Skimming and Scanning in IELTS Reading Test
Two useful reading skills that you will need to use when you’re doing the IELTS Reading Test are skimming and scanning. So what do we mean by these terms?
Well, skimming is what you do when you pick up a newspaper or go to an online news site and look at the headlines. You want to find out what’s happening in the world so your eyes roam quickly over the page to identify the main idea, or ideas. You don’t need to read every word to get the main idea. Also, with skimming, you shouldn’t spend a lot of time thinking about unknown words. Scanning means reading a text quickly to find specific words or information, such as names, places, or dates. It’s important to know what you’re looking for before you start so that you can do this efficiently.
Now let’s look at some examples of how you can use skimming and scanning skills in the IELTS Test. This is a short demonstration of skimming.Here’s an article about a new discovery which may lead to a new form of pain relief.
It’s a snail toxin and I just want to find out what the advantages are. So now, I’m going to quickly skim the text and look for the section that talks about that. I’m looking for clues in the text and here it talks about problems with current drugs and the way this toxin works without side-effects, so that’s where it talks about advantages. Now let’s look at how scanning works.
Here is a text about the treatment of wastewater.
Let’s say that you wanted to read this text in order to find out about something called BNR, or Biological Nutrient Removal. What is it exactly? So now, I’m going to quickly scan the text and look for this term. There it is. Now I’m going to read what it says so that I can answer my question. So, BNR involves the removal of organic matter and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus.
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