Determine why you're reading the material and how much you need to absorb. Your reasons for reading are critical to determining how fast you read.
Avoid reading the words on the page to yourself as you see them. This is a key habit that slows many readers. Jasper Anson, lifestyle correspondent for Askmen.com, offers this advice on how to avoid sub-vocalization: “Aim to read faster than your internal speech and closer to the speed of your mind. This means going fast enough to make an internal word dictation impossible. Try a slow number count (to 10) in your head while reading -- just enough to distract you from sub-vocalization, but not enough to keep your mind from absorbing the words that it needs.”
Train yourself to focus to avoid re-reading what you’ve already covered. According to Virginia Tech’s Cook Counseling Center, “The average student reading at 250 words per minute ... re-reads about 20 times per page. Re-reading words and phrases is a habit which will slow your reading speed down to a snail's pace.”
Focus only on the information that you need to know, and slow your reading speed to retain information better. Speed back up again and skim or completely skip over noncritical information.
Train your eyes to move as fast as your mind is moving through the pages without drifting. Use your finger or a pencil as a guide to train your eyes as you read each sentence. Additionally, try to develop the habit of reading more than one word at a time. Developing the skill of reading groups of words will help you retain more.