Take a hint
when you screw up your IELTS scores once. Move on to do the TOEFL or PTE
Academic. I personally have done all three and thankfully all turned out to be
successful ordeals.
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| Actual PTE Results. |
I liked the IELTS format and the structure is pretty straightforward,
but when you start noticing how they give you a score lower than what you
deserve and weigh the odds of getting your results in 14 working days versus
the PTE results in mostly 24 hours (although they say it will be 5 days), PTE is the better choice. Trust
me, I considered asking the IELTS to re-score my test, but that takes another 1
month!? It’s totally not worth it.
I gave the
TOEFL iBT in the year 2010 (if I’m not mistaken). I then gave my first IELTS in 2013
(for which I applied and received a British Council Scholarship worth approx.
$2000). 😮That’s crazy right? I gave another IELTS in April, 2016 and disqualified
for a “Superior” competency by 0.5 in the writing section. This made me doubt
my writing skills, but each time I got my Essays corrected by a professional they
assured me that it was exceptionally good and worthy of the highest score. This
made it confusing, so I guess here you got to step in and believe in your
capabilities.
I had the
choice to do another IELTS (like so many of my other friends), or believe that
I can ace any English test not just the one’s I am accustomed to and thus began
preparing for the PTE academic. So I began working on figuring out how the PTE
format differs from the IELTS. How do you start?
I began by
checking out the official PTE website. I browsed through all the sections and
got the free sample offline questions/practice tests sent to me by email. Along
with this I downloaded the “Overview PTEA Practice”, “PTEA Score Guide”, “PTE
Academic Tutorial” and ‘PTEA Test Tips”.
Now I will
not offer to give you a link to these documents and make your life easy, mainly
because doing the reading necessary to find these documents is in itself a
reading practice. After that, ensure that you read every line in these
documents (make your own notes in one A4 size paper) so that everything you
will ever need to refer to is on 1 sheet of paper. This should include
sub-topics (i.e. types of questions) in each section [Reading, Listening,
Speaking and Writing]. It should include
hints on what to do, negative marking questions, time-durations for each
section and number of questions for each subsection and marking allotted to
the question types. Notice I did not ask you to be aware of what “not to do”;
just focus 100% on what you “Should Do”.
Ensure you
do not spend more than 7 days to compile your 1 sheet of paper. Imagine it’s a
cheat sheet you are preparing for exams. This will come in very handy on the
day of your test and you are travelling to the location by train or bus and
feeling like you have forgotten everything. When you read this sheet you will
automatically get the feeling that you know everything perfectly and this
confidence is what you need for giving the PTE. I might be exaggerating here
but, in my honest opinion if you believe and are completely confident that you
are going to ace the exam, you will. I recall smiling at the screen during my
test because I enjoyed the speaking section questions or even the reading
questions. Make sure you are confident enough to believe that what you are reading
is perfect. If you make a mistake reading, do not hesitate. Command that you
have said the statement perfectly.
I recall
not saying the first word by mistake, but I continued reading it like as if I
had not made any mistake; as if the statement was exactly as I had spoken. The
reading section can be a little tricky and if you are aiming for something over
81, you definitely need to brush up on your vocabulary followed by grammar and
then sense for distinguishing between topic and conclusion statements for the
re-order paragraphs section.
I made a
million mistakes in the describe image section where I might have said the
wrong things that they did not ask. I recall in one I gave the wrong
answer and then corrected myself in the last 20 seconds. I said something like,
“This… is the answer; however this… is the right answer”. This brings me to the only conclusion which is, if you are exceptionally confident of what you are
doing it might go unnoticed that you are screwing up majorly. The, “PTEA Score
Guide” and “PTEA Test Tips” will ensure that you realize what the assessors are looking for exactly.
Now once
you have done all the practice in the world and you are exhausted and extremely
annoyed with yourself for having to prove to these guys that you are competent
in English when it is an official language in your country and you have been
studying it and giving exams in it all your life; this is when you go ahead and
purchase the PTE tests. Get the one with both tests. [Something I did not know
is that you CANNOT retake these tests although you have bought it]. It is a
one-time only thing.
I have
attached the scored of my practice tests as well, just to give you an idea of
how these have varied over a period of 1 week. I gave “Practice test – A” on
29’th August, 2016. I was very unhappy with the result and annoyed that I will
have to study all over again, so instead I spent a few hours recalling the
questions and introspecting on where I could have gone wrong.
I realized
that in the reading section you need to be extremely aware and wide awake
because the questions are very specific and easily misunderstood if you are
physically or mentally tired. I was completely aghast seeing my score for
“spellings”. After deep thought I realized that I was still not too sure of the
difference between let’s say, employee’s, employees and employees’. I
think that’s the one thing I figured out before
giving the actual PTE test.
The second
practice test gave me the score I was looking for and although I made worse
spelling errors, my scores improved in almost everything else and I was finally
satisfied and confident that I can get a score above 81 in all sections. The next day I told my
father that I was ready to give the real test and that I can’t improve myself further no matter how much I study beyond what I already have. He was a little
apprehensive and like most fathers, very disapproving of the idea. But I was
firm on my decision and wanted to book the test at the earliest. It was booked
for 6’th September, 2016 at 2:30pm (which I personally think is a fine time). I
calmly woke up at 9am on test day, left from home to the center at fifteen
minutes past noon and arrived at 1:45pm.
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| 1'st Test: Practice Test "A" Results |
I then read my notes in the little time that I had and also
some one word answers. Beware, as I didn’t come across these in any of my
practice tests; they gave me images for the “answer short questions” and asked
me to give answers from them. This came as a surprise and I surely made
mistakes but ensured I covered up my tracks without letting the AI program realise that I had defaulted. This I did by preventing breaks in my flow of
speech and continued speaking as if nothing had happened. I did not retract any
of my words and neither did I stutter. I just kept going as if I owned the
bloody test.
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| 2'nd Test: Practice Test "B" Results. |
My final
remarks are that the PTE-A is definitely a value for your effort and money.
They have lenient correction techniques and fairly well organized sections. I
urge you to do your practice test in a loud environment where you can hardly
even hear yourself think. This is because on test day you WILL get distracted
if you do not do this exercise.
Thanking
each and every one of you for taking the time to read my blog. If you find it
interesting or if you feel I have not addressed some points, please feel free
to ask questions. A little about me; my motherland is India. I was brought up between
Goa and Bombay which is where I learnt the fundamentals of English. You
definitely need a passionate teacher during your primary school years. I had
some of the best and I am thankful to each of them for their guidance.
PTE tuitions anyone??? First class is free. Available in Melbourne and surrounding regions only for now.
[Classes shall be held only with a minimum of 5 students per session].
