In the Philippines, there has long been a culture of emigration. It’s common for Filipinos to move overseas to work, study and live. In fact, there are more than 10 million Filipinos living and working around the world. What’s more, about 60,000 people have emigrated each month since the start of 2021!
PTE teacher Jurine Ruperto helps students get ready for the linguistic challenge of moving overseas. She is the owner of Ace Review Center, a language school that prepares students to take the language tests they’ll need for working visas and university applications.
We spoke to Jurine to find out about her experience of teaching PTE, and the advice she would offer to other teachers.
How Jurine prepares her students for PTE
Ace Review Center was one of the first language schools in the Philippines to offer PTE preparation, and they have been helping Filipino professionals and skilled workers prepare for the test for six years.
Now, the teachers at Ace Review Center have years of experience in preparing students for the exam - and when it comes to results, their experience shows.
“We have a high passing rate - and a good number of students who’ve scored a perfect 90,” says Jurine.
So what’s her secret? According to Jurine, she builds her students’ skills slowly as they learn the basics of each task type, through a range of different activities.
“One of my favorite activities is idea building or [creating] mind webs, which are very useful in writing tasks,” she says. “Students are given a topic and are encouraged to contribute ideas related to it and expounding with supporting details.”
According to Jurine, one of the most common challenges for test takers is vocabulary. In order to help them achieve better results, she encourages them to increase their exposure to English in their everyday lives. “Reading and watching movies and TV shows helps to build their knowledge and familiarity with English terminologies and word usage.”
Building student confidence
We all have those teaching moments that stick with us, for one reason or another. For Jurine, it's an experience she had with a learner with low confidence that comes to mind.
The student needed to build his confidence back up when he came to her for PTE preparation classes. “One of my very first students in PTE had a bad experience in another English test,” she says. “He took the test several times with no success - despite only needing a band score of 5.”
So, she said, he signed up for a month of PTE test preparation. It was then that he really started to believe in his language abilities. Jurine thinks the fact that PTE is computer-based made a difference.
“It must have helped that the test is through a computer because he would easily get intimidated when facing an examiner during the speaking test,” she explains. His minimum target score for PTE was 54 - but on the day of the test he actually scored above this! “By now,” she muses, “he must have already finished his culinary studies in Australia.”
Jurine’s top tip for PTE teachers
When we asked Jurine to share her top tip for other PTE teachers to help their students achieve success, she underlined the importance of really knowing the test inside and out. “It is best for teachers to immerse themselves in PTE sample practice tests to familiarize themselves with the test format,” she says. “That way, they will understand their learners' needs.”
Further resources
You can access preparation resources to help your students through the PTE website, where there are a range of materials available, from Scored Practice Tests to a question bank with over 300 sample questions and answers.
The Official Guide to PTE Academic will give you all the information you need to prepare your students thoroughly - and there’s even free course modules available to give your exam preparation teaching skills a boost!
Do you have advice and insights to share with other PTE teachers? If so, we’d like to hear from you! Each month we’ll be shining a spotlight on someone from our global teaching community.
Don’t forget to sign up for our monthly teacher newsletter, which shares teaching tips for test preparation.
