Where to Use Skimming and Scanning in IELTS Reading?

Skimming and Scanning are the most misused and misunderstood skills. Many students make a mistake of using skimming and scanning without paying attention to the details and this is where they lack. They do not know how to use them correctly and appropriately which is the main reason they end up losing marks.   Skimming and Scanning if done correctly can be of great advantage in IELTS.  These skills will not only help you save time but also save immense efforts, which you might have spent reading the entire passages.

How Skimming and Scanning Can Help?

Skimming and Scanning involves reading to get an overview of the passage to understand the general meaning.  The combination of these skills is useful because candidates do not have to read the entire text or passage to find the answer.  Since IELTS reading is a time bound task, therefore, time management is the key to attempt the test on time.  There are more than 10 kinds of questions on the IELTS reading test and all of them require a different strategy to solve.  Attempting all the questions in a same way will lead to wastage of time and result you in getting the lower band score.

 Some candidates make a mistake of doing skimming and scanning for every question, despite knowing the general meaning of the passage.  You must know where to do skimming and scanning.  Skim and Scan should not be done where you need to apply intensive and extensive reading skills.  In the questions, which require finding the name of a person, place, date, etc, you can apply skin and scan techniques to find the name, place or date in the passage.  However, in the questions, where you require reading in-depth or detail, you cannot apply skim and scan techniques.

Where to Use Skimming?

When see a Reading passage, you should start with skimming technique. While skimming, your focus should be to understand the main idea of the text. Now you must be wondering, how you can attain that? This can be done by reading the first paragraph of the passage very quickly. While reading, do not try to comprehend the text in depth, but read it quickly. This will give you more information about the content and you will get connected with the text in terms of writing style, theme, etc.

Where to Use Scanning?

The method of scanning should be used subsequent to reading the questions in the task. This technique helps you know what you are looking for in the content. Skimming technique is used when you need to read the whole text to understand the general meaning of the passage. In other words, you read quickly to comprehend the general meaning. Skimming is generally done while reading a newspaper where you can rapidly comprehend what the stories are about.

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