Lindsay McMahon
"The English Adventurer"

You must be able to skim to do well on the IELTS Reading exam.

Do you know how to skim effectively?

And, did you know that you must skim before you look at the reading questions?

Why you must skim

Skimming warms up your brain. By skimming for one minute before you look at the questions, you open up the brain boxes connected to the general topic.

We skim to get the main idea, or the gist, of the passage.

Then, when you look at the questions, you understand what they are asking about, instead of having to read the question 3 or 4 times to get what it is about. Skimming saves you time, and getting high scores on the IELTS Reading exam is all about strategies for time management.

How you skim

Using your pen, follow along and read the title, subtitle, and the beginning of every paragraph. The first two lines of each paragraph is enough. It should take you a minute to a minute and a half.

Underline key words as you do this. There are no right or wrong key words; rather, they are any words you think are important. Usually, they are nouns and verbs. Names and numbers are always key words.

Like any skill, in order to skim effectively, you must practice! You can practice on your own by skimming a newspaper or magazine article. When you are done skimming, write down what you think the main idea is.

Skimming is only one reading skill you need to succeed on the IELTS Reading exam. In our course, the 3 Keys IELTS Success System, we give you the other simple steps, strategies and skills to succeed on all parts of the IELTS exam.

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