800 wpm test
Can you read 800 words a minute?
800 words a minute is 3.4 times the adult average of 238. It is 5.3 times the pace of speech, and the pace of a reader past the Redline mark. This test shows you 272 words at exactly that speed in 20 seconds, then checks what you kept.
Read 272 words at 800 words a minute
One word at a time, about 20 seconds. Keep your eyes on the red letter. Four questions follow.
800 words a minute.
| Book | At your speed |
|---|---|
| The Great Gatsby | |
| 1984 | |
| The Hobbit | |
| Pride and Prejudice | |
| War and Peace | |
| The King James Bible |
What 800 words a minute feels like
Faster than five times speech. The quiz after it is the only opinion that counts.
How long books take at 800 wpm
| Book | At 238 wpm | At 800 wpm |
|---|---|---|
| The Great Gatsby | 3.3 hours | 59 minutes |
| 1984 | 6.2 hours | 1.9 hours |
| The Hobbit | 6.7 hours | 2.0 hours |
| Pride and Prejudice | 8.5 hours | 2.5 hours |
| War and Peace | 41.1 hours | 12.2 hours |
| The King James Bible | 54.8 hours | 16.3 hours |
Questions
Is 800 words a minute fast?
800 words a minute is 3.4 times the adult average of 238 for non-fiction (Brysbaert (2019), a review of 190 studies, Journal of Memory and Language). It is the pace of a reader past the Redline mark.
How long does it take to read a book at 800 wpm?
At 800 words a minute, The Great Gatsby (about 47,000 words) takes 59 minutes and 1984 (about 89,000 words) takes 1.9 hours. At the average 238, they take 3.3 hours and 6.2 hours.
Can I learn to read at 800 words a minute?
Yes. Train up to it in steps of 25 words a minute, with a quiz on every read. When the answers hold at one pace, you take the next.