Reading: skim first, scan second — never both at once
Kamran Aliyev
April 17, 2026 · 3 min read
Mixing the two reading techniques is the most common mistake we see. Here is the two-pass approach that saves you ten minutes per passage.
Skimming and scanning solve different problems. Skimming gives you the shape of the passage. Scanning finds a specific detail. Doing both at the same time is what makes you slow.
The two-pass approach:
Pass one — skim. Read the first sentence of every paragraph. Read the last sentence of the conclusion. Do not stop at words you do not know. You should finish a passage in 90 seconds. The goal is to know where each topic lives.
Pass two — scan. Now look at the questions. For each question, jump straight to the paragraph you already know contains the topic. Read carefully there.
This cuts your time per passage from 22 minutes to about 17. That extra five minutes is what gives you a buffer for the matching-headings questions later.
