3.3The two reading skills you actually need
Skimming
Skimming means moving your eyes fast over a text to find out what it is about and how it is organised. You are not reading, you are surveying. Give a long text 60 seconds: read the title, the first sentence of each paragraph, and any words in bold or capitals. That is enough to build a map.
Scanning
Scanning means hunting for one specific thing: a name, a date, a figure, a place. Your eyes move in zigzags down the page and ignore everything that is not the shape of what you want. Numbers, capital letters and unusual words are the easiest things to scan for, which is why questions containing them are the quickest to answer. Do those first.
The paraphrase problem
The answer in the text almost never uses the same words as the question. This is the single most important fact about IELTS Reading. Before you go hunting, spend three seconds asking: how else could this idea be written?
| If the question says | The text may say |
|---|---|
| lends equipment | available to borrow, provided free, you may take one |
| children | under-12s, young people, minors, those aged 5 to 11 |
| is not allowed | is prohibited, must not, is restricted, may not |
| costs nothing | free of charge, at no cost, complimentary, included |
| employees | staff, workers, personnel, members of the team |
| began | was founded, was established, dates back to, started out |
| rose sharply | increased dramatically, jumped, climbed steeply |
| most people | the majority, a large proportion, four out of five |