Five Strategic PTE Preparation Steps

The Pearson Test of English is as difficult as the IELTS, TOEFL, or DET, especially for a newbie. As a result, having a strategic guide will release stress and boost students’ confidence in preparing for the test, even in a long period of time. 
The Academic team at TADE Hub completely comprehends the difficulty of PTE takers; therefore, here we share 05 strategic preparation steps to achieve your PTE desired scores.

Make sure to read all steps carefully and apply them to your case thoroughly.

Step 1: Get to know PTE’s fundamental information

It’s a fact that we cannot do or learn anything new without understanding basic information about it. Taking the PTE is no exception. We need to comprehend how the test works, how many question parts are in the test, how each question type is scored, what are the rules, and so on to build a strong foundation and start preparing for the test.

We have prepared all the necessary articles that test-takers need to read in the beginning before moving to the next step: Understand your current level. 

• What is the PTE?
• Comprehend all PTE question types
• How question types are scored?
• PTE Academic at centres rules and at home

There are just several articles, to read more, pay a visit to our Pearson Test of English Blog Category to study all things related to the test.

Step 2: Understand your current level

All students (including you) know how many PTE scores they need to successfully get the Confirmation Letter from their desired institutions. It could vary from 40 to over 80 overall scores. Nevertheless, not so many students comprehend their English levels on the PTE scale from 10 to 90. Thus, we definitely need to get the PTE estimated scores in the first place in order to create an efficient and practical study plan later, because if we don’t know the PTE estimated scores, we don’t know the gaps between our current level to desired scores we need to bridge.

So here is your easiest and most effective guide to get your PTE estimated scores. And yes, it’s FREE of charge – by taking our 2-HOUR MOCK TEST.

Some basic information about your FREE 2-hour mock test offered by PTE Practice Platform – TADE Hub.

• Same order as real tests: The Academic team researched and took the PTE Academic countless times in order to build the most alike mock test compared to the certified one, so students can get the best simulation.
• Same number of questions: There are 20 different question types, each appearing several times in the test. Therefore, we also put the same number of questions to make it like the real tests.
• Estimated scores: After taking the mock test, you will receive estimated overall, Communicative skills, and each question type scores. This’s truly vital to comprehend your current level and see which question types you are not good at yet to focus more time on them.
  Below is a sample of estimated scores.

Before taking this 2-hour mock test, we strongly recommend you spend time reading this article: “How to utilise all FULL PTE mock tests”.
If you are ready, stop here for a while and watch this guide to take it for free.

Step 3: Create a detailed study plan and commit to it

At this point, test-takers should already have their PTE estimated scores. For instance, Student A wants to get 70 overall scores, and his level is at 55 - 60 after taking the 2-hour mock test. Most of the time, the test-taker-certified score will be close to the lowest end – 55, and we always should use this score to prepare for the worst situation.

To improve from 55 to 70, there are 15 score gaps. According to the below table, which is a research from Cambridge, we need around 180-200 training hours to reach the score of 70.

For a better understanding, the higher the score you want, the more practising hours you need to obtain it. For example, moving from 65 to 80 is much more difficult compared to moving from 55 to 70. Moving from 40 to 55 is easier compared to moving from 55 to 70, even though there is a 15-score gap in all cases.

Don’t stress out! Our Academic team is here, and we already have plans to help you practice every single day. The 180-200 training hours include our everyday reading, listening, writing, and speaking practice in addition to taking on-demand courses and practising on our PTE Practice Platform. For example, if we have 60 days to prepare (we strongly recommend test-takers start their preparation as soon as possible, never leave it until the last minute), then we have approximately four (04) training hours six out of seven days a week – let yourself have one day to relax. Let’s structure your four training hours into different practice tasks. Please remember that you should create your own plan by following our recommendations.

• Read the news every day: The PTE accepts US, UK, Canadian and Australian spelling, so feel free to pick any type of English news you prefer reading. But bear in mind that only choose one and keep reading it until you complete your certified tests because we need to use only one spelling type during the 2-hour PTE test. The benefits of reading are enormous, it helps us improve our read-aloud skills, gain more knowledge on multiple topics, advance brainstorming skills, and understand how an article is written, which is truly imperative to boost our writing skills. There are countless sources for reading, here we recommend some US digital news, such as Forbes, The York Times, HBR, NPR and so on. Go read this guide to read effectively.

• Listen to short videos: In the age of technology, we have access to uncountable sources of short English videos. We highly recommend English learners try out BBC Learning English and Oxford Online English – free YouTube sources. They have thousands of short videos concerning a variety of intriguing topics that test-takers can learn from. On the BBC Learning English channel, we have a “6 minutes English” playlist, while Oxford Online English offers “Spoken English Lessons”. Before listening to their videos, make sure you read this guide thoroughly to upgrade your listening skills efficiently.
• Find speaking partners: Speaking is the most challenging skill for most students. Therefore, having someone to talk to is genuinely imperative to lift up our speaking skills day after day. In countries like India or the Philippines, citizens use English as their mother tongue. But in other countries such as Vietnam, people don’t have the privilege to speak English everywhere; thus, it’s important to find a speaking partner to practice. Students can join our Facebook or Telegram (you can join after creating your FREE account) communities to find speaking partners.
• Improve typing speed: The PTE is a computer-based test, which is why our typing speed plays a critical role when we face writing question types, such as Summarize Written Text, Summarize Spoken Text, Write from Dictation, and Write Essay. Test-takers may practice writing diaries at the end of the day on what they experience or what they feel regarding a particular situation. Besides, students can combine this with the last recommended way of practice.
• Practice on the PTE Practice Platform: The Live-interactive practice platform offers thousands of practice questions and tons of 2-hour mock tests to boost students’ scores. In detail, after submitting the answers, students immediately receive feedback that they can learn from their mistakes and upgrade their skills next time for all question types, especially for Writing and Speaking question types. In Writing and Speaking question types, the PTE Practice Platform offers feedback based on the same grading elements that the Pearson Test of English evaluates students’ skills, including Oral Fluency, Pronunciation, Form, Grammar, Spelling, Linguistic Range, Coherence, and Vocabulary. For details, go check this article: “The PTE Practice Platform and Instant Feedback”. Or you can watch our video sample feedback here.

By committing to the following study plan (unit: minutes), test-takers may spend 2-3 hours per day only to practice on the PTE Practice Platform aside from doing other tasks.

We divide all questions into two main categories: Question types with fixed answers, and Open response question types. 

• Open response question types: P1. Describe Image, P1. Re-tell Lecture, P1. Summarize Written Text, P1. Write Essay, and P3. Summarize Spoken Text.
• Question types with fixed answers: The rest

Open-response question types have various ways to answer, there is NO fixed answer to each question. On the contrary, Question types with fixed answers only have one way to get them correctly. Following our recommended plan, we need to practice both categories every single day, especially Open-response question types. No matter how many minutes we are able to spend a day, we always need to practice Speaking and Writing because it’s the only way to improve our skills through everyday repetition of practice.

Special note: 

To achieve desired scores in any English Proficiency tests, test-takers have to fulfill two needed requirements.

• General English foundation: Every English Proficiency test evaluates test-takers' four skills including Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. Therefore, to get the scores we want, we need to upgrade our English to that scoring-level. For instance, if your level is currently at 45 PTE scores (B1 in CEFR), but you need a score of 75 (C1 in CEFR), there is no way to obtain it if only focusing on the test format and practicing all quesiton types. Instead, we need to improve your general English to closely reach the score of C1 besides practising all question types. Here are specific strategies to level up your Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing skills. 
• Test format comprehension: We already have a plan to completely understand the Pearson Test of English, its' format, question types, and so on. Test-takers only need to remember to pay attention to both improving their general English foundation and practicing all question types for future success. 

Step 4: Take 2-hour Practice tests every week

When we published this article, the PTE Practice Platform already had tons of 2-hour Mock tests to help test-takers keep track of their progress. Students need to take one 2-hour mock test every practice week to see how far they have boosted their scores in one week so they can update their study plan accordingly. To illustrate, after practising for 1 week and taking the 1st Full Test at the end of the week, we received the following estimated scores:

Regarding our Mock Test results, we see that P1: Repeat Sentence, P2: M. Choice, M. Answer, P3: Summarize Spoken Text … have low scores, which are your focused question types next week. In other words, we may spend more time than the previous week to concentrate more on these question types for better scores. It hinges on your schedule to decide how many more minutes should you devote to practice, it could vary from 15 to 30 minutes.

All Full 2-hour Mock tests are in the Premium account, so why don’t we utilise them all? It’s time to experience everything in our PTE Practice Platform and take one mock test for FREE.

Step 5: Utilise unlimited times that we can take the PTE 

The Pearson Test of English allows students to take the PTE unlimited times. In detail, students can immediately book a new test right after receiving their previous results. The PTE team advices test-takers to schedule their tests 24 hours in advance to book a timeslot they desire for PTE Academic at test centres. In contrast, if students want to sit for the PTE Academic Online, they may need to book it months beforehand because the timeslots are pretty limited.

Preparing for any English proficiency tests is not an easy task, especially the PTE Academic. Consequently, we need to prepare for the test as soon as we can to increase our probability of securing desired scores. The higher the gap we need to bridge, the more days we need to practice and upgrade our skills. Back to our example, it’s a 15-score gap and we need 180-200 training hours to obtain our scores. So if our gap is greater, we will need more hours to study. Besides, we value integrity and truthfulness as the PTE does; as a result, we will not answer or offer support to any test-takers who have the intention of cheating on the test. Our last piece of advice is never to think of cheating on a test. If violated, test-takers will be banned immediately and forever.

If you are ready, let’s go create your study plan now and immerse yourself in the everyday effective preparation schedule to reach your PTE dream scores. If you have any questions, go share with us on our Facebook or Telegram (you get an invitation after creating your FREE account on our PTE Practice Platform) communities. 

We, Academic team at TADE Hub, wish you the best of luck!