Commonly used in the ielts reading questions. These are skimming, scanning, and reading intensively

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Hello, everyone. Welcome to the IELTS Online Reading program by Macquarie University. I'm Zee, your 
trainer for the course. In this video, you will learn three important reading techniques, which are 
commonly used in the IELTS reading questions. These are skimming, scanning, and reading intensively.
What is the main difference between these reading techniques? Skimming means reading quickly to 
gain a general understanding of the text. It's usually used first to skim read the reading passage and the 
question. Scanning means reading quickly to locate specific information in the text using key words. This 
is an essential reading skill, which helps you find the relevant section in the reading passage that 
contains the answer. Finally, reading intensively, also known as intensive reading, involves reading in 
detail to locate the correct answer. These techniques help you identify key information in the reading 
passage, and you will use all of them while answering IELTS reading questions. Let's have a look at how 
they differ from each other in more detail and also learn when and how to use them during the reading 
exam.
Let's start with skimming. This is the first technique you will usually use when you start the IELTS reading 
exam. Skimming means reading quickly for a general overview and the main idea of the text or a 
paragraph. It also involves predicting the content of the reading passage. How do you skim? You skim by 
quickly moving your eyes over the title of the text, headings and subheadings, as well as topic sentences, 
which usually contain the main ideas of the paragraphs. Skimming the last sentence of each paragraph 
can also be helpful. You can skim other parts of the questions as well.
Let's practice skimming technique by using the following example, a part of a reading passage called Use 
of Comics in Education. Before you try to answer the question, it's always useful to first skim the text for 
a general understanding. Do you still remember which parts of the text you should quickly move your 
eyes over? Look at the highlighted part of the text, the title, the topic sentences, and the last sentences 
of each paragraph. These are the parts that can help you gain a quick overview of the topic, including 
the vocabulary you might expect to find, the main ideas, and the overall structure of the reading 
passage. Remember, you should do this quickly. Avoid reading in detail. Already you can see that this 
text is about comics and education and that it seems to be mainly about the past.
If you have time, you may also choose to identify information such as people, places, time expressions, 
and numbers as you are quickly moving your eyes over the text. These are usually easy to see as they 
have capital letters and may help you later to quickly locate the information you are looking for. For 
example, in this passage, you might highlight the words "Egyptian" and "Europe". However, do this 
quickly and don't waste your time trying to understand the details. Also, some test takers might write a 
few key words next to the paragraph or section to remember the main idea of the paragraph. This is 
called annotating. For instance, you could write sequential art used as instruction for illiterate.
You have learned how to skim, which is an important reading technique in the IELTS reading tests.