IELTS Academic and General Reading Techniques
Skimming and scanning are two very effective strategies for speed-reading.
What is speed-reading? You may be used to read every word slowly and carefully to understand every sentence of the text. But on IELTS Reading test, you are limited in time and it’s impossible to read attentively all the information. But how to read more, in less time? One way is to use speed-reading – quickly read the text according to your purpose, getting only the information you need.
Skimming
Skimming means quickly reading the text to get only its main idea. To skim effectively, you need to read only a part of the material.
You have already encountered skimming: when reading a long chapter of a book, or doing a research on a long article. In such case, you would probably read the first sentences of each paragraph, dropping down to the end of the paragraph.
How to skim?
- Read the first paragraph attentively to get an idea of what will be discussed in the text.
- Read the first (and sometimes the second) sentence of each paragraph – they give the main idea of the paragraph.
- After you have read the first sentences, your eyes should drop down to the end of the paragraph, looking for important pieces of information, such as dates and names.
- Read the last paragraph attentively as it may contain the summary.
Scanning
Scanning means searching for specific phrases in the text to answer some questions.
The questions on IELTS Reading test often include dates, names, numbers, new terms or other key words. So it’s a very good idea to underline those key words while reading, so you could find the answers in the text more easily.
How to scan?
Underline the important information while reading the text (dates, numbers, names etc.)
When you read the question, identify the key word and scan the text for it. This way you’ll find the answer more quickly.
Detailed reading
The last of our IELTS Reading skills is detailed reading and this is what gives you the answers to the questions. Skimming will have given you the gist of the text, scanning has shown you where the answer is, and now it’s time to dig deeper into the text to get the detail that provides the answer.
This is when you read the section of the text, maybe the whole paragraph, word for word to understand exactly what it says.
Really think about the meaning. There will probably be synonyms to identify and you may have to interpret what is written from the context as we did with question 4 of the scanning exercise.
You won’t need to read the whole text in this much detail, just the parts you identify as containing the answers as you scan for them.
strategies to help you skim and scan faster
- Reading the title / looking at any illustrations
This is a GOOD strategy. Not all IELTS reading texts have titles, but if there is one it can often be a good indicator of what the text is about. The same is true for illustrations, which can often give you a good idea of what at least part of the text is about.
- Reading every word
This is a BAD strategy. The IELTS test does not give you time to read every word of the complete text, and trying to do so will often mean you do not finish all three sections. The only time you should reading every word is when you think you have found the an answer and want to read the surrounding sentences carefully. Otherwise, you should either be skimming the text for a general understanding or scanning for something in particular.
- Reading the first and last sentence of each paragraph
This is a BAD strategy. The IELTS test has developed to test your English level and skills, and shortcuts like this simply do not work anymore. You will miss vital information or even be led astray by sentences designed deliberately to mislead you.
- Underlining/circling names as you skim
This is a GOOD strategy. People, places and other kinds of names can often give you a good guide for where information is in the text, and can help you come back to a specific point much faster.
- Concentrating on difficult vocabulary
This is a BAD strategy. It is very common to get stuck on a word or phrase when you don’t know the meaning, but this is wasting precious time when you should be moving on. It’s possible that you may lose a point because of a word you didn’t know, but it’s better to answer easier questions first and if you have time, go back to that word at the end.
In conclusion, the most common advice is to skim for general meaning first, scan for the location of the correct answer and then use close reading to decide what the correct answer is.
There are over 10 different types of questions on the reading test and all of them require a different strategy. Doing them all in the same way will waste a lot of time and will probably result in you getting a lower score than you deserve.