Scanning

Some years ago, when I was just starting to teach IELTS students, a very experienced colleague surprised me with a startling comment. He said that if a student can (accurately) tell you in detail what all three texts were about after the exam, then they probably didn’t score very highly! I was sceptical at the time, but I now understand exactly what he meant.

There are between 2,150 to 2,375 words in the three texts, and 40 questions to answer. Time really is our enemy here, so reading every word is not the best approach. It is therefore not only possible, but desirable to use the skills of skimming, scanning and detailed reading to find the answers. We WILL find the right answers, but we WON’T read every word – this is a more focused approach and will save you time.

Let’s take a look at the important skill of Scanning.

Scanning

Scanning means reading a text quickly in order to find specific information.

For the IELTS Reading test, this will be the information you need to answer a question. Scanning probably won’t give you the actual answer, but it will help you locate where the answer is.

You could be searching for a name, a date, a phrase or synonyms of words in the question.

As with skimming, this technique allows you to find the information quickly without having to read the text slowly word by word.

Scanning is another everyday skill. You use it, for example, when deciding what to watch on TV. You scan the programme titles and the times they’re on and then you skim through the descriptive blurb to help you decide what you want to watch. You certainly don’t read the whole programme menu word for word.

 How do we do it?

1) Pick out the keywords or phrase in the specific question you are answering. It could also be a name, number or date.

2) Be aware that the text may contain synonyms of these rather than the words or numbers used in the question.

3) Scan the text. When you spot what you’re looking for, underline it to come back to and read in more detail.

You’ll need to scan the whole text for the word or phrase you’re looking for as it may occur more than once. You’ll then have to check which location contains the answer.

Let’s have a go at this with our article Marie Curie. You can see the text again and some worked questions in the next Blog post.