Skimming and Scanning...Useful? When?

IN THIS ENTRY WE DISCUSS ABOUT THE TWO MORE USEFUL STRATEGIES FOR THE GOOD LEARNERS.

Five of interviewed students think that the most useful strategies are skimming and scanning; on the other hand, as you can see in graphic, the second more used strategy is to read many times (or at least twice) and to underline the most important parts.

In our point of view, skimming and scanning are effective and very useful. But you can´t use them all the time!

So, when SHOULD you use skimming and scanning?
When…

• You have a VERY extended Reading and very LITTLE time.
• You do the reading part of your English test.

In some situations skimming and scanning are not enough to understand very well a text, specially when is academic and you have to retain the information for a longer time. So you might read many times or at least twice and to underline the most important parts.

• You should use the second strategy when...
• Your teacher asks you to analyze a text and learn concepts.You have to study for a test. You read to do homework.

TIP: If you want to avoid reading many times, you should to concentrate on what you read, underline the most important part and reread only what you underlined.