PTE is an English proficiency test accepted by highly reputed universities from countries like the USA, UK, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand, and Ireland. If you are opting for PTE and think it’s going to be just like any other English test like IELTS or TOEFL, then you might want to double-check the format.
PTE vastly differs in the type of questions, scoring system, and time allocation. During the test timeline (3 hours), PTE thrusts its unique challenges that keenly define why PTE needs special preparation. What are these challenges, how to deal with them and how can we crack PTE in one attempt? All these questions traverse you back to the ‘effective strategy’.
We are thoroughly discussing the answers besides the 10 successful strategies that pave your way to PTE success. So let’s begin!
1. Analysis:
Analyse the test pattern, format and level of questions. Set your priority for the sections/ questions based on the marks allotted to them. As per the experts’ analysis top score gaining sections are Repeat sentence, dictation, MCQs. These sections have highest score allocation. If you attempt all these questions without a single error, you can expect a score of 70+. Performing excellent in your remaining questions you can hit 90+ scores.
*Tip: Analyse the scores of your mock tests to work on your performance improvement. Attempt atleast 3 mock tests a week and analyse the scores. Plan your study routine to stress more on the weaker areas.
2. Practice
Someone who wants to score well in PTE would never rely simply on their English skills. Giving your skills a much-needed polish with practice is a perfect way to ace at PTE. Practice makes you familiar with the question pattern, lines your thought process, and solving speed. All this helps you to hit the 90+ score.
*Tip: Practice different questions with challenging levels and questions from previous papers. Set a target of question per day like 25 fill in the blanks/ day or reading aloud for 30 mins daily. Make Siri to read a text and observe the different tones, intonations, stress given on few verbs, nouns and try to mimic them to improve your speaking skills.
3. Apply SWOT technique.
If you are attempting PTE, you might enjoyed some kind of entertainment in English be it music, podcasts, reading, or watching while preparing for it. Know what you do best of all and that’s your area to excel! Become so perfect that you leave no chance of loosing any marks.
Having said this, apply the SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) to analyse your reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.
Make an effective plan to work on your Weakness and Threats while polishing your Strengths and Opportunities. Like If you find it hard to understand accents listen to podcasts of your favorite personalities, speeches, Ted talks, interviews without visuals since in real exams you will only listen to voices. If you don’t know how to use phrases and idioms, read books of your favorite genre. Enjoy, learn and implement at the same time.
4. Stay in the Moment
Stay in the zone of the test. Distraction has no room when it comes to PTE. Read the instructions carefully, stay aware of time, and word limits. Losing hold of any of these things can directly reflect on the scorecard. When you’re alert and aware, you save your time by interpreting the question in one go.
*Tip: Save atleast 10 seconds per question by staying focused by skipping rereads.
5. Proofreading Is Must
We might make oversight errors while taking any test. But, when we aim for qualifying the exam with 90+ scores, making such errors can drop our scores significantly. There is always something to rectify. If you don’t give enough time for proofreading you might end up submitting silly mistakes that you could have easily resolved. Our experts recommend to allot 5-10% of your time for proofreading the writing section to score 90+ in PTE.
6. Don’t Let the Past Affect Next Questions
It’s normal to panic amid the test, especially when you realize that you’ve messed up one or two questions and now want to make absolutely no mistake in the next one. Often this panic leads to no good thing.
It’s better to stay calm, do best in the next question than grieving for the question that went wrong. If you get stuck up in this thought, you lose your attention in next one and hamper your performance.
To add to this, studies have shown that people who stay calm without panicking focus more and perform better in exams.
7. Scribble it Down
Before elaborating your essay, take a rough paper and list down all the points you wish to cover in the essay.
Won’t it waste my time? No, it actually might do the contrary. It keeps you on track of your key points, reminds you of the word limit, and helps you to add all necessary and scoring points.
8. Importance of Skimming
In the reading section skimming through paragraphs before reading them thoroughly is a key technique practiced by top scorers. You can spot the keywords faster and highlight them. Objective questions, one-liners, summary questions are solved quickly with this strategy as finding the answers becomes easy.
9. Be Master of One-Sentence Summary
In a writing section, you have to summarize written text in one sentence with a word limit of 75 words. Even in the luxury of 10 minutes many struggle to stuff it all in a 75-word limit.
The goal of this question is to evaluate the appropriate usage of commas, semicolons, and apostrophes. So before practicing your ‘summarizing’ skills, make sure you know how to use them, when to use them and how much to use them.
10. Simplicity of words:
Many candidates think that including difficult words and forming complex sentences proves English proficiency. Experts advice to use simple yet exact word to express your thoughts while attempting speaking and writing sections of PTE.
Remember phrases, idioms, synonyms, and clarity of thoughts should be the backbone of your sentences. Easy, short, and less complex sentences leave little room for mistakes and maintains readability.
Other strategies like to attempt the ‘First Things First’ carries your full attention and you perform the best. Another strategy is tracking time for each section separately. Top scorers have recommended to practice typing without backspace option and speaking without restarting or pausing. With these 10 tried and tested strategies, many have achieved their dreams for scoring 90+ in PTE.
Sit back and invest your time in picking up the right strategy before you start off. Lastly, you should be aware of the recent updates and modify your strategy timely to prepare well for your 90+ target score.