What is RSVP speed reading, and does it actually work?

RSVP stands for rapid serial visual presentation: instead of moving your eyes along a line of text, the words come to you, one at a time, in the same spot on the screen. It’s the idea behind Presto.

Why your eyes slow you down

When you read a page normally, your eyes don’t glide smoothly. They jump from point to point in quick movements called saccades, pausing briefly on each word or group of words. You also skip back now and then to re-read something, a regression. Each jump and pause takes time.

RSVP removes most of that work. Every word appears at a fixed point, so there’s nothing to jump between. Presto also highlights one letter in each word, the optimal recognition point, slightly left of centre, so your eye lands where it recognises the word fastest.

Does it work?

Mostly, with some honest caveats:

• It’s genuinely faster for easy-to-moderate text. Most people can comfortably read RSVP well above their usual page speed for articles, fiction and familiar topics.
• Comprehension drops if you push too hard. Research on RSVP consistently finds that understanding falls off at very high speeds. A big part of the reason is that you can’t glance back at a sentence you didn’t quite catch.
• Dense material needs a slower pace. Technical writing, poetry and anything you need to study closely is still better read on the page, or at a gentler RSVP speed.

The goal isn’t to hit the biggest number you can. It’s to find the speed where you read faster than you normally would and still follow everything.

Getting started

1. Start near your normal speed. For most people that’s 250–300 words per minute. Presto starts at 300.
2. Let the pauses work for you. Presto lingers slightly on punctuation, paragraph breaks, long words and numbers, which gives your brain a moment to catch up.
3. Go up in small steps. Add 25–50 wpm once a speed feels easy. If you notice you’ve lost the thread, step back down.
4. Use the context view. Pause at any time to see the surrounding paragraph, and tap a word to jump back to it.
5. Match speed to material. A light novel and a textbook deserve different settings.

Try it

You can try RSVP with your own EPUBs, PDFs and other ebooks in Presto. It’s free, runs in your browser, and your books stay on your device.