A COMPLETE GUIDE FOR PTE
With the growing demand of efficient communication and writing skills along with increasing number of students wanting to go abroad; A student has to have a certificate to validate his/her English proficiency.
Since most of people aspiring to study abroad are interested in an English language test which would be computer based then here is where you have to stop!
Let me take you to the basics of PTE
PTE stands for Pearson Test of English is the world’s leading computer-based test of English for study abroad and immigration.
PTE test assesses listening, reading, speaking and writing all through a computer in a single three hour test session and is designed to assess the ability of non native English speaker wanting to be a part of University level programs with the medium of language being English.
The entire test is for about 3 hours and is divided into three main sections:
Section 1: SPEAKING AND WRITING (77 – 93 minutes)
This section tests a student’s speaking as well as his/her writing skills and the time slot for this section ranges from 77-93 minutes.
SPEAKING
Speaking comprises of multiple activities as follows:
- Personal Introduction
A student will be given 25 seconds to read the prompted question and prepare for the same.
Then the student will get 30 seconds wherein he/she has to talk and record the response.
This task is not scored but students will get the details of this task on the score report.
A student will be able to record the response only once.
- Read aloud
A student has to read the text aloud that is displayed on the screen.
A student will be given a preparation time of 30-40 seconds depending on the length of the sentence.
A student will be able to record the response only once.
- Repeat Sentence
A student is expected to repeat the sentence after carefully listening to it first.
The audio will be first played and a student should start to speak after it stops.
Time given to record the response is 15 seconds
- Describe an image
A student will get an image displayed onto their screens and will be expected to describe it in their own words.
A student would get 25 seconds to prepare and has to response within 40 seconds.
A student will be able to record the response only once.
- Re-tell a lecture
You will be provided with a lecture and will be expected to listen to it carefully and give your response in your own words.
You make also get an image that is related to the audio.
Once the audio is over, you will be given 10 seconds to prepare.
You have to speak after you hear the beep and are required to speak for about 40 seconds.
- Answer Short Questions
A student will have to answer to a question that is asked keeping in mind the limit of words.
Once the audio ends, a student has to record his/her answer.
Time given for answering this question is 10 seconds.
A student will be able to record the response only once.
WRITING
- Summarize written text
A student will be given a text that he/she has to read and summarize it in a single sentence.
A typical text would contain about 300 words.
A student will also be given 10 minutes to prepare and give his/her response.
A response should not go beyond 75 words in a single sentence.
- Essay
A student has to write an argumentative an essay of about 200-300 words on a given topic.
A student will have 20 minutes to record the response.
Section 2: READING (32-41 minutes)
In this section, a student will be tested on his/her reading skills and has following type of questions:
- Multiple Choice with a single answer
A student has to read the text after which he has to select an appropriate answer for the same out of the given options.
- Multiple Choice with multiple answers
A student has to read the text after which he has to select multiple answers for the same question out of the given options.
- Re-order Paragraphs
A student will get multiple text boxes on the screen in a random order and is expected to re-arrange the text boxes in a correct order.
- Fill in the blanks
A student will get a passage with some missing words and is expected to fill these blanks with correct words.
A student has to select correct words from the given options.
- Reading and Writing Fill in the blanks
A student will get a passage with some missing words and is expected to fill these blanks with correct words.
A student has to select correct answer from the drop down box that appears in the gaps.
Section 3: LISTENING (45-57 minutes)
Listening section tests a student ability to listen, understand and comprehend on the basis of the audios that they listen to and has following questions:
- Summarize spoken text
A student will be listening to an audio after which he has to write a response summary in 50-70 words.
This task will provide student with 10 minutes to write the response.
- Multiple Choice with multiple answers
A student will be given an audio after listening to which he has to select multiple options from the given options.
- Fill in the blanks
A student has to listen to the recording and will be provided with the transcript of the recording with the blanks.
A student has to type in the missing words.
- Highlight correct summary
After listening to the recording, a student has to highlight the paragraph which would best summarize the recording.
- Multiple Choice with a single answer
A student has to listen to the recording after which he has to select an appropriate answer for the same out of the given options.
- Select missing word
After listening to the recording, a student has to select the missing word from the given options.
- Highlight incorrect words
The recording would be playing during which a student has to refer to a transcript of it and highlight the words which do match with the recording.
- Write from dictation
A student has to type a sentence as heard from the recording.
You will ideally get your result within 5 business days. There is also a tomorrow if not today, get started with this test for future prospects.
Ms. Sai Dadarkar
Counselor & Trainer
Imperial Overseas Educational Consultants
