One of the biggest problems faced by majority of the candidates appearing for IELTS is TIME. Its effect is felt more in the IELTS Reading module. You will have to answer about 40 questions from three long reading passages in just an hour, which most of the candidates fail do completely. Hence it is very important that you read the passages very quickly to complete the task in given time.

There are three basic reading skills that greatly help in IELTS Reading Test – Skimming, Scanning and Reading in Detail.

Skimming: When you read a newspaper, you often look for interested articles. For this, you hardly take any time. This technique is called skimming. Because you got used to such a habit, you hardly require any time to find your interested article. The same has to be applied when reading

Skimming is process of looking at the passage very quickly to find out the theme, i.e. the central idea of the passage. If this is done, you will be sure of what you are reading and how your reading should proceed. Also, your comprehending process gets enhanced when you are aware of the topic that you are reading.

Scanning:When you look for a specific name or telephone number in a telephone directory, you will simply scan for that specific name or number you need. Scanning eases your efforts and yields you quick results. The same technique has to be applied in IETLS Reading.

By scanning you look for specific information in a passage very quickly. For this you need not read from the beginning. Just by a quick glance you can locate the area of the passage containing that specific information and concentrate on that specific area.

Reading in Detail: Once you had located the area of the passage containing the information to answer a question, you must carefully read to find out the right answer. Such area of the passage has to be read in detail to pick up the right answer and avoid confusions. It is like, you have a new product and need to assemble the parts to form the complete usable product, you read the instruction manual carefully so as to not to go wrong in assembling the parts.

To conclude, skimming and scanning skills help you identify the right section of passage to answer a specific question. You will then need to read that section of the passage in detail to find out the right answer. On the contrary, if you read the entire reading passage in detail without knowing the head or tail of it, you will end up in wasting your valuable time.