Fast reading techniques

Fast reading techniques help you to browse text and extract the key points. The skills require practice, but once you have got the hang of them you’ll find you can get through a substantial amount of reading in quite a short time.

Scanning – a useful first step before reading more deeply.

Skimming – handy when you're looking for particular things within a text, or trying to find out whether a text will be useful.

Ways to develop your skimming and scanning skills
Scanning	Skimming
Run your eye quickly over the text to locate specific words or phrases that are of interest. You can scan: headings and subheadings images and artwork the body text for authors' names the contents page itself the index for specific words. This will help you decide whether you should read further, and how useful the document might be for your study.	Read quickly to get an overview prior to in-depth reading. Although you may still need to read the entire text, by scanning first you can decide where you want to concentrate your time. Skim the text quickly to: get an indication of the scope and content of the text read the first and last paragraphs to get the main points look at the first sentence of each paragraph to see where the content of the paragraph will lead note the key points in the summaries.

Fast reading techniques

Make life easier