5 common PTE mistakes - and how your students can avoid them

Reading time: 7 minutes

Learning from our mistakes is one of the best ways to improve. This is also true for anyone who is preparing for an English language proficiency exam, like PTE Academic.  

 In this post, we’ll look at five common PTE Academic errors test takers make, and how you can help your students to avoid these mistakes when they are sitting their exam.  

1. Reading: reordering paragraphs

In the PTE Academic reading section, test takers are asked to reorder paragraphs taken from an academic text. They see one panel on the screen with a number of sentences in the wrong order, and need to drag these sentences to a second panel in the correct order. This activity tests how well test-takers can understand the structure of a written text in English.  

However, many people struggle with this. They don’t pay attention to language clues such as linking words or sentences that open with an introductory statement. These are all things that allow texts to follow a cohesive pattern.  

Image - reordering paragraph

Check out our Instagram page for activities like this to help students prepare for their PTE exam! 

To help students avoid this mistake, it’s important to teach them about linking words, opening and concluding statements, and how to give opinions or examples in English. You can also have students practice reordering paragraphs in class. For example: 

  • Bring in some news articles, blog posts, or short academic texts  

  • Cut each one up into a number of paragraphs and mix up the order  

  • Put students in groups and have them reorder the paragraphs 

  • When complete, ask students to read the reordered text aloud and have them explain why they chose this order, focusing on the language clues.  

2. Listening: summarize a spoken text 

One of the listening tasks requires candidates to summarize a spoken text. The objective of this is to test how well students can understand the main ideas of a lecture and how well they can summarize those ideas.  

Students listen to an audio recording, and can take notes while listening. They then have 10 minutes to write a 50-70 word summary of the audio. For this task, they’re judged on both the quality of their writing and how well their response presents the key points from the lecture.  

However, test takers often simply copy what they heard in the audio, word for word. This shows they have recognized and understood the words within the audio. But it doesn’t represent their ability to summarize in their own words, using a range of vocabulary and grammatical structures.  

In order to get a good score, candidates must paraphrase as much of the listening material as possible. To help them achieve this, you can try the following in class:  

  • Choose a short video to watch, such as a Ted Talk. If it’s only a few minutes long, play it twice so they have a better understanding of the ideas. 

  • Ask students to work in pairs to take notes and paraphrase the key points of the video. The pair that uses the most new vocabulary and synonyms in their summary will win.  

  • Have the pairs present their summary to the rest of the class, give feedback, and select a winning pair.  

3. Speaking: describe an image 

One of the PTE Speaking tasks calls for candidates to describe a picture. The aim of this exercise is to test students’ ability to explain what they see - using their own words - in a graph, chart, map, table or picture.   

Students have 25 seconds to look at an image on the screen and think about what they’re going to say. Then, they have 15 seconds more to describe the image out loud. The microphone automatically turns off after 40 seconds.  

A common mistake that candidates make here is that they memorize a response to images they have seen when preparing for the exam. This often means they don’t actually describe the image they’ve seen in front of them. When this happens, they usually get a very low score, or even a zero.  

Students may do this if they don’t feel confident with their level of vocabulary. To help them avoid making this mistake, practice describing a range of images in class. Have students record themselves doing the task. Then listen back and identify areas where students can improve and note down any gaps in vocabulary which can then be taught in future classes.  

Image- Describe image

Check out our Instagram page for images like this to help students prepare for their PTE exam! 

4. Writing: writing an essay   

There are two PTE writing tasks to complete in the exam. One of these involves writing an essay, which tests candidates’ ability to write a short, persuasive or argumentative piece.  

Test-takers are given a short written prompt asking them to agree or disagree, state their opinion, or comment on a situation or problem. The response is judged on how well they’re able to develop a position, organize their ideas, present supporting details and write with a high level of academic English. They must write between 200 and 300 words in 20 minutes.  

Image - Write essay

Check out our Instagram page and discover more essay questions to help students prepare for their PTE exam! 

One big mistake? Test-takers often do not follow the word count. The essay score guide states that if they write fewer than 120 words or more than 380 words, their answer will be scored a zero. 

One way to help students prepare for this is by getting them to practice writing the essay under timed conditions. When finished, have them swap their essays with another student and ask them to total each other’s word counts before handing them in.  

Read more tips for the Writing Essay task.  

5. Not checking answers  

Apart from the task-related mistakes, candidates can often make, the biggest problem that we see are simple errors in written answers. This may be because the candidate has not checked over their work before moving on to the next task.  

Before moving on to a new question, it is vital that test-takers spend a few seconds proofreading their answers. By doing this, they may avoid simple errors in spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, or grammar. Furthermore, it gives them time to check that they’ve completed all the information set out in the question.  

To help students get used to doing this, you could have them proofread each other’s written work in class. They can then provide feedback to the other student and work together to correct the errors. Another idea is to create your own short text with a number of spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes in it. Tell students that there are X amount of errors in the text, and that they need to work in pairs to find and correct them.  

This way, they’ll train themselves to proofread their work for any small mistakes that could affect their overall PTE score.  

Discover more resources to help you teach PTE!

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    Speaking: Core English Skills

    By PTE Author
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    In Part 1 of the PTE Academic test, you require certain skills to answer the questions within the test to the best of your ability.

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    Oral Fluency

    Oral fluency applies to the Read Aloud, Repeat Sentence, Describe Image and Re-tell Lecture question types.

    To improve your oral fluency before your test, we recommend that you speak English as often as you can. If you don’t have anyone you can speak English with, join an English-speaking club or take a short course.

    As soon as you’ve booked the test, we suggest that you try to read, listen and write in English as much as you can.

    If you’re having trouble with speaking too slow or too fast, record yourself and listen back to identify where you need to improve.

    You can also use Tiny Texts to help improve your speaking. Read the text silently to yourself, then listen to a recording while you read and have a try afterward to read at a similar pace.

    Pronunciation

    Pronunciation skills are required for the Read Aloud, Repeat Sentence, Describe Image and Re-tell Lecture question types.

    In PTE Academic you do not have to speak like a fluent speaker of English to do well. However, you do need to use a pronunciation that can be understood by a regular speaker of English.

    This means you need to make sure your vowel and consonant sounds are pronounced in a fluent-like way with the correct words. You also need to use the correct sentence stress to convey meaning.

    Luckily, there are many online tools that can help with your pronunciation, such as:

    Vocabulary

    The only question type in the speaking section that will require strong vocabulary skills is Answer Short Question.

    The easiest way to improve your vocabulary is to keep a vocabulary notebook to use as your own personal dictionary. When you hear or see new words, add them along with the meaning and put them in a sentence.

    Want more prep ideas?

    Explore Smart Prep, which combines all our practice materials in one place, so it's easier for you to stay on track with your PTE preparation.

    • Smart Prep is a clear path to test day, guiding you through the official paid and free resources available for your test

    • It can be accessed whether you’ve booked a test or not – just create, or sign in to your myPTE account

    • Preparation materials include guided practice tests, introductory videos, video courses and test tips.

    Ready to get started?

  • Image- Students at library- 800px

    Part 3: Listening Test Introduction

    By PTE Author
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    Part 3 of PTE Academic will take 45-57 minutes to test your listening skills.

    This section is designed to test your ability to listen, read and write. PTE Academic is an integrated skills test, therefore, this test contains multiple question types that test up to 2 skills each.

    There are eight question types in the listening section. A breakdown of these question types is as below.

    Summarize Spoken Text

    The first question type you will need to complete is Summarize Spoken Text, which will tests listening and writing skills.

    To complete the task, a recording between 60-90 seconds long will be played for you to listen to. As you listen, try to use the Erasable Noteboard Booklet to take notes of key points to help you understand the context.

    After the recording, you will have 10 minutes to write a summary of what you heard.

    To answer this question type, you must write a minimum of 50 words but no more than 70 words.

    You can receive a maximum of 2 points for content, 2 for form, 2 for grammar, 2 for vocabulary and 2 for spelling.

    Multiple-choice, multiple answer

    The second question type, Multiple-Choice, Multiple Answer will test listening skills.

    First, you will be given information to help answer the question. You only have 7 seconds to read this. A recording will then play that is between 40-90 seconds long.

    Select all the response options that you think are correct.

    In this question type, you can receive 1 point for each correct option, but will lose -1 point for each incorrect option. You cannot score below 0.

    Fill in the blanks

    In the third question type, Fill in the Blanks, listening and writing skills will be tested.

    Similar to the previous task, you will be given 7 seconds to read some information before hearing the recording.

    A recording between 30-60 seconds will play. As you listen, type each word in the blank spaces as you hear them so that you do not miss any.

    Do not leave any spaces blank, you can review them at the end.

    You receive 1 point for each correct word which is spelled correctly.

    Highlight correct summary

    The fourth question type, Highlight Correct Summary, will test listening and reading skills.

    You will be given 10 seconds before the recording starts to read the options. A recording will be played that is between 30-90 seconds long.

    To complete the task, select only one correct response. If unsure, choose the one you think is correct as you cannot lose points in this question.

    Your response will either be marked as correct or incorrect.

    Multiple-choice, single answer

    The fifth question type, Multiple-Choice, Single Answer will test listening skills.

    To complete this task, you will be given information to read for context, you will then need to listen to a recording between 30-60 seconds long.

    Choose the option that best suits.

    Your response to this question type will be marked as correct or incorrect.

    Select missing word

    In the sixth question type, Select Missing Word, will test your listening skills.

    A recording between 20-70 seconds long will be played and you will need to predict the last word or words of the text to complete the task.

    You will be marked on this question type as either correct or incorrect.

    Highlight incorrect words

    In the seventh question type, Highlight Incorrect Words, your listening and reading skills will be tested.

    In this question type, you will be shown information and have 10 seconds to read it before a recording starts.

    A recording between 15-50 seconds will play and you will need to select the words that are incorrect and do not match the recording.

    You can receive 1 point for each correct word and lose -1 point for each incorrect word. You cannot score below 0.

    Write from dictation

    The eighth and final question type, Write from Dictation, tests listening and writing skills.

    You will have 7 seconds to read the instructions before the recording starts. The recording is between 3-5 seconds long and once it starts, listen and type the sentence in the response box.

    You can receive 1 point for each correct word you write. Write the words in the right order and spell them correctly in order to receive 1 point. Points are not lost for incorrect words.

    What's next?

    We recommend reviewing the core listening skills required for PTE Academic.

    Want more prep ideas?

    Plus, explore Smart Prep, which combines all our practice materials in one place, so it's easier for you to stay on track with your PTE preparation.

    • Smart Prep is a clear path to test day, guiding you through the official paid and free resources available for your test

    • It can be accessed whether you’ve booked a test or not – just create, or sign in to your myPTE account

    • Preparation materials include guided practice tests, introductory videos, video courses and test tips.

    Ready to get started?