1A Skills Practice: Scanning

In an exam, it’s not just your language which is being tested. It also tests your
ability to find and understand information as quickly as possible. For this
reason, you won’t have time to read the whole text carefully and understand
everything in detail.

Scanning is the skill of searching for a single piece of information; looking for
names, numbers or specific words. It is one of the essential reading skills that
you will need. It will save you a lot of time!

The good news is, you already know how to do this. Think about the way you
usually read a bus timetable or the departures board at an airport. You don’t
start at the beginning and read every word. You just go directly to the
information you need and ignore everything else. That’s scanning!