Ace Reader – Speed Reading Software Review

Ace Reader is a program designed to help speed up your reading. It has a series of tests and exercises designed to make you read faster.

These include:

– the basic tests, which measure your speed and recall. When you start a course you can also select the grade – from 1 to 13, corresponding to school grades. Newspapers are in 5th or 6th grade level according to the program.

– eye exercises, such as following objects around the screen, or focusing on the center of the screen while the numbers widen (to widen your focus).

– flashing lines one (or more) at a time (to help you read a whole line at once and avoid backtracking).

– texts in multiple columns with flashing highlights you should follow.

– games where you must quickly say if the words are the same, or pick them up from a selection later.

– games where you must search a list of names for a particular name (to help you find things in lists).

I think that their system works well. I always read pretty fast and I did do a regular speed reading course about 20 years ago, so I started at 381 Words/Min and Grade 3 (the default) – the program keeps logs. I don't know if the type of exercises changed with the speed, but I don't think so.

Two weeks later, with a bit less than 10 minutes practice per day,  I usually test at 500-600 words for Grade 7 texts, and I feel the speed difference both when reading and also when scanning lists.

The only problem I have is that the program likes opening certain windows in Monitor 1, even if it is not the primary monitor. Unfortunately, this a known problem and support doesn't seem to plan to fix this. Obviously, this can only affect you if you have a multi-monitor system (in which monitor 1 is not the primary). I just drag the windows myself, for some of the exercises.

The program is expensive (about US$69 for the Pro version and US$99 for the Elite Version) – but it is often featured on Bits Du Jour (a software discount site), so if you wait you can get a nice discount. I got the Elite version at 50% off.

Overall, very much recommended if you would like to read faster.