Reading pace test

How it works

You press Start, read aloud, and press Stop. The page counts the words in the passage and divides by the time between the two presses. If you stopped partway, tap the last word you read and it counts only that far. Space starts and stops it too, if your hands are on a keyboard.

It never asks for the microphone, so nothing you say is heard by the page or sent anywhere, and nothing is stored. The result goes to the script timer only if you press the button, as a pace in the link.

Get a number you can use

• Read it the way you will on the day. Stand up if you will be standing. Use your camera voice.
• Read it twice. The first read is often fast. Use the second.
• Use your own words. A paragraph from your real script gives a truer pace than our harbor scene, especially if yours is full of names, numbers or technical terms.
• Then slow it a touch. On a prompter most people read best a little slower than their test pace.

What your number means

These bands are rules of thumb for reading. Nobody measured them as averages. Speaking rate, explained.

Use it in the app

Cutvey Teleprompter sets speed in lines a second, and voice follow trims it to your read once you press play, so you rarely need the number there. It helps most before the shoot, when you are cutting a script to fit a slot: put your pace in the timer and it tells you how many words fit.