Many advertisements explicate that they are capable of increasing your rate of reading by 15,000-30,000 words per minute in order for you to succeed on any test, such as the A.C.T or any college exam. But can they actually do it? The answer to this question is no. In reality, the average reading rate is 200-300 words per minute and through tons of research, scientists have proven that speed-reading is one of the largest hoax claims that the media attempts to sell. This extraordinary claim explains how most "speed-reading" derives from skimming: which is a process of searching for key information to gain clues about the meaning. This underlines the idea that skimming is not actual reading, thus you cannot improve your reading rates because it weakens your comprehension levels significantly. Ironically, the faster you are able to read, the less information you are likely to take in, which results in a decline in your learning. According to the controlled studies by Cunningham, Stan Ovich, and Wilson, reading faster than 400 words per minute leads to less than half of your overall comprehension. I believe this is an important hoax claim to eliminate because people are wasting their time and money on something that our mind is physically not proficient in. Also, In the long run, speed-reading has a negative consequence on our comprehension. I went to some expensive tutoring in preparation for the A.C.T, in hope of improving my reading skills. The pricing was ridiculous and in the end, it did not increase my reading score in any shape or form, it actually decreased it. Ultimately, speed-reading has more negative effects than positive ones, thus, our society should attempt to avoid these hoax claims at all cause.