AceReader Pro Review

I love reading: online news, books, magazines -- put text in front of me, and I'll read it. My reading comprehension starts to decline if I push myself beyond a 350 words-per-minute pace. Someday, I hope to cross the 500 wpm mark. And, with some practice and the help of AceReader Pro, I just might get there.

What is AceReader Pro?

AceReader Pro is a software tool designed to improve reading skills through three distinctive toolsets. An assessment tool tests for current reading skill and tracks progress through periodic skill testing. A training tool teaches users to become more proficient readers through speed reading. The third toolset helps improve online reading.

AceReader Pro: Assessment Tests

AceReader Pro offers two types of assessment tests.

Self-paced testing allows the reader to read selections and then answer questions to determine both speed and comprehension. This test determines base reading speed (BSR) for the purpose of effectively calibrating the training tools. AceReader Pro includes 248 different reading tests.

Forced Speed/Mode allows the user to set a reading pace higher to test reading comprehension outside the 'comfort zone'.

AceReader Pro: Training Tools

AceReader also includes a variety of training tools for improving both reading speed and comprehension.

Drills increase reading speed by presenting words at faster rates than the reader normal reading. With AceReader Pro, you can Import text to add variety to your reading drills.

Eye-span games improve reading ability by teaching the reader to focus on a single point while reading wider blocks of text. Eye-span games improve both reading speed and comprehension.

Tachistoscope games present rapid bursts of text, requiring the reader to both read quickly and remember the words presented on the screen.

Side Note: A tachistoscope is an instrument which flashes images, words, or sentences on a screen for very brief, exactly timed, periods, now used especially to increase reading speed.

Flash Cards improve reading comprehension, math skills, or may be customized by teachers or parents with curriculum-specific content. Flash cards are a great learning tool, especially for students.

Search/Scan games make finding specific words in a paragraph the objective, improving the reader's ability to pick out blocks of text from a page.

Online reading mode

Online reading mode allows any text to be loaded from a file or copied from the clip board. AceReader presents each word in the file one-at-a-time, allowing the reader to focus on a fixed spot as the each successive word is replaced by the next word in a sentence.

I was quite surprised to discover how this improved my own reading concentration.

Conclusion

Training to read faster takes practice. Using AceReader only a few times improved my reading speed from about 300 wpm to 350 wpm. And, with more practice, I'm sure 500 wpm is easily attainable.

Being able to load custom tests into the Deluxe version of AceReader Pro further extends the software capabilities, making this a great teaching tool for self-educators, parents who home-school, teachers, or anyone wanting to improve reading speed and comprehension.

AceReader Pro: Download

AceReader Pro is free to try ($49.95 to register) and can be downloaded from the infopackets web site.

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