Planning to take your PTE? The PTE-A exam requires you to study professionally and systematically, instead of wasting time in random practice. Many aspirants expect the desired result with their quantitative practice, but unfortunately, this is not the case.
You must know that you have to start preparing for the PTE exam in your mind even before you actually start studying. To this, practicing with a strategic mindset has proven to give better results.
In this blog, we’ll give you seven tips from the experts:
1. Breaking the questions up
PTE candidates must answer 73 to 80 questions in 20 different tasks. You can divide the questions into 4 categories:
Category 1: Questions contributing to the score of the other section’s score:
a. Pretty hard questions
b. Well scoring questions
Category 2: Negative marking questions. and need skill polishing & additional practice.
You can also check out the PTE score guide to see how much each question is worth and what skills they test.
2. A strategic study plan
There’s no such thing as too much practice for the PTE-A exam. But you should make a strategic study plan and follow it. A perfect study plan is a combination of preparation, practice, and self-analysis and revision.
Strategic tips for hard questions:
- Spend at least 2 hours a day preparing for them.
- Go over the repeated questions.
- Review and summarize everything you learned yesterday.
- Take practice tests to assess yourself.
Make a list of the important points that will help you remember the ideas to answer these questions.
Questions that you ace at:
- Spend at least half an hour on the things you’re already good at.
- Learn how to save time by finishing them faster.
Questions that give you negative marking:
- Find the common mistakes that you should avoid when answering such questions.
- Get expert help, one-on-one analysis from our PTE institute experts.
Work on questions requiring skill polishing:
- Keep the important revising vocab and other grammar tips in mind.
- Look at the questions from last year and the most asked questions.
- Practice as many questions as you can and test yourself to improve.
For example, if you watch TV shows, try to learn new accents and pick up some new words. If you’re listening to a podcast, try taking notes or typing out what’s being said. To improve your fluency, record yourself speaking and listen to your recording.
3. Study Materials
Don’t just search the web for PTE study materials; you might end up getting some random, unauthentic stuff. Our PTE courses have excellent reference materials that give you practice materials for each section, e-books, question bank, and mock tests.
4. Vocabulary
You need a good vocabulary to clear the PTE-A exam. Learn as many synonyms as you can. Use new words when you talk. It reflects your language quality.
5. Time-Management Skills
Answering around 80 questions in a 3-hour exam is not a walk in the park. You should practice enough to read the questions, understand them, and write them. Focus on scanning and skimming, but make sure you leave time for review.
6. Confidence
Practice with headphones and a microphone to get confident. During your practice, try to make it sound like you’re in the noisy exam centre. When you practice well, you get confidence for the test day which helps you to tackle any unexpected situation.
Looking for expert guidance for cracking the PTE-A exam?
Take the practice tests, scored and unscored, to get a better idea of how you’re doing and where you need to focus. When you’re trying to get a high score, practice as much as possible. Try to integrate PTE practice into your daily life.
In addition to these expert tips, the Proficient Training Institute has a lot more to help you succeed in this PTE journey. PTE Institute in Dubai is one of the best places to prepare for the PTE exam. We have a strategic 360-degree ecosystem to help thousands of students achieve their dream score. We can help you in many ways – with our online expert designed PTE course, or with our test series and mock tests featuring one-on-one analysis.
Drop us a line or give us a call to know more about PTE and its courses.