Reading Trainer – an educational app to improve reading speed & comprehension
by Paul Wilks
Dec 17, 2012 11:21 AM –
Install
Reading Trainer is a beautifully designed and extremely useful education app that helps you improve your reading. Now, before you contest “but I can read already! What do you think I’m doing right now!?” this is very much about improvement, so it concentrates on increasing reading speed and comprehension. If you typically read a lot of text during your day-to-day life, this can make you more productive and teaches you advanced reading techniques.
Price: ~$1.99
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Tested on: Nexus 4
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Exceptional user interface!
- Easy to use but challenging!
- Improves your all-round reading ability and comprehension!
- Intuitive exercises that feel a little like mini-games!
- Multiple profiles!
Cons
- Pre-exercise tutorials could be improved by examples (see below for an explanation).
- Slightly annoying that just because I speak English, I should have a US flag next to my profile!
Features:
Now, if you’re reading this you can clearly already read and this app isn’t for people that cannot read. However, it’s ideal if you could perhaps be a little more productive in your reading- both by reading faster and comprehending more of what you have read. Reading Trainer is essentially an app that enhances the reading skills you already have by running you through daily exercises which train you to read faster and understand more of what you have read. Additionally, it can help with memory, concentration and your overall mental agility.
When the app first starts up it tests your reading speed. Once you have read a passage of text it will then ask you four multiple choice questions to see if you retained what you just read. This will give you a base reading speed from which to work. The app then tweaks the upcoming exercises to suit your current ability with aims to improve it.
There are 12 different exercises which test you in different ways. These are, for the most part, very intuitive and feel like mini-games with which you can get slightly competitive with yourself to do better. One niggle with the first batch of tests is that, while each provides a neat description what is required, there’s no example to prepare you. This means for the first time you have to spend a few precious seconds working out what needs to be done. I found that once re-tested my scores clearly jumped because I was familiar with the test- not because my skills dramatically improved. Perhaps a small animation or a still image example of the test action would make it more immediately accessible.
A couple of other things stand out as great features. You can add multiple profiles so more than one person can use the app; I plan on adding my fiancee as I know she reads slightly faster than me! I like the way the tests always feel challenging, but incrementally- it seeks to create a learning curve that suits you. The user interface is beautiful and very easy-on-the eye. I found it to be wholly responsive and fast.
The app features content in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portugese and Russian. I was slightly annoyed that by default as an English speaker I have a U.S. flag next to my profile. 
Perhaps I’m being fussy, but I imagine fellow users from the UK and other English-speaking countries will not be impressed either. The same will undoubtedly apply to the other languages included in the app, but at least those languages mostly originated in those locations.
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Reading Trainer – Intro
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Reading Trainer – Welcome screen
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Reading Trainer – New test
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Reading Trainer – Power Reader
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Reading Trainer – Power reader exercise
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Reading Trainer – Some exercises just require you to follow things with your eyes
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Reading Trainer – Follow text
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Reading Trainer – Gradually builds statistics
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Reading Trainer – Improvement
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Reading Trainer – Unit complete
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Reading Trainer – Exercise countdown
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Reading Trainer – Exercise complete
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Reading Trainer – Next exercise
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Reading Trainer – Profile
Usefulness:
The app aims to improve your reading speed and comprehension. Now, I’ve only been testing for a short while but I can certainly see how it can work. My reading speed used to be far slower but I completed a short online course a few years ago which increased it to higher than average. There are some similar exercises included in Reading Trainer so I’m confident it works!
The skills you improve on in the app will undoubtedly be of use to a vast number of people in all kinds of professions. I think anyone who reads a lot and wants to be more productive in doing so will benefit greatly from this app.
Ease of Use:
The application is highly intuitive and very easy to use. It guides you through the tests and collates statistics about your progress. I think this could be improved on by including better examples prior to a test starting (especially if it’s the first time you’ve played it) but this aside the app couldn’t be much simpler to use.
Frequently Used:
The idea is to complete the exercises at least daily. One session can last under 10 minutes so it will be easy to fit into most schedules.
Interface:
The interface is impeccably designed and beautiful to use. Everything is very smooth and it gives you the impression of an extremely professional app.
Tags:
Android App,
Android Apps,
Android Apps for Teachers,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Business,
Comprehension,
Education,
Improve Reading Speed and Comprehension,
Memory,
Mental aglity,
Reading,
Reading Trainer,
Trainer
Categorised in: Education
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