Reading speed test: how many words per minute do you read?
Read one short passage from a classic novel at your normal pace. The clock stops when you press the button under the text. Then you answer four questions, with no time limit.
The passage is 250 to 300 words. Once you've finished reading, it closes, so read it the way you would read anything you want to remember.
You read one passage of 250 to 300 words at your normal pace and press a button when you finish. We divide the number of words by the time you took, which gives your words per minute, and four short questions show how much of the passage you took in.
How this reading speed test works
When you press Start reading, a passage appears and the clock starts. Read it the way you would read a page of a book you care about: no skimming, no slowing down for the test. When you reach the end, press I've finished reading. The clock stops and the passage closes.
Then four questions follow, one at a time, each with four possible answers. There is no time limit on the questions, and the time you spend on them does not count toward your speed. You cannot go back to the passage: with the text still there, answering would turn into a search task, and a fast skim followed by a careful search would look like a fast, careful read.
How your words per minute are counted
Every passage has a fixed word count, counted the way a reader sees it: anything between two spaces is a word, so "tooth-brush" counts once. We divide that count by the minutes between the moment the text appeared and the moment you pressed the button, and round to a whole number. A 270-word passage read in one minute and thirty seconds gives 180 words per minute.
A time below 50 or above 1,500 words per minute does not count toward the comparison with other players. At the top end that usually means the text was skipped; at the bottom end the page was left open while you did something else. You still see your result, with a short note explaining why it is left out.
We show typical scores once enough people have played. Until 50 people have finished the test with a valid time, your result says you are one of the first players. After that it tells you what percentage of all players you read faster than.
Why the four questions matter
Speed on its own is easy to push up: you can move your eyes down a page very quickly and take in almost nothing. The questions ask about details in the passage, such as a name, a day or what happened to something, and you see your score out of four next to your speed. Someone who reads at 220 words per minute and gets all four right has read more than someone who reaches 600 and gets one.
Each question has three wrong answers that sound as plausible as the right one. Before the questions went live, we ran a check that tries to pick the right answer from the wording of the options alone, without the passage. It did no better than guessing, which is the point: your score should depend on what you read.
Where the passages come from
The three passages are from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. All three books are in the public domain in the United States, and the text is copied word for word from Project Gutenberg. The source and ebook number appear under the passage. Which one you get depends on a random number stored with your round, so any round can be replayed exactly if a question turns out to be unclear.
Your device plays a part too. Small screens break the text into more lines, and a large font or a narrow column changes how quickly your eyes move. If you want to compare two of your own results, take both on the same device.
From one passage to the full Brain Check
The reading test stands on its own and is separate from the Brain Check. That one has five games of 45 seconds each: remembering squares on a grid, reacting to dots, spotting patterns, finding differences between two pictures and doing quick sums. It takes about five minutes and ends with a score from 0 to 100, compared with other players once there are enough of them.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a normal reading speed?
- We do not give a number for that yet. Published figures differ a lot depending on the text and on how the reading was measured, and a figure from another test would not match this one. Once 50 people have completed this test with a valid time, your result shows what share of them you read faster than.
- Can I take the test more than once?
- Yes. Each round picks one of the three passages, so you may get the same one again. A passage you have read before goes faster the second time, and your answers are easier, so the first round on a new passage says the most.
- Is my result saved?
- Yes, without your name or email. We store your speed, your answers and which passage you read under a random code, because that is what the comparison with other players is built from. We do not ask you to create an account.