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.
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.
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
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.
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