The 13th World Speed Reading Championships 2021 which were held in hybrid form and were delayed due of Covid, concluded this week and announced great victory for Team Pakistan. Winning the finals and taking home the title of World Speed Reading Champion is Emma Alam from Pakistan, defeating China. Emma was also crowned in 2020 as the World Memory Champion and holder of two titles of Guinness World Records and also recognized as Pride of Pakistan by ISPR.
Coming in 4th position in the World Speed Reading Championships is Abeerah Ather. Team Pakistan also competed in the 12th World Mind Mapping Championship, and Emma Alam grabbed 3rd position and Ambreen Hameed 4th position in overall championship ranks. Several countries competed with over 100 competitors.
The final results of both championships were verified and graded by the Global Chief Arbiter, HSH Prince Marek Kasperski from Australia, Asia’s Chief Arbiter Lester He from China, Global President, Raymond Keene from U.K. and Head of Ethics and 8x World Memory Champion, Dominic O’Brien also from U.K.
Contrary to popular misconceptions, speed reading is NOT a tradeoff between speed and comprehension. With the right techniques you can read, comprehend and retain information in a fraction of the usual time.
During Speed Reading Championships, competitors are provided a book and maximum 2 hours to read it. As soon as the competitor has finished reading, their time is recorded, the book is taken away and they are given the comprehension question paper with 20 questions designed by the author and by an arbiter of Guild of Mind Sports Arbiters, with a few specific rules. For example, the questions require one or two sentences to answer, with NO multiple choice.
The provided book at the 2021 championship consisted of total 15,823 words which Emma Alam read in 20 minutes and 4 seconds at 789 words per minute with the extraordinary comprehension of 97% giving Emma Alam an EFFECTIVE reading speed of 7,648. Effective reading speed is a calculation to determine a winner based on comprehension and WPM. Putting this in context, the average reading speed across the globe is around 200 words per minute.
Emma Alam said, “I feel great bringing home another World Title. I achieve, to inspire! To inspire young girls and youth in general to adopt to learning methods which are quicker, easier and game changing for academic excellence.” Emma and her team have been competing in various mind sports for past 4 years.
World Memory Sports Council is the governing body for the Mind Sports worldwide including World Memory, Speed Reading and Mind Mapping Championships, on behalf of the World Memory Championships International Ltd. United Kingdom. Founded in 1991 by the late world-renowned Tony Buzan and Raymond Keene. Tony Buzan was world’s top 5 speakers reported by Forbes Magazine. He was the one who popularized the idea of mental literacy as well as being the author/co-author of more than 80 books. Raymond Keene is Grandmaster of Chess, and an appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire by her majesty Queen Elizabeth.
Team Pakistan was trained under the Futuristic Learning institute by Master Trainer Sania Alam.
