updated and improved course after the success of the original version. The curriculum is divided into ten sections with lessons consisting of worksheets and video. Learners can set their personal goals and be taught valuable skills to achieve these goals. Lessons end with a quiz to test your newly achieved skills. This can be achieved with two or three hours of training per week and the class should be completed in an average of eight weeks.
Accessibility – This hugely successful course is available online, making it accessible from any device with internet connectivity. Via Udmey’s app, you can download all lessons, videos and material for offline use. Free previews are available for certain lectures of the first lesson. The original price is $199, but check the promotion below. This is the best speed reading course online if you want something great, affordable and video-based.
Pricing: from $11.99 (view course website). Sale: Courses $11.99/each. 95% off.
5. eyeQ Reading by InfiniteMinds
eyeQ Reading is a product of InfiniteMinds, a human performance company. Founded by Mr. Jeffrey C. Flamm, an expert in business studies, the InfiniteMinds team designed this software course to help learners increase their memory and reading skills. At the core stands their famous eye reading training program that will teach you effective eye movements to see more at a glance and process that information faster.
About – eyeQ is based on the scientific research of Dr. Kawamura, an expert in the field of brain function and memory. They use proven methodology to exercise the brain, stimulating it and increasing the learning potential of the user. eyeQ uses these techniques in all their courses. The speed reading course is available in three versions: Personal and family use, for a school set-up and business use.
Features – Visible results can be achieved in only 7 minutes of testing per day. All versions offer a free demonstration version upon request and additional test preparation can be requested. eyeQ is online-based and requires access to the internet and registration with purchase. For peace of mind, eyeQ offers a 90-day refund guarantee.
Online learning platforms have become very popular over the last few years. They offer a wide range of topics to learn in one place. Skillshare and LinkedIn Learning offer speed reading courses that are worth looking into if you have a subscription or plan to get one.
Skillshare – The best speed reading course here is currently the Speed Reading Mastery class. In 28 lessons, Jordan Harry walks you through the ins and outs of how to effectively approach studying, reading, and research. The F.A.S.T strategy allows you to assess, read, store, and transfer (review) information efficiently.
Turning to Linkedin, the most notable speed reading class is the one by Paul Nowak. Short and compact in size, subjects will be presented in digestible chunks covering professional and career-related use cases. Of course, speed and reading comprehension is a major topic. Suitable for those who have a subscription or plan to do so.
Level: All | Video Lesson: 10-30 | User Review: 4.5 ★★★★☆
Subscriptions: Skillshare $8.99/month. Free Trial. Linkedin $17.99/month. Free trial.
7. Become a Reading Machine Course
Become a Reading Machine is a popular Udemy speed reading course to teach you how to read up to 300 books a year. The course is based on a 7-step framework developed and tested by instructor Brandon Hakim.
Goals – Become a Reading Machine is focused on non-fiction books and is suitable for those who see learning as a lifelong goal and a way of creating new (career) opportunities. If you think of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett or Elon Musk, you may get an idea of why having a systematic approach to reading can be so powerful. This is version 2.0 with updated content, techniques and material.
Topics – A big focus is on learning to read the right things and spend no more than 1-2 days for each book to extract the main information. You will be introduced to speed reading techniques, speed note-taking, memorization methods, time management and to develop a mindset on how to approach any book you might want to read in the future. There will be an Excel template sheet to effectively organize your reading.
Requirements – Hakim recommends spending at least 10 minutes a day to reading in order to reach the basic course goals. You will be encouraged to test new learning methods and change some of the (ineffective) poor reading habits you may have learned during school days. This best speed reading course is very practical and students should be prepared to immediately apply what they learn to read up to 300 books a year.
Course outline
- Why to read 300 books a year
- Is reading more impossible? The biggest myths.
- Developing a reading ritual
- Creating a curriculum
- Insider tools
- 5 step framework
- Ingraining what you learn
- Apply what you learn
Pricing: from $11.99. Sale!
Website: (view course website). Sale: Up to 95% off.
8. Kwik Reading Course
This is another great option to learn from a mentor directly. Jim Kwik is behind Kwik Learning and an expert in the field of reading and memory improvement. Kwik Reading follows the concept that there are no bad readers. The issues of slow reading rather result from bad reading habits.
Overview – This online speed reading course consists of 21 daily online lessons that will be sent to your inbox each day. Of course, you can access them at your own pace and as many times as you want. The 3-week program will teach you basic techniques, an instant brain work out and provides scheduled training to practice all strategies.
Goals – Kwik will train your speed, improve focus and develop your comprehension and retention skills. According to the CEO, students will be able to read 25-50% faster than before. There will also be tutorials to reduce eye-fixations, subvocalization and regression.
Pricing – Learning from a personal coach is always best and absolutely applies to the Jim Kwik course. It offers good value and knowledge, however, with $497 it is also one of the priciest options on this list here.
9. AceReader Cloud Course
AceReader was created by StepWare, a company that started up 20 years ago as a research and development company. Since their early days, they provided educational software to schools and individual learners. From their experience and success, they created the award-winning AceReader as a desktop application, with AceReader Personal Cloud Edition currently being the default software.
Features – AceReader Personal is an online course and resource. It is created with a school set up in mind, allowing scholars, students, teachers, businesses and families to connect as a network. Results are achieved with exercises, reading comprehension tests and timed tests and games for eye testing. Training for 15 minutes per day for two to three times per week should ensure results.
Accessibility – AceReader works with all operating systems and comes with a 30-day refund guarantee. A free test is available as a trial before you purchase the software. The price for the desktop version is $69.90. This is one of the best speed reading course solutions for those looking for great inter-device compatibility.
10. The Reader’s Edge Software Course
The Reader’s Edge is a product of The Literacy Company, a company that is top-rated in developing speed reading software courses. The company was founded in 1996 by Richard Sutz and is dedicated to further research and improve its program. They also offer workshops on reading-improvement and accuracy.
Goal – The vision and mission of The Reader’s Edge is to assist as many learners as possible to improve their reading skills. Lessons and exercises are easy and simple to use and designed for learners of all skill levels and ages. Lessons are detail planned with step-by-step instructions. Reading exercises for about 15 minutes per day will help learners achieve realistic results and master a valuable skill.
Pricing – The Reader’s Edge is available as a software application and has a free demonstration version online. Upgrades and support are included in the fees. Results are guaranteed with a 30-day refund policy.
11. Legentas Online Speed Reading Course
Legentas was designed by a team of top professionals. Working together with academic experts in accelerated reading and UX designers, they created this award-winning online speed reading course. Their combined skills resulted in a program that is easy to use and gives proven results.
Features – Legentas focuses on speed by training your eyes to increase their visual span and to see more words at any time. Lessons are presented as exercises and theory to increase brain comprehension and learning potential. Exercises are fun and motivational and learners receive feedback immediately after every exercise.
Accessibility – Legentas is available as an online course and can, therefore, be accessed from various workstations. It is suitable for use at schools, companies and for lecturers. A free trial version is available that offers three training lessons, a speed test, the basics of speed reading and tools for efficient reading.
12. RocketReader
If you aim to read at ‘skyrocketing’ speed, RocketReader is ironically the wrong speed reading course. While 10,000 wpm might be technically possible, this course will rather focus on achieving realistic goals suitable for the average reader or higher scores on tests like the SAT or LSAT.
RocketReader is a structured, supervised training program. The main goal is to improve speed and retention reaching speeds of up to 800 words per minute. According to the instructors, 15-30 minutes of learning each day would be essential to achieve these goals.
Methods – This course will teach you 4 common speed reading techniques. Apart from reading chunks of words, speed training and written page reading, flash training (tachistoscope) is the one that is rather original to RocketReader.
Features – The software comes preset with over 450 exercises. Students may use their own material including PDFs, text files or digital content. There is also a module to run memory tests covering Mathematics, Science, SATs, or English. Comprehension tests will evaluate how much students have understood from the most recent reading.
Pricing – RocketReader may sound impressive, but having a price tag of $139/3month it is a rather expensive speed reading course. Since the top-listed courses will offer the same features and better interfaces, it is worth to compare license options here.
Speed Reading Course 2021 – What is the best class?
Skimming through the list above, it is clear that there is a wide selection of online speed reading courses and software available. For now, we only cover the best and award-winning programs but would like to extend this list over time.
Differences – Many courses have videos and exercises in common which is a great way to combine visual learning with practical activities. Pricing is usually above $60 either for the whole course or ranges from $49 to $99 for subscription-based models. However, I noticed one of the major differences is the style of learning and how the information will be presented. It is worth to think that through and decide whether you like an online course, a video course or a pure software tutor.
Recommendations – While Iris Reading (view website) is either video based or can be booked as a live class in various cities, 7 Speed Reading (view website) offers video tutorials combined with software tracking features and exercises.
Rev it Up Reading (view course) was originally a course and now also offers software features making it a great hybrid solution. However, it definitely keeps its individual approach and great teacher-student experience. All three are great picks if you prefer this type of learning, whereas the Iris speed reading course is also ideal for those who prefer a university-style based learning experience.
Goal setting – Keep in mind that some software only focuses on either reading speed or more on accuracy, while other courses combine the two goals. eLearners are therefore recommended to determine what their main objective is and perceived outcome and make a decision based on that.
Other criteria – Agreed, the more fun activity is, the more the learner will stay motivated. Not everyone enjoys drills and blinking eye exercises and may opt for a more simplified and affordable option. Connectivity may play a role in the decision, especially when working with larger groups of learners. Ultimately pricing will be a factor when purchasing larger amounts of licenses. You may contact us for assistance here.
Best Speed Reading Course 2021
- Iris Reading
- 7-Speed-Reading
- Rev it Up Reading
- Become a SuperLearner 2
- Become a Reading Machine
- eyeQ Reading
- AceReader
- The Reader’s Edge
- Legentas
- RocketReader
- Kwik Reading
Additional Speed Reading Courses Worth Considering
ReadSpeeder – This is the best speed reading course to get for free if you want to learn the basics. The goal is to improve reading speed by focusing on faster comprehension. This involves learning to read in phrases and develop visual reading skills. Students can practice with a library of 500 books but also upload their own material to ReadSpeeder.
Become a Reading Machine – Similar to the Reading Machine course mentioned above, this speed reading course is all about processing information in the quickest way possible. In fact, it is the same course just named differently to highlight the main goal of reading as much as you can within a year. Learn how to decide what to read and what to skip and then how to use books including note-taking, reviewing, and skipping content not needed.
Merrill Ream Speed Reading Course – A compact class offered by Collin College for $139. During 6 weeks, you will learn the concepts and principles of fast reading. It tackles poor reading habits and teaches skimming and scanning as one major way to preview books for research quickly. Subjects include vocabulary and comprehension training, as well as how to track your own progress and ways to practice regularly.
10X SuperHuman Learning – Coming with the byline of Speed Reading & Memory Booster, this Udemy speed reading course focuses on both reading speed and improved memory skills. It promises to push your pace above the 800 words per minute mark and increases learning outcomes by a factor of 10. It touches on other common topics such as subvocalization, regression, peripheral vision span and advanced note-taking skills.
Evelyn Wood – Being referred to as the founder of the speed reading movement, Evelyn Wood’s Seven-Day Speed Reading Course and Learning Program still offers excellent value to those who want to get to know all courses. Since the 1950s, it has been used by thousands of people worldwide to improve their focus, concentration, reading and learning skills. Retain more of the information you hear and read is the motto of this course.
Speed Reading Mastery Course – Again, this is a reading improvement course that jumps on the 10x factor band-wagon. This time read 10x Faster than before. In the end, it is a basic class covering all major concepts but certainly misses out on more-in-depth subjects and training. Good for a quick intro into the topic at an affordable price.
Speed Reading Bootcamp – Read Faster + Understand More is the main learning goal of this course. It’s a compact class taking only 2 hours of your time if you go through without breaks. Sometimes this all you need if an overview of techniques combined with assignments and exercises is all that you want.
Have you tried an online speed reading course, class, and software mentioned in this list? Do you have any questions? Please let us know in the comments below.
Interesting: Missouri University | CalPoly | 10 Tips
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Dhruv says
Thanks! I just love this. I’ve been looking for such a thing like this, I really need to advance my speed reading skills though I think I’m already good at reading, however, I would like to perfect my skills. I will take time to select one of the best courses to enroll. Great piece, quite informative.
Missy says
Oh I’m so excited!! I’ve always wanted to learn this skill but didn’t know how to go about it. I’m now torn on who to go with. Love the online classes particularly the Iris and Revitup courses look promising. I think I just might test it out and go from there. Ya know. I’m excited.
Dennis says
I’m not big on reading but this is mostly because I just can’t focus on what I’m reading. I’ve tried a course I’ve found online but it was pretty much meaningless, it kept on saying practice, practice, without giving practical advice. I think I’ll try your first course, Iris reading, which could be of great help, I think. Their prices are rather decent, especially their current promotion. Do you think it would be best to sign up for their online speed reading courses or to attend their in-person classes, I’ve noticed NY is eligible for this…