Skimming and Scanning

• It is often seen that mostly IELTS learner face problem during reading exam due to lack of tips and tricks, however ,when try to find the ways of improvement IELTS reading ,they are advised about skimming and scanning .Even though it is important, but mostly time students approach are not significant.

• Although Skimming and Scanning are two most important strategies to get good score in exam, yet lots of students misused and misunderstand these strategies. Most IELTS learner thinks that they have idea about such skills and how to use them properly, but during exam they use such strategies inappropriately or incorrectly.

• Speed reading plays a vital role during IELTS exam, so to get a good score in IELTS reading it is quite essential to focus on skimming and scanning.

• Some students are in the habit of reading word slowly and carefully to get the idea about each and every sentence of text.

• During the exam time IELTS students have limited time and it is quite hard to read all the information in the given time interval. It is essential to use some strategies for speed reading like skimming and scanning.

Two most important and different strategies for speed reading are as below:

• Scanning
• Skimming
• Previewing the text to get an overview

Scanning:

Scanning means to find out the significant phrases in the given passage to answer some particular questions. This information may be a particular date, a place, a name or any significant information. So the best thing is to point out such key words and underline while reading, so IELTS learner can find the correct answer easily.

How to scan?

• Students should identify the important key words while reading the question and then scan and analyze the text for it. Such way IELTS learner gets the correct answer more easily and quickly.
• Underline the significant and vital information while reading the text. The information could be names, dates, places and so on.
• It is best idea to read the title carefully and analyze and scan it to get the idea behind it. It is often seen that title mostly provides accurate information about the passage.

Skimming

Skimming is the best strategy to save the time during IELTS reading exam, as time management is the most common problem with the IELTS reading test.IELTS students have to find the answers of 40 questions with in 60 minutes. So such skills like skimming plays a vital role to save the time and complete the exam within given time interval.

Skimming means find the main idea of sentence quickly during reading .so it is important quickly look through the passage to find the general understanding of what the text is about. Instead of looking for significant information, just looks an overview. So skim effectively, IELTS learner must 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?

• Once overview gaining and skimming have done, need to find the text that is important and give the information that you are looking
• Students must quickly move their eyes or finger over a page to get the idea about text.
• Once your eye catches a vital phrase or word stop reading.
• Student should be read slowly if they are passing through relevant section.
• Make sure read the first sentence of paragraph carefully to find the information about the text and what the idea is given.
• Students should drop their eyes to end of paragraph once they have read the first sentence to find the essential information about names and dates.
• It is quite essential to read the last text carefully as it contains the summary.

(3)Previewing the text to get an overview

• Like others IELTS reading strategies means scanning and skimming, previewing is also important strategy. It plays a vital role in IELTS reading to get good score and complete the task within given time interval.
• Previewing the text is the one of the best strategy as it provides an idea of what the text is about instead of reading the main body of the passage. If IELTS learner gets an overview by the help pr previewing properly, they can get the correct answer and easily get better score in IELTS reading.

How to previewing the text?

• Read the author and the title details of the text
• Read the parts that give the idea about main heading chapter summaries, subheadings and any highlighted text.
• Analyze any illustrations, tables, graphs or diagrams.