How to Become a Flexible Reader

    Today the most important thing is your time. Everyone tries to spend as little time as possible when they are working or studying, in order to gain more. In many cases, time is money. When it comes to reading, there are several aims of reading, and depending upon your purpose, you will choose to either spend less time or more, as when you read for pleasure. 

     To spend less time doesn't mean to understand less, you just must learn some techniques for reading, such as skimming, scanning or study reading, so that the message is clear to understand. It also means to improve your reading skills and become a more flexible reader.

     First technique is skimming. It is used when your purpose is to quickly obtain a general idea about the reading material. The skimming technique is most useful when you have to read a large amount of material in a short amount of time. When using this style, you should identify the main ideas in each paragraph and ignore other unnecessary details because you are only looking for the main idea in each paragraph. It is useful when your are taking TOEFL or other tests where you have a small amount of time. 

      The other technique is scanning. It is a little bit like skimming, but with this technique you just look for some peaces of information, like names, words, numbers, and short statements. The scanning technique is useful when you are answering questions from tasks and reading passages. Since you know exactly what you are looking for, you can move your eyes quickly over the reading material until you locate the specific piece of information you need to find.

      You should use study reading, when you are reading difficult materials at a high level of comprehension. Actually, you will read slower than your normal reading rate. Further, as you read, you must challenge yourself to understand the material. You may need to read more than once, before you get a clear understanding about the reading passage. 

    These are three major techniques, which will help you to improve your reading skills and become a more flexible reader. You do not have to spend a lot time on reading, if it is not necessary, because it could easily lead to exhaustion. These techniques will help you to get more from reading and may also save you a lot of time and even money, in the end.