Calculating Your Reading Rate

CALCULATING FICTION

READING RATE

• Count the number of words in three lines and divide by three. This figure is your WPL or Words Per Line.
• Count the number of lines on a page. This figure is your LPP or Lines Per Page.
• Multiply the WPL by the LPP. This figure is your WPP or Words Per Page.
• Count the number of full, half, and quarter pages.
• Multiply the number of pages by the WPP. This figure is your TOTAL NUMBER OF WORDS.
• Divide the number of minutes you read into the TOTAL NUMBER OF WORDS. This figure is your WPM or Words Per Minute.

Example:

WPL 10

LPP 40

10 pages x 40 LPP = 400 WPP

8.5 pages x 400 WPP = 3400 words

3400 words -:- (divided by) 10 minutes reading time = 340 WPM

RATE 340 WPM

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CALCULATING NON FICTION

READING RATE

number of words are known, minute and second score are unknown

• Convert minute score to seconds
• Divide number of seconds into number of words. This figure is your WPS or your Words Per Second (carry to one decimal place)
• Multiply WPS by 60. This figure is your WPM or Words Per Minute (carry to one decimal place)

Example:

9 minutes 30 seconds to read 2178 words

60 seconds in minute x 9 minutes reading = 540 seconds

540 seconds + 30 seconds = 570 seconds of reading time

2178 words -:- (divided by) 570 seconds = 3.8 WPS

3.8 WPS x 60 seconds = 228 WPM

RATE 228 WPM