Paced reading: let a moving highlight set your speed.
The oldest speed-reading trick in the book is a finger moving under the line. Your eyes chase it, your re-reading habit has no time to fire, and your pace goes up. Paced reading is that finger — a highlight sweeping the text at exactly the speed you choose.
Set a target anywhere from 150 to 1200 WPM, keep up with the pacer, then prove it with ten comprehension questions. Strain is the point: this is overload training for your eyes.
Free, no account needed to start.
How a session works
- Pick a target WPM — a chip shows the pace, and the passage length means each run lands near a minute.
- An amber highlight sweeps word-by-word through the passage at your set speed; words you've passed fade back.
- When the highlight reaches the end, ten questions start automatically. 8+ correct and the WPM counts as qualified.
- Results show target vs. actual pace — the delta tells you whether to push or back off next run.
Why pacing beats willpower
- It removes the decision. Reading faster by trying to read faster never works — you default to habit within a paragraph. An external pacer doesn’t negotiate.
- It kills regressions. The guide doesn’t wait, so the jump-back reflex gets priced out.
- It's measurable. Target vs. actual pace plus a comprehension check means you always know whether 400 WPM was real.
A sane progression
Find your baseline in timed mode. Pace at baseline +25 WPM for a few sessions until the comprehension check feels normal, then step up again. When paced 400 feels easy, your untimed comfortable reading has quietly become ~350. That’s the whole mechanism.
Frequently asked questions
What is paced reading?
Reading along to a moving visual guide — a highlight that sweeps through the text at a fixed words-per-minute. It's the digital version of the oldest speed-reading technique: moving your finger under the lines (sometimes called meta guiding). The pacer sets a rhythm your eyes follow, and it makes re-reading costly because the guide doesn't wait.
How does pacing make you faster?
Overload. Set the pacer 25–50 WPM above your comfortable speed and it drags your eyes past the point where you'd normally regress or subvocalize every word. Comprehension feels strained for a few sessions, then catches up — and your un-paced pace comes along with it.
What speed should I set?
Take one timed session first to find your baseline qualified WPM, then pace at baseline +25 to +50 WPM. If you consistently fail the comprehension check, back off; if it feels easy, push. The range is 150–1200 WPM, so there's headroom for years.
Is this just an RSVP flasher?
No. RSVP apps flash one word at a time in place — you never build eye movement or chunking skills, and real text doesn't work that way. Our pacer moves through normal passage layout, the same way a finger or pen guides eyes on a page.
Is paced mode free?
Yes — timed and paced modes are both free, ten sessions a day, no account required to start.
One passage, one minute, ten questions. You’ll have a real WPM number before you finish your coffee.
Try paced mode