Teacher profile: Sharing the learning journey with PTE teacher Kelly Hoo

PTE Author
PTE Author
Image - Kelly Hoo #iteachPTE
Reading time: 6 minutes

Kelly Hoo is an English teacher based in Malaysia. She works with people from all over the world, helping them to prepare for PTE. But when Kelly first began learning English, she found it really difficult. She certainly never dreamed that one day she would be teaching English and running her own company!  

From student to teacher  

So how did Kelly go from learning English, to teaching other people how to get the score they need in PTE?  

Kelly’s first language was Mandarin, and she struggled a lot when first learning English. “I started my journey with IELTS,” she explains, “and then I discovered PTE.”  

Kelly was learning English in order to attend the University of Melbourne, where she studied for a Bachelor of Commerce. “I always thought I’d be an accountant,” she laughs. “But it wasn’t meant to be!”  

After graduating, Kelly went to work for Unilever, a big multinational corporation. But she found herself giving advice to people learning English, and being able to help people on their language-learning journey was really rewarding.  

“It started with sharing tips with other people who were learning English,” she says. “I’d been through the journey, so when I saw people struggling, I would always give them recommendations and advice.”  

Starting her own company 

From those small beginnings, Kelly went on to become a full-time teacher. The next step was starting her own English teaching company, Master PTE, where she is able to combine her passion for teaching with the expertise she gained in her business degree.   

But Kelly credits her success to the people around her. “It’s not just my own hard work,” she says. “Our team at Master PTE is amazing. My colleagues work so hard and do such a good job. Without them, I wouldn't be here, sharing my experience.”  

The company is now four years old, and in that time Kelly and her colleagues have helped lots of students build their English skills, prepare to sit PTE, and get the score they need.  

Helping students set manageable goals  

The team at Master PTE teaches students of all ages and levels, from all over the world, in a mix of online and in-person classes.  

“Thanks to Covid, we’re now doing hybrid classes,” explains Kelly, “a mix of online and face to face. Our clients are mainly working adults or students, so they’re very busy, and they need that flexibility.”  

At Master PTE, Kelly and her colleagues help students to break the big goal of getting the PTE score they need into smaller, more manageable goals.  

“We don’t ask them to do ten exam tasks in a day, because it’s impossible,” says Kelly. “We focus on what’s doable - a little bit of preparation each day, to make it easier for our students and give them a feeling of achievement, and the satisfaction that comes from that.”  

The skill that Kelly’s students struggle with the most is speaking. It’s a cultural problem, Kelly says, as in Malaysia, people are worried about making mistakes. “We want to boost their confidence and tell them to express themselves. I always tell students, Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Just say what’s on your mind - it’s ok, we don’t judge people at Master PTE!”  

Speaking to a computer can also be a challenge for some students, but for others, a computer-based exam like PTE helps with their confidence. They prefer to speak to a computer rather than a human examiner.  

Kelly’s students are her inspiration  

One of the things Kelly loves about her job is meeting people from all over the world. “We have students from Japan, from Botswana, from India. It's amazing to connect with people and learn about their culture, their stories. The learning is definitely a two-way street in our classes!” she laughs.  

One of Kelly’s most inspirational students was from India. He was planning to sit PTE in order to move to Australia with his wife and young children. “When I first spoke to him, his English was at a really low level,” she explains. “I thought he would need a lot of preparation.”  

He started studying with Kelly, preparing for the test, and working hard every evening. “He was really burning the midnight oil,” she says, “as he was working full time too. He put in so much hard work, but he was doing it for his family, for his kids’ future, to give them a better life. I really admired his spirit - and I was so happy in the end when he got the score he needed after just two months of studying!”  

The importance of perspective 

Kelly has one piece of advice for other PTE teachers: always try to think from the students perspective.  

“Teaching English is easy for us,” she says. “We use English everyday. That’s why it’s so important to put yourself in your student’s shoes. Make sure they can absorb and retain the information you are teaching them.”  

From time to time, Kelly studies a new language like German, or Japanese, just to remind herself what it’s like to learn a new language.  

“I understand where the students are coming from,” she says. “I’ve been a learner too, and learning English as a second language isn’t easy.”  

That’s why Kelly is so focused on understanding each student’s situation, and making things a little easier for them by supporting them and creating a community that they are part of.  

“I always tell them, Don’t give up!” she says. “Learning can be fun and interesting.”  

Learn more 

For more insights into PTE preparation, have a look at the PTE blog, where you’ll find inspiration, advice, and lots of useful resources such as free lesson plans and preparation tools. And if you’d like to be featured on our PTE teacher profile series, just fill out this form!

Related Content

  • Image- writing 1080px
    Writing: core English skills part 1
    By PTE Author
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    Part 1 of PTE Academic includes a variety of speaking and writing question types. For writing questions, you may need to improve your skills, such as grammar, spelling, and vocabulary.

    To help practice these skills, we’ve put together some tips on how to improve for this part of the test.

    Grammar

    To help improve grammar, get into the habit of reading something in English every day.

    Create a reading plan and a reading goal to improve your grammar. Start by reading for at least 30 minutes a day.

    It’s recommended that you read a range of texts that you find interesting. Also read news articles on English news sites such as:

    It is hard to use correct grammar in long sentences, so try to keep sentences short: about 18 to 30 words. You should also practice with a variety of short and long sentences.

    Always remember to:

    • End sentences with a full stop (period)

    • Use uppercase and lowercase correctly

    Try to avoid run-on sentences. These are sentences which should be cut to make a shorter sentence, or properly joined to make a grammatically correct sentence.

    You can avoid run-on sentences by using compound and complex sentences, which will also help improve your score. Use commas when writing complex sentences. Some examples of the compound and complex sentences can be found through the British Council’s Learn English website.

    To perform well, learn to proofread your writing so that you can complete the question types as correctly as possible.

    If you can identify areas that you often get wrong, you should work on improving these areas. Ask your English teacher for help, or if you don’t have an English teacher, you can look up your common errors on the internet.

    Spelling

    PTE Academic recognizes and accepts US, UK, Australian and Canadian spelling. However, you should be careful with your spelling. Once you have chosen a spelling convention for one question, keep using it within that question. You can change the spelling format in answers to other questions if you like.

    Vocabulary

    To do well in the writing test, you need to have a broad vocabulary. You should have a good dictionary to help you. A good dictionary will have the meaning, related forms of the word, and example sentences.

    Longman Dictionaries are a great resource to help you improve your vocabulary.

    You should expose yourself to new words at least ten times a day to expand your vocabulary. To learn a new word you should read it, write it and listen to it many times over a couple of days so you can understand the word and use the correct pronunciation.

    Another way to expand your vocabulary is to learn the word forms of words you already know.

    For example, climate (noun), acclimatization (noun), climatic (adjective), acclimatize (verb) etc.

    Each of the above word forms mean something slightly different, so try to learn all the meanings of each word.

    In PTE Academic you will score higher points for vocabulary if by using academic words in your writing. Try to learn some of the most frequent academic words used in writing.

    Also, think about using synonyms in your writing to avoid repetition of words. A thesaurus can help you find synonyms for common academic words.

    The other elements of your vocabulary to consider are correct common prefixes and suffixes, which are added to the base words. Prefixes can change the meaning of a word, for example, expensive and inexpensive.

    Adding a suffix, however, can change the part of speech of the word. A common suffix used is ly, which can change an adjective into an adverb (quick/quickly), ment can change a verb into a noun (entertain/entertainment).

    There are also collocations, which help you use the right word combinations, as some English words just don’t work well together. To identify collocations, read the PTE Academic collocation list.

    PTE Academic is not very strict about accepting only academic vocabulary. You will not lose points for the use of personal pronouns. You will, however, score more points by using higher-level academic vocabulary in the correct way.

    You should try to keep a notebook of new words you learn, their meanings, synonyms, and all the parts of vocabulary that may help you in the test.

    The last core skill required for the writing test is written discourse.

    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?

  • Image- Two Asian man in a cafe setting- 800px
    How does PTE Academic mark different accents?
    By PTE Author
    Reading time: 2 minutes

    Your accent will not stand in the way of success!

    Everyone has an accent. You might even be a proficient or fluent English speaker, but with an accent, other people find hard to understand.

    So how does your accent affect your score when you take PTE Academic?

    Because PTE Academic is marked by a computer, it can cut out potential obstacles, such as a human examiner being unfamiliar with your particular accent.

    When the automated scoring program was being designed the computer was trained using candidates from over 126 countries, speaking more than 90 different languages, so it recognizes accents from around the globe. As a result, PTE Academic’s automated scoring technology recognizes and marks everyone’s speech equally and with equal accuracy, regardless of where they are from. What the PTE Academic scoring engine looks for is intelligibility and clarity of response (not which accent you are speaking in) – did you answer in a clear and understandable way that any international speaker of English would understand?

    To hear more on this, listen as one of our leading independent advisors, Dr Alistair Van Moere, a member of Pearson’s Technical Advisory Group, explains how it works.

  • Image of Cambridge University
    The best universities in the UK for international students
    By PTE Author
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    The UK has plenty of respected and renowned universities. Most of these schools are welcoming to foreign students, but some are particularly good at providing a world-class education for students coming from abroad.  

    In this article for international students in the UK, we cover: 

    • An overview of the British education system

    • The best universities in the UK for international students

    • Some of the best unis in the UK for specific fields (e.g. law, medicine, business, psychology).

    The UK education system: A quick overview