Scanning is a skill, which means it gets better by doing dedicated practice to improving the skill.  Scanning and recognizing synonyms and paraphrasing the question keywords is essential whether you are taking the TOEFL iBT or the IELTS exam. Scanning is NOT reading, and a lot of students waste time by reading instead of scanning, which is an unfocused progression through a text searching for a specific language.

You can easily use the AI tool ChatGpt to practice the skill of scanning for specific words. Here is an example of a task I gave ChatGpt and what it produced. Once it creates one exercise, you can have it create 100 similar exercises to practice scanning for synonyms and paraphrasing. You should set a timer and keep practicing until you get better.

Note: In creating this prompt, it took a lot of writing and rewriting to get the AI tool to produce what I wanted. There is no guarantee that it will produce exactly what it produced for me, so you may need to make adjustments to your instructions to the system. However, I did test this a few times and got similar results.

I am going to give ChatGpt three tasks to complete to create this Scanning Exercise. Task 1 will create a 6-paragraph text similar to what you would find on the TOEFL or IELTS exams. Task 2 gives you the list of 15 words, and you need to go SCAN for the synonyms or paraphrases of those 15 words in the 6-paragraph text. Task 3 is the ANSWER KEY, so do not look at it until you have tried to scan and find the paraphrase of synonyms of all 15 of the Task 2 words in the 6-paragraph text.

Here is the prompt to give to ChatGpt. Note: I just copied and pasted this information, and the system created the exercise. I hope that it can do the same for you, and If not, you may need to play with it until it gets it right.

ChatGpt Link: https://chat.openai.com/

You should copy and paste the following prompt directions to ChatGpt:

"ChatGpt Prompt: You are creating a scanning exercise to help me improve my skills at scanning. There are three tasks, and I want you to complete each task separately. Note: I want Task 2 and Task 3 separated. In other words, do not put the words from Task 2 and Task 3 together (side-by-side). Task 2 is the assignment for students. Task 3 represents the answers, so DO NOT place this information together (side-by-side). Tasks 1, 2, and 3 should be given separately and not mixed in any way, shape, or fashion.

Here are three separate tasks that I want you to do:

Task 1. First, I want you to create a consecutive 6-paragraph text about an academic topic similar in nature to what you would find on the IELTS or TOEFL exams. Each paragraph should be sequenced one after the other and a minimum of 5 sentences that express sentence variety.

Task 2. Second, I want you to create a list of 15 words and phrases that are paraphrased from 15 words or phrases found in the 6-paragraph text. Write Make sure the 15 words are found in this same order in the 6-paragraph text. Give this list of 15 words by themselves.

Task 3. Third, I want you to give me a separate list of the paraphrase/synonym matches from the 6-paragraph text that match the 15 words in Task 2.

Helpful Advice/Suggestions:

** If, for some reason, it does not complete task 3 because it has run out of space, just type "Please complete task 3."

** Sometimes, it was putting Task 2 and Task 3 together in one list, and I wanted them separate because Task 3 is the answer key, so I had to refine the instructions by telling it to separate Task 2 and Task 3 and not put them together.

** This should work, but if it does not, you sometimes have to conduct a trial-and-error process with the directions to get ChatGpt to create what you want.

** When I copied and pasted these directions into ChatGpt, it gave me the exact exercise I was looking for, You should copy and paste the directions above and see what happens for you. Trying to get an AI to produce and exercise exactly how you want is often trial and error.

** After ChatGpt creates one exercise for you, just type "Please create another similar exercise but on a different academic topic," and it will create as many exercises as you want to work on the skill of scanning for matching keywords.

How to do the Scanning Assignments you create:

** Take the list of words given in Task 2 and Scan for the synonym/paraphrase matches in the 6-Paragraph Text. After you have completed your scanning and identifying process, then and only then look at the list of words in Task 3 as those are the synonyms/paraphrases of the Task 2 words you should have found in the 6-paragraph text.

** My Added Direction: I will scan the Task 1 6-paragraph text for the paraphrases/synonyms of the words in the Task 2 list. In the 6-paragraph text, there are synonyms/paraphrases of the words in this Task 2 words list, and I need to scan and find those synonyms and paraphrases. Note: I will do this before I look at Task 3, which represents the synonyms/paraphrases you should have found