January 24, 2020
PTE Practice and Tips
How to Maximize Your Score in PTE-A Reading Like a Pro!
- Posted By PTE Tutorials PTE Practice and Tips / April 08, 2019
Most people don’t have a regular reading habit. This explains why many who take the PTE-A struggle with the Reading Module. In this article, we share some useful tips, tricks, and strategies to practice and maximise your score.
Read at A Normal Speed
Reading is especially tricky because what you speak has to be accurately picked up and interpreted by the computer. To perform optimally, you should speak at a normal speed, not too fast, not slow. You should try and avoid long pauses, and sounds like ‘aahs’ and ‘uhms’, both of which can bring your marks down.
Avoid Speaking in an Exaggerated Accent
Most Asians have this misconception that they need to speak in an accent to impress the computer. This is not true. Speak as you normally do, trying to enunciate every word in the correct pronunciation, without any unnecessary pauses and gaps.
Manage Your Timing Effectively
To finish Reading Section, after the Module begins, you have to figure out how much time you have per question. While solving the questions, keep an eye on the clock, to avoid overshooting.
In case you encounter a difficult question, do not waste too much time on it, by overthinking about it. Just be aware of the time you are spending on each question. During practice sessions before the test, identify which question types tend to eat up your time the most. This way, you can take the necessary steps to reduce the time taken in finishing those sections.
One question type can prove to very tricky—multiple choice question passages. Try and read them once only. Most inexperienced test-takers waste time by going back and forth between the question and the options. This ends up in time wastage.
Skimming and Scanning
For effective management of time in PTE-A Reading, employ the methods of Skimming and Scanning.
Skimming works the best when you are hard pressed for time. Skimming is looking through the material quickly without necessarily reading every word. Try and extract the central idea from every passage.
Scanning is when you are looking for a precise piece of information in the passage or the reading material. So the focus naturally is on the keywords. Remember that here you are not trying to comprehend the meaning of the passage but find what you are looking for.
After these general tips, here are some tactics and tricks to deal with every individual question type:
1 Multiple Choice Question Chose Single Answer:
Read the question attentively. Try to figure out what the question wants out of you as an answer. Look for the word ‘NOT’ in the question state and choose the appropriate option.The next step is to read the passage carefully and find out the answer. Read the choices now and match the answer with the options.
2 Multiple Choice Question Choose Multiple Answers:
Read to understand what the question demands out of you as an answer. Check all the choices given. Generally, if there are five-six questions, then only two of them will be correct. Be careful not to choose the incorrect option as there is negative marking. If there are seven options, then there might be three options.
3 Re-Order Paragraph:
Read through the choices given. Analyse the introductory statement. Cancel out the chosen statement, and connect it to the next logical statement.Now you can repeat the process for a complete answer. Remember that there’s only one mark for each logical pair. The total marks for each question is 4. Also, remember to proofread the answer.
4 Fill in the blanks and fill in the blanks (Reading and Writing):
In these two sections, it is all about collocations, which are a pair of words or a phrase often used together in written English. Here are some examples: academic achievement, abstract concept etc. Here’s a full list of collocations given by Pearson.
In Reading and writing: Fill in the blanks, you can find the answer easily by reading the next few sentence, following the dash or the blanks. When you are practicing, do find out meanings of words, you are not familiar with.
Read the text and then the choices given to you. For some answers, you can apply Grammar rules and find the answer easily. Try and answer the easy ones first. Remember to proofread the paragraph.