PTEversity blogs: Target 79+ in the PTE Academic

PTE Listening – Select Missing Word This is a relatively easier section which checks whether or not you are good at coming to the conclusion after listening to some short story or a speech. We guess everyone is, so be confident and listen carefully. You will get to hear to a voice-recording for around 30 to 60 seconds (approx). Either a single word or a group of words at the end of the recording would be replaced by a beep sound. You would be required to select the most appropriate option (amongst 3 to 5 available answer options) that goes with the meaning/context of the entire speech. Scoring Technique ·         In order to guess on something (missing words in this case), you first need to know what that ‘something’ is all about. ·         The 1 st sentence of the instructions (as part of the question) itself would make the context clearer. ·         You...

PTE Reading - Multiple choice, choose multiple answers This is possibly the most time-consuming and the most difficult section of the exam where a passage (of 3-5 paragraphs) will appear on your screen. You would be required to read it thoroughly and answer the question by selecting all the correct responses (generally more than 1) out of the 4-5 available ones. There will be 2 such questions and a lot of practice is required to get the maximum scores out of this section. People who aim to get 65 sometimes skip these 2 questions completely to save time and answer other questions which are certainly easier, but this is not advisable. You cannot afford to skip this section if your desired score is 79+ out of 90. Scoring Technique Focus, focus and focus. Try to understand the main idea of the passage. You might want to skim the answer option quickly so as to get writer's purpose, feelings on that particular topic and the tone of the passage. Identify the facts, opini...

PTE Writing - Summarize Written Text  A nice example for PTE Summarize Written Text: Need to summarize a given passage in a single sentence in no more than 75 words. "While the main news surrounding the Indian cricket continues to be the fractious break-up between the coach Anil Kumble and the skipper Virat Kohli, and the aftermath of the resignation of the former, India's rainy dates with Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain continued as the toss for the second One Day International between India and West Indies has been delayed due to rain." Scoring Technique o    Identify the key idea behind the given passage and make sure that your write-up conveys the same. o    Because you are bound to frame just one sentence, it might get a bit lengthy. The art of joining multiple sentences using commas or semicolons needs to be practiced.  o    Try to keep your response between 50 to 65 words, and use no m...

Last minute tips for the PTE Academic test Just few hours left for your PTE Academic? Not sure on what to do in order to get a 79+ score....  For sure y ou cannot afford to make more than 2 mistakes per section if you are eyeing a 79+ score out of 90 in each of the Speaking, Reading, Writing and Listening sections. Here are the other important things that you need to remember during the test to score well:   There will be 10-12 people taking up the exam in a not-so-big room. So be prepared for distractions, especially during the ‘Speaking’ section. Make sure you speak out loud and clear while attempting the questions from the ‘Speaking’ section. If you are a soft-spoken person, I am afraid you’ll be required to raise your voice to some extent. Else your computer’s microphone would not be able to pick your voice clearly. People from various all age-groups take up the PTE, so do not get demoralized. No one would be competing against you as far as the PTE is con...

PTE Reading – Fill in the Blanks - Scoring Technique This is one of the easiest topics to score in relatively much lesser time in the PTE Academic. You will be given a paragraph comprising of 3-5 sentences approximately with a few missing words, generally 4-5 in number. Few words will be placed at the bottom of the screen inside separate boxes and all you are supposed to do is to drag and drop correct words to correct place in the paragraph. The number of words provided for you to respond (6-8) would generally be more in number just to create some confusion. Ensure you fill in all the blanks as there is no negative time for this type of question. Sample Paragraph : Science blogs serves a dual purpose. First, they connect scientists to each other, _____ (1) ______ as modern day intellectual salons. Even _____ (2) ______ scientific papers are now beginning to _____ (3) ______ blogs as references. Second, they connect scientists to the general _____ (4) ______, offerin...

PTE/IELTS Writing -- Write Essay -- Scoring Technique Essay writing is a difficult task even for native English speakers. Your essay has to be within the word-limit (200 to 300 words). You should try to finish off framing your essay within 15 minutes, instead of the allocated time of 20 minutes. Keeping 5 minutes for a detailed review really helps. You cannot afford to make spelling mistakes. Focus on sentence formation and try to frame mid-sized sentences. It should neither be too short (lack of information) nor be too long (complicated or more error-prone). Three normal sentences roughly consists  of 45 words. You need to have approx. 15 sentences in an essay so that the overall word-count reaches 225 words (sufficient). Finalize the 2 sides of the argument as per the essay topic –- Side 1 (Advantages) and Side 2 (Disadvantages). Start the 1st paragraph of your essay with 2-3 general sentences about the topic. Choose between Side 1 and Side 2, support your...

PTE Speaking -- Describe Image -- Scoring Technique You will see a diagram/pie-chart/bar-graph/map etc for 25 seconds. The trick is to understand the image and speak selectively about it within 40 seconds. Be selective. You are not supposed to speak all that you see in 40 seconds. Pick a few key things to speak about, and leave out the rest.  Speak clearly and at a decent pace. Start with describing the heading/subject in one sentence. It would easily take up 4 to 5 seconds if you just rephrase the title at the top of every question. Include what the x-axis and the y-axis represent if it is a bar graph or a line graph. Highlight 4 to 5 major points from the image which are relevant and clear, one after the other. This should easily take the next 20-22 seconds. At last, conclude your speech within another 5 seconds. Try to finish by the 37th or 38th second and stop before their timer actually stops (exactly 40 seconds). Even if you s...

Cracking the PTE Academic in 2 weeks time If you have 2 weeks time for your next PTE exam and if you can devote approximately 4 hrs per day for the preparation, we would suggest you to start reading a novel (300-400 pages) online on your area of interest. You need to read it aloud -- line by line and page by page. This will help you to tackle questions from the  Speaking/Reading  sections.  1.       Use  https://dictation.io/  to check if the spelling of the speech-converted-text is exactly as it should be. This is the best way to improve your pronunciation. 2.       After finishing a chapter, make sure you write the summary of it in less than 300 words before starting the next chapter. Do take the help of a dictionary and prepare a document containing all the unfamiliar words and their meanings, page-wise, by typing everything on your own (for the  Writing  section). 3. ...