7 Speed Reading Review
Can you become a reading Pro with 7 Speed Reading?
Reading is an essential skill and whether for work or pleasure, it is also important to learn how to read material most effectively. This skill will allow us to process sentences and their meanings faster and also ensure we retain the information as well.
7 Speed Reading, now Spreeder, (visit website) improves your ability in this vital area. It uses a variety of interactive media to apply effective reading techniques. We review the latest version which provides in-depth video lessons from the world’s leading experts in the field.
7 Speed Reading – Overview & Goals
Most people purchasing reading improvement software generally look for progress in two main areas: reading with added speed and understanding of what has been read.
These skills do not necessarily come naturally to anyone, which is why 7 Speed Reading is specially designed for people who need to read a lot. One of the program’s central goals is to make sure you will master both skills.
7 Speed Reading focuses on the following skills:
- The speed at which you read, ideally to triple it.
- The comprehension level you are operating at.
- Addressing and tackling all common bad reading habits.
- Reading any digital content super fast with the built-in RSVP ereader
- UPDATE: 7 Speed Reading (visit new website) has been merged with Spreeder.
- The best of both products have been combined for a more comprehensive solution.
Click thumbnails to see screenshots.
How Does It Work?
eReflect, the developers behind 7SR, have added a bunch of handy features to their latest edition. The EX version provides expert video lectures featuring six recognized and leading speed reading instructors, which is a good opportunity to learn from the best in the industry. 7 Speed Reading is also browser and system independent. You can synchronize your most recent results, last seen videos, or completed exercises with any other PC, Mac, Chrome, or Linux system you have it installed on.
1. Training Activities
7 Strategies – The number 7 relates to the seven essential learning strategies the course is built-up on. According to eReflect, you should be fine with 7 minutes of training each day for about 15 days to start seeing results. The latter is certainly a clever marketing approach. However, my advice is to practice as much as you can in the first 4 weeks and then create a schedule to advance specific skills further.
Guided Training – In addition to the six expert classes, 7 Speed Reading also offers step-by-step videos that will walk you through all modules and activities. There are a total of 6 lectures. Once a topic has been finished you can practice your skill.
Activities – There are 15 core activities available. Apart from exercises to practice speed and comprehension, 7SR will teach you how to expand eye fixation to better read groups of words. You will also strengthen your eye muscles to avoid strain. Reading inwardly is also a skill that these activities help with.
Regression – A problem that many struggling readers face is that they often read words or sentences several times which naturally slows them down. It may also lead to a lack of confidence in their comprehension skills. 7 Speed Reading has activities that will prevent this kind of repetition.
2. Comprehension Tests
You will be met with these tests after each module, and they are necessary if you want to proceed to the next designated level. Practicing is the key here, hence take it easy and do not deceive yourself.
The main purpose of these tests is to keep track of what you are doing and how well you are coping with the program. The tests can also help identify your weak points or the skills that still require more work and practice. Remember that you will only be able to go to the next stage if you clear the previous one through a test.
7 Speed Reading – Expert Lessons
The expert team will share in-depth knowledge and cover various topics in order to learn strategies, improve memory skills or manage information overload. In my opinion, this is a real unique selling point as the developers of 7 Speed Reading managed to get one of the most recognized experts on board (visit website for more details).
Kathleen Hawkins is the author of the top-selling self-help book “Speed Reading Made Easy”. In her video, she talks about the best strategies used for effective reading and the offline techniques to use when you read print media.
Abby Marks Beale is the author of “The Complete Idiots Guide to Speed Reading” and “10 Days to Faster Reading”. In her video, she addresses the relationship between speed, concentration, comprehension and retention.
Sean M. Kelly is a memory trainer expert. He also provides a series of videos that aim to improve memory, increase focus and how to use creativity and visualization for better understanding. He has over 20 years of experience in this field.
Tina Konstant is the author of 7 books on speed reading. You will hear her speak about human potential and various learning skills in her expert videos.
Kris Madden is the author of the best-seller “Learn to Speed Read”. His videos mainly focus on different types of accelerated reading methods.
Marie Jager is an occupational therapist and her specialization is ergonomics. In her expert videos, she mainly talks about eye movements while reading and the kind of environment we should create to focus more. She has over 35 years of experience in this field.
7 Speed Reading – Other Features
Guided training – Each section and level starts with a professional video to teach the basics and explain the effect of specific exercises. Lean back and watch as these tutorials are very educational and easy to understand.
Bad reading habits – Sub-vocalization, which is saying the words in your head as you read, is one of the most annoying habits we face when trying to increase our speed. 7 Speed Reading offers various exercises to tackle them all as you also need to deal with regression, slow information processing or reading words separately rather than in groups. This way you also learn to expand your fixation span, recognize phrases of words, train your eye muscles or stop going back in text repeatedly.
Learn in groups – Enjoy the ability to set up one goal and learn in a group to achieve it. Whether with friends, family, students or workmates – you can sit together, and share advice, and when practicing and exercising you can swap results with them on Facebook. It’s certainly social, though Twitter has not been implemented yet.
User accounts – Up to 5 users can have their own account to chart their progress, which is a downgrade to former versions that offered unlimited user accounts. This might be due to its cloud existence and to control server capacities. However, sharing still works and you can run it on as many systems as you want. Another reason might be the introduction of an EDU version for schools, for which multiple accounts make more sense.
Setting goals – 7 Speed Reading allows you to understand your own potential and to set goals accordingly. You can set how many words you want to read during a period of time and you can work your way from there. This also allows you to keep records of how well you have been doing and in what ways you may need to revamp your personal expectations.
Modern Interface – One of the things I enjoyed most is the superbly user-friendly interface. 7 Speed Reading uses tools that we are in some form already familiar with. Even those who generally struggle with technology will find it easy to browse the tutor’s functions and activities. The program also offers several educational tutorials that will further enhance your ability to use it to your advantage.
Monitoring – The more you use the software, the more detailed data you will gather to monitor and track your progress. Each session will record valuable data such as type of exercise, speed, time, or comprehension levels and will customize the program to your actual needs. An activity and effective speed monitor will visualize all this data in graphs, diagrams, or charts.
Features at a glance:
- 6 expert tutorials
- Step-by-step modules
- 7 strategies
- Video tutorials (view website)
- Import books and documents
- Create your own lessons
- 20,477 eBooks included
- Group learning
- Share reading material with other users
- Share results on Facebook, Google+
- Eye exercises, ergonomics
- Comprehension tests
- Automatically calculates the grade
- Cloud storage, synchronize data between all your computers
- 5 user accounts, unlimited system installs
- Platform independent. Supports Mac, Windows, Linux and Chrome OS
- Telephone and email Support
Pros and cons
Pros
- Proper Lessons: the modules are scientifically designed and specific to the reading skills most users wish to develop.
- Comprehensive: 7 Speed Reading covers all topics, skills and features to learn to read faster.
- Reading material: Use your own material, practice with e-books, share texts with co-learners.
- Games and exercises: They can be fun and or straight to the point.
Cons
- Offline availability: Moving to the cloud offers great benefits, but on the other side, limits offline use. To use all the features you need to have a working internet connection.
- Mobile devices: Online learning is a huge trend and mobile devices play an important role here. Availability for tablets and smartphones would be nice in the long run.
- Personally, I wouldn’t put too much focus on the touted 20,477 eBooks included as you will certainly find many classics, but also lots of material you will rather skip. It’s not a free Kindle shop. However, you can upload your own material though.
7 Speed Reading Review: Conclusion
General – 7 Speed Reading (visit website) is a versatile and feature-packed curriculum targeting students and professionals with different learning preferences. The goal, however, is still the same: to improve and develop speed and comprehension or increase eye expansion and tackle sub-vocalization.
EX Edition – With the desktop program being cloud-enabled, existing customers will get unlimited and automatic software updates for three years from the date of purchase. The latest version available for download is the 7 Speed Reading EX. This freshen-up added expert video lectures that will help improve motivation and learning outcomes as they provide a very effective way to understand fast reading from a fresh and different angle.
7 Minutes – As the clever marketing angle states, eReflect promises you only have to practice for 7 minutes a day over a period of two weeks. I found this quite interesting, as you certainly will see improvements after that time, but it also depends on the goals you have set for yourself. Regular training is always the key and the more you exercise, the faster you will be. Additionally, don’t rely on software alone, increase your vocabulary too as it helps to understand meaning faster.
Customer service – is reliable and you can choose between telephone and email support. There is also a FAQ section for the most popular questions. They also have a fair refund policy in case you are truly not satisfied.
Alternatives – How does it compare to other reading improvement software? The EX version offers online expert tutorials, the creation of own lessons and material and allows social interaction with other learners. These are all unique selling points. If you prefer a platform-independent tutor then 7 Speed Reading has something to offer here.
AceReader, on the other side, still does offer unlimited user accounts and extended offline access and would be ideal for larger families. However, eReflect provides a specifically designed EDU version for schools and universities.
Iris Reading again is a course module system that allows you to learn via online video teaching classes but is also more expensive than software-based solutions.
Info | Rating | Review Summary |
---|---|---|
★★★★★★★★★★ Price: $79.95 Visit Website | Cloud based reading improvement course with easy to use interface. 7 minutes a day. 5 user accounts. Video tutorials. All ages. All platforms. EX 2021 cloud version. |
Which languages are supported?
While the default language is English, students can import content in their own language through Wiki-Connect, however, it needs to be a left-to-right one.
Is there a minimum age to use 7 Speed Reading?
No. It is suitable for all ages, and even younger students can benefit from it as parents can import age-related content to create custom exercises. Keep in mind that built-in eBooks start from Grade 4 to adult level though.
How long do I need to practice to see results?
Based on the company’s recommendations, users should try to stick to a schedule of 7 minutes a day for about 3 to 4 weeks. This should produce relevant results, and the longer you practice the better.
Further reading: University of Chicago | Glendale Community College | UNT Learning Center
Have you tried this product? What is your experience?
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