(Posted August 2024 – Written by Amanda Wallace, CPA, CA, Densmore marker and author since 2008)
One piece of advice I got when preparing for the CPA Common Final Examination (CFE) was to take a speed-reading course, but I never got around to it until after I got my CPA designation. Learning to read faster can be a huge help as it can save you time that can be used for planning and writing your case response.
There is a common misconception that when you speed read you are just going to skim your eyes over the pages and be able to read 1,000 words a minute with 100% comprehension. That is not the reality of speed reading. Instead, speed reading is a method of understanding the material that you read without mentally saying the words to yourself as you are reading.
Here are a few techniques that you can use to help increase your reading speed.
Technique 1 – Use a Pacer
The first technique to use when speed reading is to use a pacer to keep your eyes trained on the line you are reading. This will help you to remain focused and read the information more quickly.
Your pacer can be your pen or your finger. If you are going to use your finger, you want to make a fist with your hand and stick out your index finger. It is important to only have one pacer so be sure to tuck in your thumb so that you do not focus on two points. Your eyes will not be able to effectively focus if there are two different pacers.
You are going to place your finger under the line of text on the printed case near the left-hand margin and as you read, move your finger to the right-hand margin. You should be moving your finger at a steady pace. You do not want to go too fast so that you are unable to read what is written on the line. Conversely, you do not want to go too slow as that will not help you to speed up to gain efficiency in reading the material. Your objective is to keep your eyes focused and moving along the line of text. When you get to the end of the line, pick up your finger and move it to the start of the next line. This technique helps your eyes to move more quickly over the page enabling your mind to understand what you are reading. Your level of comprehension will be higher because you are able to read at the same speed that your brain can process the information.
Technique 2 – Reduce Subvocalization
The second technique is to stop saying what you read ‘out loud’ in your mind. This is called subvocalization, which is the habit of pronouncing each word in your head as you read it. When you subvocalize, you ‘hear’ the word being spoken in your mind. Most people will do this to some extent.
I used to believe that I remembered things better when I said them aloud, even if it was only in my head. That is not true. You can read faster than you can talk. If you are saying everything that you read, you will read more slowly as you can only read at the speed that you can talk. Most of us typically speak 250 to 350 words a minute, which means you are limiting how fast you can read to how fast you can speak.
It is not easy to turn off that voice in your head. First, you need to acknowledge that it is there and second you need to practice “not speaking.” Subvocalization is a learned habit, and you need to practice to break the habit. As you practice and study for the CFE, tell yourself not to subvocalize.
Technique 3 – Challenge Your Wandering Mind
The third technique is to speed up your reading if your mind is wandering rather than slowing down. When I was a CPA candidate, I would do the opposite because I thought that if I slowed down, I was likely to remember more of what I was reading. Think about a time when you were reading something, and your mind just started to think of other things, like what you will have for dinner or what you will do on the weekend. In the end, you cannot remember anything about what you have read.
The reason this happens is because you are not challenging your brain. Your mind can process information faster than you can read. Your brain gets bored and when it does, it multi-tasks. Slowing down is not going to help; your brain will just continue to be bored and think about other things. If you increase your reading speed, your brain is less likely to wander, and you will have better concentration. If you can concentrate better on reading the case, you will be more likely to pull out the key case facts and see the connections within the case. The next time your mind starts to wander while you are reading, remember to increase your speed.
Technique 4 – Avoid Regression
The fourth technique is to read the case once from start to finish. Now there are specific things that you will do before you fully read the case, such as scanning the initial text to find the requireds. You will also read the requireds a second time (as part of your full read of the case) because you want to be 100% clear on what you have been asked to do and ensure that you address those requireds. However, you do not want to re-read the entire case or sections of the case more than once as this takes up valuable time and time is a scarce resource on the PEP Module final exams and even more so on the CFE.
Sometimes people get in the habit of skipping back over a few words or sentences just to make sure that they have read something correctly. Regression is the unnecessary re-reading of material. When you regress, you lose the flow and structure of the case and your overall understanding of what you are reading decreases. Unless you absolutely must due to a lack of comprehension, you do not want to re-read the case as you are completing your full read through of it.
Part of debriefing is to go back into the case to find the triggers for the requireds, the use of case facts, or the correct analysis to apply. As you gain confidence through debriefing and knowing what to look for, you will be less likely to regress as you read and will be more likely to identify the necessary triggers in the case.
Read at the Speed You Can Comprehend
The biggest takeaway is that you need to read at the speed that you can comprehend. If you push yourself so that you are reading too fast and cannot comprehend what you are reading, there is no value to that time savings as it will negatively impact your ability to write a strong case response. However, by using the above techniques to read faster, you can gain a higher level of understanding, which can result in improved case writing performance.