Why fluent English speakers don’t always get a perfect score

Once you have practiced and improved your grammar and vocabulary, for Part 2: Reading in PTE Academic, you will need to learn reading methods and the different styles of writing.

As the PTE Academic is an integrated skills test, the skills developed will be applicable to most sections of the test.

Firstly, the reading methods you will need to learn and develop are:

Skim Reading

By quickly moving your eyes over the text you will be able to get the general meaning of the text. This is the fastest way to understand the text’s meaning.

Scan Reading

The fastest way to locate specific information in a text is to scan read. Scan reading helps you find the keywords in a text. Once you find the section of text needed, slow down and read intensively until you understand the information needed to answer the question.

Intensive Reading

Intensive reading is done at a slower pace and more carefully. After using scan reading to find the section of text containing the answer you need, you will then need to read intensively to locate the specific information required to answer the question.

If you are unable to answer the question from the section read, go back to scan reading the whole text to find the correct section, then intensively read that section.

Critical Reading

To read critically, you need to think more deeply about what you are reading to understand the text at a deeper level. You will then be able to identify the writer’s purpose, as well as the organization of the text in order to make inferences or understand the textual value.

You may have to read critically to answer the reading questions Multiple-Choice, Choose Single Answer and Multiple-Choice, Choose Multiple Answers. You may also need this skill to answer the writing question Summarize Written Text, as you will score zero points if you don’t correctly identify the purpose of the text.

The last question type this skill is used for is the listening question Highlight Correct Summary, as you may need to clarify and organize information to identify the correct summary of the text heard.

You will also need to be able to identify the style of writing used in the reading texts throughout the test.

Style of Writing

For PTE Academic, you will need to understand the style or register of English texts. The style or register refers to the way in which text, that has the same meaning, can be written in different ways.

When writing, you will need to be able to choose the appropriate words to fit the correct style of the text, as well as understand the style of texts you are reading. For example, an email to your friend will be in an informal style. However, a journal article will be in the academic style. Abstract ideas are also usually written in the academic style.

Two or three-part verbs (phrasal and prepositional verbs) are generally informal while Latinate verbs are formal, or academic. For example, find out (informal), pick up on (informal) and discover (formal or academic).

You will need to be able to understand not just the meaning but also the style of a text for the Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks questions.

Are you thinking about studying in the UK? If so, you’re not alone. Each year, over 500,000 international students enrolled at a UK university. In fact, after the United States, the UK is the second most popular destination for higher education students.  

UK universities are renowned for excellent teaching and cutting-edge research, and UK degrees are highly valued by academics and employers worldwide. But to study there, you’ll need to demonstrate you have an appropriate level of English.  

Our PTE Academic secure language test is accepted by nearly every university in the UK – as well as for all immigration applications. So, what score will you need to earn a spot in a university? Let’s find out:  

What it’s like to study in the UK

When it comes to world rankings, UK universities consistently perform well. According to this year’s QS World University Rankings, four of the top 10 universities around the globe are located in the UK.  

Going to a UK university isn’t just a good move as far as your education goes. It’s also a great way to immerse yourself in a new culture and meet lots of different people.  

The UK is small, but it’s also very diverse. This means your student experience will be quite different, depending on whether you choose to study in a big multicultural city like London or Glasgow, or a smaller university town like St. Andrews or Exeter.  

The amount of money you’ll need to study in the UK will also vary. Student fees differ from institution to institution. At the same time, your accommodation and day-to-day living expenses will depend on where your university is located.  

Check out our guide on the cost of living in the UK.

English language requirements  

To secure a student visa and attend a UK university, you’ll need to prove you have the English speaking, reading, writing and listening skills needed to succeed in your studies.

The PTE Academic English test is accepted by 99% of universities across the UK.

Still, each has slightly different entry requirements. But as a general UK government rule, for programs below degree level – such as a  foundation program – you will need to demonstrate a CEFR B1 level of English. For programs at degree level and above, you will need to demonstrate CEFR B2 level of English.

How does PTE Academic scoring work? 

PTE Academic provides transparent and easy to understand scoring. After taking the test you will receive an overall English score, as well as see how you performed in the Listening, Reading, Speaking, and writing areas of the exam.  

You’ll also get a: 

• Grammar score

• Spelling score

• Oral Fluency score

• Vocabulary score

• Written Discourse score

If you’re happy with your results, you can assign your scores to the universities or institutions you are applying to directly from the myPTE account you created when registering. If you want to improve your scores, you can re-book the test after some more practice.  

Find out how PTE Academic scoring compares with other English tests.

We recently had the opportunity to speak with David Booth about the ways you can excel when it comes to taking the PTE Academic Speaking and Writing sections. If you weren’t able to join us for the webinar, here are the highlights from the conversation.  

Let’s take a look at David’s tips for the Speaking portion of the test first.  

Pitch and accent 

When asked if the pitch of the test-taker makes a difference to the score, David had this to say: ‘Pitch is a critical part of intonation. Having natural intonation is important in order to get a good score.’ Having an exaggerated pitch, however, will not help. It needs to be natural. The same can be said for accent, and it’s important to note that your accent will not affect the score.  

Improving the ‘repeat sentences’ and ‘read aloud sections’ 

If you’re wondering how you can improve your score in the ‘repeat sentences’ and ‘read aloud sections,’ the best thing you can do is to speak naturally. It’s important to understand how different words are stressed within sentences, so working on any pronunciation exercises that will allow you to identify and practice this will help.  

The scoring system for both sections  

We know many of you are curious about how the scoring system for both sections works. Because this is such a hot topic, we’re going to run another webinar in the future that will address this. In the meantime, the PTE Academic score guide provides a comprehensive break-down of the scores for each task, so we encourage you to take a look at the website for more information.  

Summarizing spoken text 

We asked David if there’s any structure that test-takers need to follow in order to summarize the spoken text. The key element here is to ensure that the main context points are addressed. It might feel easier to summarize the points in order, but you should be sure to identify the key point early on in your answer.  

There were lots of questions about the Writing portion of the test which we asked David to explain more about. You can read about his top tips for this section of the test below.  

Standard spelling 

Test takers were curious to know which type of standard spelling the PTE Academic follows and if they should use the British or American versions and how that impacts their score. You’ll be glad to know that you can use any standard spelling conventions.  

Using the IELTS template  

We know that many test takers have practiced with multiple types of tests, so you want to know if your score will be impacted by choosing to use the IELTS template or method of writing. The important thing to remember here is that no test taker is penalized. To get a high score on the test, you need to think about how proficient writers in English would present their writing. The scoring engines are trained by using answers from a wide range of students. The answers which will receive higher scores are those that will have similar characteristics to other examples of writing that have also been given high scores by highly trained examiners.  

Paraphrasing  

We received a question around whether or not you should paraphrase the ‘summarize written text’ and ‘re-tell the lecture’ sections of the test in order to get a better score. David’s recommendation here is that you should be able to write in the same way that a highly proficient learner of English would write. Paraphrasing is very likely to be a characteristic of that writing, but just repeating key lexis is likely to be indicative of a lower proficiency learner.  

Keywords in the writing summary 

How can you find keywords in the writing summary and is there a certain number of conjunctions that should be used? Here, the advice is again that PTE Academic is primarily meaning-focused. When connecting ideas, you should think about how meaning is referenced in a text. In technical language, this is referred to as anaphoric or cataphoric referencing, referencing forward or backward in a text. You can also use different nouns and pronouns to connect ideas. Moreover, it’s important to remember that merely using common conjunctions would not necessarily indicate a high level of proficiency.  

We hope these tips and techniques are useful to you! Learn more about ways you can improve your score in the Speaking & Writing Section.