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PTE tips and tricks: 5 common mistakes
When it comes to proficiency exams, a lot of the time what will determine if the student does well or not is their level of familiarity with the exam and whether they know the essential tips and tricks needed for each section. This is especially true for the PTE. Check out these 5 common mistakes.
1) Speaking mistake: too fast or too slow
During the speaking part of the exam, some test takers will get the idea that speaking fast will show off their fluency. Others might get too worried about what they are going to say and speak very slowly to make sure they don’t make mistakes. The truth is, the ideal is to speak fluently at a normal pace.
2) Writing mistake: not using the full stop
Especially when doing the summarizing written text tasks, don’t forget about the full stop at the end of the sentence. Not using the correct punctuation marks can seriously hurt your score, and it can be really frustrating losing points for something as silly as a comma or a full stop.
3) Reading mistake: reading the text first
Don’t waste your time reading the passage before you read the questions. The best thing you can do is read the questions and then skim and scan. Skim, for a general understanding. Scan for specific information. If you read the text before the questions, you are just going to have to read it again.
4) Listening mistake: summarizing
For the task of summarizing a spoken text, many people try to explain the audio in their own words. This is not what you’re supposed to do. The best tip here is getting the main points of the audio and trying to write it down as similar to the original as possible. This way you can avoid mistakes.
5) General tip: Don’t forget about the AI
Because the PTE Academic isn’t corrected by a person, you shouldn’t do the test as if it were. The AI is the most objective tool to correct the exam, so it doesn’t matter if you’re funny, charismatic or a good communicator. The most important thing is to follow the instructions and be more objective.
6) Extra tip: Follow a personal study plan
Many candidates keep taking the test over and over again, just to get the same score every time. This can be helped by following an effective study plan and a schedule. At PTE Smart we offer personalized study plans, designed with your specific needs in mind. Check out our courses!
We hope these tips helped!
These were some PTE tips and tricks to help you on your PTE journey. If you are careful not to make these 5 common mistakes (well, actually 6…) you can greatly improve your score. It’s also very helpful to have a specialized professional help you, so don’t hesitate to contact us!
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