Top 10 Tips & Strategies to Score High in PTE Academic

Top 10 Tips & Strategies to Score High in PTE Academic

Here are some of the amazing PTE academic tips to help you score the highest points in PTE academic. Most people aspire for 79+ score of 65+ score in PTE and with our easy guide, you just a step away from hitting the bull’s eye. We also offer a premium one-to-one online training to help you get the best score. Here we go…

Three seconds rule

Make sure you start speaking right after the microphone opens; if you don’t start speaking for three seconds, your answer will no longer be recorded. Also, don’t stop constantly for three seconds even while recording the answer.

Speaking fast is not fluent

Be smooth, effortless and natural paced – don’t speak too fast or too slow. Don’t try to enforce anything on your voice to impress the computer. Just speak effortlessly and smoothly and speak consistently right. Don’t take too many gaps and pauses while speaking.

Don’t copy the accent

An accent is the articulation of the sound and it should be adapted to – remember that your accent doesn’t improve or interface with your voice but make sure that the words you speak are clear and comprehensive. As long as people who speak English regularly can understand you, you are fine to go ahead with this.

Manage the time properly

Time management is one of the Best PTE academic strategy and one of the most important aspects for Listening & Reading – if you don’t manage your time properly then you would certainly lose the game. Also, do dissipate the time in right proportion with score proposition of each question to make sure the question with high score weightage gets a better time.

Content is the key

Content is what makes you win in PTE – make sure you speak what you are supposed to speak. If you don’t speak about the questions that they have asked you or probably write or speaking something not in line with the prompt, you would lose the marks. Be it speaking or writing make sure you include the major aspects of the questions in your responses.

Know the score propositions

As you know that Pearson Test of English is an integrated test – know about the score propositions of each part and the questions to understand what is important and what is not. This can also help you in planning your time as the questions with a high score proposition should be spent more time with.

Simplify your write-ups

Don’t think that an intricate essay would help or use the difficult words would make your vocabulary score go up. Write as simple as possible, use simple language and appropriate words than to make it difficult for anyone to read it. Give people examples and make the write up as comprehensive as possible.

Understand the enabling skills

Your enabling skills makes around 60% of your score in PTE – understanding them would help to understand a lot about the exam. There are a total of six enabling skills and two of them are impacting your speaking score which is oral fluency and pronunciation and the remaining four will impact your writing score which are Grammar, Spellings, Written discourse, and Vocabulary.

Know the collocations

The collocation is the most commonly used words in a language – the collocation can help you get most answers right in fill in the blank question type in Reading. Here is the list of academic collocations published by Pearson that help you master the fill in the blanks question type in the PTE.

Follow the word limits

Most of the question types in writing have a specific word limit – so do care for the word limit. In any case, please don’t exceed the specified word limit for any of the writing tasks. Also, follow the associated guidelines strictly – don’t write in capital letters entirely and check your grammar before submitting it.

How to get 79+ score in PTE [Updated April 2020]

How to get 79+ score in PTE [Updated April 2020]

How to get 79+ score in PTE?

Be it education or immigration PTE academic can help you go places – it’s also considered as one of the easiest English language proficiency exams. The educational institutes across the globe recognise PTE including Harvard and Yale University. It’s also accepted by Australian and New Zealand immigration bodies for immigration and work purpose. PTE needs no introduction as it is widely accepted – it has more than 240 operating centres across the world. You can take the exam at any time of the year, and it’s conducted almost every single day. PTE is reliable, easy and unbiased – it’s completely a computer-based exam and easy to score. Reaching up to a score 79+ in PTE is not a cup to tea – it requires patience, dedication, and a lot of preparation.

Here is how to get started:

Start your preparation with knowing the PTE format and familiarising yourself with the PTE question types. It’s essential to understand the exam and the format before beginning your practice. It takes around three hours’ time to write the PTE exam which comes with around 70 total questions in 20 different item types.

PTE exam format

One of the major problem people face in PTE is the projection of scores – you prepare for months and when you go for an exam, you see something really unexpectedly low. It costs high and if you keep writing without the right projection, you may not succeed. To project the scores, you can write the Pearson’s official mock tests and unless you get a score you aspire, don’t go for the final exam. Remember, luck doesn’t favour but the strategies do!

Understanding the scores

A simple understanding of the course can simplify your preparation – it’s better to understand what you are aspiring for. There are basically three different levels of scores that you will have in the PTE report card.

PTE sample report card

Overall score: the total/overall score is the derivative of scores from each of the 20 different item types with their contribution on other question types. The scale for overall score is 10-90 with one point increment e.g. 67, 45, 78, etc.

Communicative skills score: your communicative skills score is an individual score of each of the four communicative skills such as Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. The scale for each of the four skills is on 10-90 with one point increment. Your communicative skills score is as important as your overall score.

Enabling skills score: enabling skills score is just four information, this score doesn’t matter to your education institute or to your immigration bodies and it takes around 60-70% of your score. Enabling skills are the foundation of your score and they impact your score a lot – there are six enabling skills and two of them impacts the Speaking score and the remaining four impacts the Writing score. There is no direct impact on the Listening and Reading – there is an indirect impact as PTE is an integrated test but no direct influence. The score range for enabling skills also ranges from 10-90 scale.

Follow the below strategy to prepare until you project your scores rightly

pte preparation strategy

Always go with the preparation in a right order – don’t jump up on the questions, every question is important and scoring. Also, the enabling skills mentioned on your score card play a very vital role in reaching you to the destined score – know them before and understand how they are impacting the score directly and indirectly. As I mentioned before, we can say that around 60-70% of your score depends on your enabling skills.

As we know that PTE is a computer-based exam and it’s run on artificially intelligent systems and algorithms, so it’s essential that you focus on the score guidelines in order to score better and higher.  Pearson has published an official score guide to help us understand the scoring system behind each question.

Helpful tips for Pte academic

Go in sequence and practice each question one after another – and once you are little prepared, go for your first mock test. The mock will not only help you know your current level but also help you with hands-on practice. You can also test your time strategies if they work rightly. Based on your results, you can plan it further – you may require to write a few more mock tests or you may be ready to move on with your test.

Three seconds rule: remember that if you don’t speak for continuous three seconds, your answer will not be recorded any further and same follows in the beginning as well. So make sure you speak constantly and don’t stop constantly for three seconds while recording your answer unless it’s completed.

Spelling rule: spelling is one of the most sensitive criteria in PTE – even a single spelling mistake could be disastrous. Also, make sure a single spelling convention is used in one type of question.

Score proposition: make sure you understand the score proposition for each question and divide the time as per the questions’ score value e.g. a question with higher score should be given more time.

Oral Fluency: don’t speak too loud or too slow – speak naturally and clearly. Don’t enforce any speech quality on your voice. Make your speed delivery smooth, effortless, and natural paced. Consistency of speed will help to boost the fluency score.

Time management: both reading and listening have an overall time and you decide how long you wish to spend with each question. Make sure you make some strategies to divide your time – important questions should get fair time.

Mic placement: keep you microphone 2-3 cm away from your mouth and don’t worry about the surrounding noise as it has noise cancellation filters. Also, don’t touch the microphone with hand while recording your answer.

Don’t panic: Pearson is very lenient in scoring – don’t panic if you make some mistakes here and there. Remember that you are dealing with computer and the human will always be there. Be consistently right and you will have your score.

Negative marking: at least three question types in PTE are negatively marked so you make sure that you only pick the options you are sure of. Don’t attempt these questions if you don’t know the right answer. Though the minimum score is going to zero only.

PEARSON TEST OF ENGLISH (PTE) – Summarize written text

PEARSON TEST OF ENGLISH (PTE) – Summarize written text

Well, summary writing or summarize a written text is one of the most important tasks in PTE – it helps you score both in Reading as well as writing where it belongs. It makes 15% of your total writing score and 15% of your total reading score which is not a small proportion. It can alone spoil the entire writing & reading game if not done well.

  • Total time: 10 mins
  • Word limit: 5–70 (35–55 ideal range)
  • Timer & word counter: on screen

Note: to be written in a single complete sentence

Before we make some strategies for SWT, it’s essential to understand the scoring guidelines from Pearson. Here we go:

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Score guide for SWT

There are four scoring criteria as listed above – two of them can be understood rightly which is form & vocabulary. Your focus should be content & vocabulary.

How computer checks on your writing in terms of the content – if you have covered the major aspect, the main ideas of the text in your summary, the better your score would be. Let’s take an example:

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Tips: If you wish to score better in SWT, you will have to make sure you check all the points given above in the scoring of this question type. In every essay, there is the main idea and supporting ideas. In summary, you just need to imbibe the main idea and leave the rest of them and join the ideas using connectors and grammatical knowledge in a logical fashion making sure a single complete sentence.

For example, let’s extract the main ideas from the above questions:

The UN IPCC report, on climate change, rise in the world’s average surface temperature, rise in sea level, shrink in sea ice, decrease in snow cover, increase in precipitation at high latitudes.

Now, put these keys into a meaningful single, complete sentence.

As per UN IPCC reports, due to the rise in the world’s average surface temperature, sea level is rising, sea ice is shrinking, snow cover is decreasing, and changes in precipitation.

Your summary and the actual paragraph should bring about the same conclusion. That’s when you can say that you have written a good summary. Now check for the form, vocabulary, and grammar.

You can do the following more checks to ensure if your summary meets the standards.

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You can use the following alignment to understand the PTE score.

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