Three ways of reading, and when to use each

Skimming, scanning, reading for detail

Skimming means reading quickly to find the general idea. You read the title, the first sentence of each paragraph and the last paragraph. You do this once, before you look at the questions.

Scanning means moving your eye over the text to find one specific thing: a name, a date, a number, a place. You already know what you are looking for, so you do not read the other words at all.

Reading for detail means reading a short part of the text slowly and completely, because the answer depends on exactly how it is written.

In the exam the order is almost always: skim the whole text, read the question, scan for the part of the text it refers to, then read that part in detail.

Why the order matters

Students who read the whole text slowly first run out of time. Students who go straight to the questions without skimming often answer from the wrong paragraph, because they do not know how the text is organised.