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