In PTE-A Speaking, the score depends very heavily on one task, that is, Repeat Sentences. It is the second task in the Module, just after Read Aloud. In this task, audio plays and you have to repeat it. You will be scored on the basis of how accurately you can repeat what you hear.

Before the audio plays, you will get a countdown of 3 seconds. When the audio finishes playing, you won't hear a beep. All you will see on the screen is a recording icon, and you have to speak immediately. Please note that if you don't speak for three seconds, then the microphone will stop recording. Try to keep this mind during your PTE preparation.

Common problems encountered

One of the issues you may face is that the sentence can be very lengthy. At the times, the sentence could be spoken very fast in the recording. Another issue is that the sentence can lengthy and fast at the same. Further, the audio recording could be lengthy and slow. Also, there could be a lot of ambience noise in the audio's background.

Finally, the accent could be difficult to understand. So you are not adequately prepared for these scenarios, then it could get stressful in the test. People tend to lose confidence immediately if they perform poorly in one question. As a result, their performance also drops for the remaining questions.

Scoring Criteria

For all PTE Speaking Module related tasks, there are two criteria—what you speak, and how you speak it.

You will be scored on what you speak, i.e., the content. If you repeat 100% of the sentence successfully, then you get three out of three points. If you can repeat 50% or more of the sentence successfully, then you score two out of three points. If your answer matches anything between 0-50% of the original sentence you score one point. If there's no match, you get a zero.

While this covers the 'what you speak' part, the 'how you speak' part will be determined by the Oral Fluency and Pronunciation.

Tips for Repeat Sentence

• Don't take unnecessary pauses, or make false starts. Skipping or leaving out words is not recommended. Even in article usage, don't introduce articles in places where they should not be. Even if you remember little to nothing about the sentence, don't leave the question unanswered by any means. Even if you repeat a portion of the sentence you will be able to salvage some marks.
• When you are repeating the sentence, avoid the use of fillers like 'umm', 'err' and more. Don't stop mid-sentence or show hesitation in your speech. Speak very naturally and calmly, at a pace that is neither too fast not too slow.
• Further, remember to use the correct intonation when speaking to emphasize words/phrases. Saying out the lines in a monotone is not recommended. Some experts say that mimicking the accent of the speaker in the audio is a good practice. A good trick is to understand the meaning of the sentence and to club the words into multiple meaningful phrases instead of trying to remember the words.
• To work on your pronunciation and the oral fluency part, you can listen to English podcasts, or watch English news, talk shows, and movies to understand how native English speakers use their words, how their intonation is, what is their rhythm and more.
• If you can manage to, then get hold of a speaking partner. If possible, get someone who is a native speaker. You can do it online as well. This way, you will be able to work on your grammar and vocabulary, and even imitate your partner's intonation, and improve with the help of feedback. 

If you need free online PTE speaking practice for Repeat Sentences, you can download the PTE Tutorials Mobile Application on your Android or iOS phones. With the app, you get the ability to record your audio for effective practice with the speaking module. Try the app now to practice effectively.