In this article, a three-phase mixed-methods study was conducted to investigate timed reading effects on Chinese university students' English as a foreign language (EFL) reading rate. First, two equivalent reading rate tests were designed and validated with 30 participants. Second, 81 university students from two intact classes participated in the main study. Quantitative analyses revealed that the timed reading group made significantly greater improvement in reading rate than the comparison group, while both groups progressed significantly in reading rate. Third, semi-structured interviews with 14 participants from the treatment group were conducted to investigate students' perceptions of the effects of the timed reading approach. Despite some positive comments, some negative effects were identified. The findings shed new light on the implementation of timed reading instructions.