Skimming and scanning are the two most important reading techniques for the IELTS Reading test. Many students mix them up, so let's make the difference simple and clear.
What is skimming? Skimming means reading quickly to understand the general idea of a passage, without reading every word. When you skim, you look at the title, the first and last sentences of each paragraph, and any bold or capitalized words. Your goal is to answer the question: "What is this passage or paragraph mainly about?"
Use skimming when: - You first open a new passage and want a general understanding before answering questions - You are dealing with "Matching Headings" questions, where you need to know the main idea of each paragraph - You want to quickly figure out which paragraph a certain topic is discussed in
What is scanning? Scanning means moving your eyes quickly over the text to find one specific piece of information, like a name, date, number, or particular word. You are not trying to understand the whole passage, just locate one exact detail.
Use scanning when: - You are looking for a specific fact to answer a Fill in the Blank or Short Answer question - You already know the exact word or number you are searching for (for example, a question mentions "in 1969" and you scan for that number) - You need to verify a True/False/Not Given statement against a specific sentence
How to combine both skills. In a real IELTS passage, you will usually skim first to understand the structure, then scan within specific paragraphs to find exact answers. For example: skim the whole passage to get a rough idea of what each paragraph covers, then when a question asks about "the economic impact," scan the paragraph that seemed to be about economics for the exact answer.
Practice tip. Open any passage in Readlify's practice mode and try this: cover the passage, read only the first sentence of each paragraph, and guess what the passage is about. Then read the full passage and check how close you were. Doing this regularly will make skimming feel natural within a few weeks.