This post is dedicated to every single PTE Test taker who is either trying to comprehend what exactly PTE Academic Writing task demand out of them and to one who is aware about the instructions, scoring pattern, but is aspiring to get a score higher than 70 or more. Before starting to elaborate on the writing tips and strategies, let us do a reality check. You have already referred to some of the materials, plenty of tips for effective PTE preparation and yet are disappointed. Thus, your search for a better working advises or tips is still on. Take a breath, read & make sure to understand the following tips, and implement them every time you practise. 

Quick Tips to Improve Score in Essay Writing

1. Be attentive of the instructions i.e. the word limit (200-300 words)
2. Read the topic and know the type of essay
3. Ensure that you write in academic English language
4. Do not use bullet points
5. Write in clear and concise paragraphs
6. Avoid the jargons at all cost
7. Make correct use of the phrases
8. Show variations of simple, compound and complex sentences
9. Be very careful with grammar, for example, tenses, singular/ plural
10. Be sure to write correct spellings
11. Take note about capitalisation at the start and also in between the sentences
12. Correct punctuations will add to the marks
13. Support your ideas with relevant examples
14. Never mention too many ideas in a single paragraph as the chances of many of them being irrelevant are high
15. Always proofread the essay after completing it by spending 2-3 minutes
16. Check for all the minor and major mistakes that you used to make while practising especially spelling errors

Quick Tips to Improve Score in Summarize Written Text

1. Read the instruction carefully and notice the word limit i.e. between 5-75 words
2. Write in only ONE sentence (only ONE sentence!!)
3. Practise to write complex sentence. Use complex sentence wisely
4. Use the connectors aptly, because grammar matters a lot
5. Extract the main idea of the given text
6. Notice the word count at the bottom
7. Recheck the sentence for punctuations, grammar & spellings errors

At PTE Tutorials, we provide PTE Writing Correction Service. It includes assessment of the Essay Writing and Summarize written text tasks as per the PTE Scoring Guide. Suggestions along with the feedback and correction is also provided.

While assessing the Essay and the Summary, we noticed some mistakes that mostly every test taker commits which implies the struggles that they face. Let us take you through some of the real troubles and experiences of the PTE test taker. Following are the most common faults noticed in the PTE Essays. 

1. Writing beyond the word limit or less than what is instructed

We notice this in many essays. While writing an essay many test takers do not take notice of the word limit specified in the instructions. Some essays are as long as 300+ words and sometimes even fall short to be of a total 200 words. You are clearly asked to write your response between 200-300 words. Thus, make sure that you do not write beyond 300 or less than 200 words. Doing so drastically affects your score.

2. Not following a good writing format with irrelevant introduction and absurd conclusion

Many test takers struggle with this issue. The structure of the essay is very vital to reflect that you are capable of developing the ideas with coherence and cohesion. Before that you must write a crisp and clear beginning talking about the topic of discussion. The next most important thing is to conclude well by summarizing all the main ideas. Do not leave dangling ideas in the essay.

3. Writing content that does not relate to the topic at all

Let us take for example the question is "Many institutes and universities practice written examination and not computer based tests for their students. Your opinion on that." Here, you must understand that you are supposed to present your opinions or views about written examination preferred over computer based examination by educational institutes. It does not concern computer studies or any technical subject related to computers or studying the subject computer. Always read the question thoroughly and understand the subject.

Now let's understand the most common mistakes noticed in the Summarize Written Text task.

1. Misunderstanding and misinterpreting the idea of the given passage/ text

There are 10 minutes to write the summary and in a rush to write, many test takers do not read the text carefully and write a summary that is not the main idea of the given text. You must read the text and understand it completely before putting your response out there.

2. Not writing the summary in ONE sentence, (a grave mistake)

This mistake costs you all of your score of Summarize Written Text task. Many times, most test taker unconsciously put a full stop and then go on to write another sentence which is absolutely incorrect as per the given instruction. Put a full stop at the end of the sentence, use proper connectors and comma (if necessary) and write only ONE sentence.

3. Incorrect use of grammar

Summarize Written Text is all about paraphrasing the main idea of the given text. The challenge is to write the idea in a single sentence of 5-75 words. So naturally grammar plays an extremely essential role here. It is imperative that you write a complex sentence with use of conjunctions and adverbs. Avoid making use of the same words as in the passage. 

4. Not checking the spelling and directly taking the words from the given text

PTE is a computer based test and in a hurry to write the summary in 10 minutes, it is possible to type spellings incorrectly even if you have practised. Double check the spellings having letter 'i' and 'e' together, for instance, "receive" & "believe", spellings ending with '-ance' or '-ence', for instance, "acceptance" & "coincidence" and '-able' or '-ible', for instance, "knowledgeable" & "responsible". Secondly, try not to write same words as in the text and instead use synonyms.

These are some of the frequently committed mistakes. Depending upon an individual, their struggles with learning a language may be different. The significant thing is to keep practising in the right direction. It is always better to take note if you are improving with practice. To help you do that, PTE Tutorials with their experts provide the Writing Correction Service. You, too, can avail the same as we assess 3 essay and 3 summary tasks. So, you can iteratively learn, capitalise on your strong points and rectify as well as notice your mistakes that you would otherwise never do. If you know some mistakes that you repeatedly do, then do share it with us and help us in making PTE Practice better and fun.