Speaking and Writing skills are tested together in the PTE exam. Part 1 of the PTE Exam thus comes as - "Speaking and Writing". It is the largest section in the exam, is given the maximum duration and has the highest number of tasks of any of the given sections. This article presents PTE Speaking Tips for Indian students.
"How to Improve PTE Speaking Score" remains a common question among students. So, in this article, we are going to focus on PTE Speaking practice tips. Read on as we talk about the PTE speaking test, PTE speaking module, PTE speaking test format, PTE study topics that test takers can expect during the exam and the best practices to improve their PTE Academic Speaking Section Scores.
The PTE-A exam is made up of the PTE Reading section, PTE Listening section and PTE Speaking & Writing section and in this article, we are going to focus on the PTE preparation for the Speaking section of the exam.
Note - The Personal Introduction in the PTE Exam is not scored, but it's shared with the universities along with your test scores.
- Top 4 PTE Speaking Tips and Tricks
- PTE Exam Speaking Section Pattern
- PTE Speaking Test Tips
- Which Skills are Assessed Through Different Speaking & Writing Tasks of the PTE Exam?
- How to Improve PTE Speaking Section Scores FAQs
Top 4 PTE Speaking Tips and Tricks
As mentioned earlier, we are going to be talking about the top 4 PTE Speaking Section Tips and Tricks for the benefit of our PTE test takers. They are as follows:
- Test takers should speak confidently and neither be too slow nor too fast.
- Avoid repeating themselves or pausing unnecessarily.
- Start speaking when the recording of the conversation starts.
- Avoid 'false starts' - which is trying a do-over of the already recorded conversation.
PTE Exam Speaking Section Pattern
PTE Speaking Test Format can be understood by knowing the different types of tasks to be performed, the total number of questions to be asked, the time limit for reading and understanding the question prompt and the time limit given to think and answer the question.
PTE test takers must be aware that the PTE Speaking Section of the test is combined with the PTE Writing Section. As per the new and improved pattern of the PTE exam - the Speaking & Writing section now spans from 76 to 84 minutes and two new types of tasks have been added to this section - making it a total of 9 different tasks.
Note: If you remain silent for more than 3 seconds, the recording will stop automatically and you'll not be able to re-record.
| PTE Exam Speaking Section Format | ||
|---|---|---|
| Different Tasks in PTE Speaking & Writing Section |
Number of Questions Asked from Each Task Type |
Total Time Per Question |
| Personal introduction (Not scored) |
1 |
55 seconds |
| Read Aloud |
6 - 7 |
~1 min |
| Repeat sentence |
10 - 12 |
18-24 seconds |
| 5 - 6 |
65 seconds |
|
| 2 - 3 |
2 min 10 seconds |
|
| Answer short question |
5 - 6 |
14-20 seconds |
| Summarise Group Discussion (New) |
2 - 3 |
5 minutes |
| Respond to a Situation (New) |
2 - 3 |
50 seconds |
| Summarise written text |
2 |
10.5 - 11 minutes |
| Write Essay (most lengthy task) |
1 |
~20.5 minutes |
| Total |
36 - 44 |
76 - 84 minutes |
| Total Speaking Questions/Time (Excluding the two purely Writing Skill Questions, i.e. Summarise written text and Write Essay) |
33 - 41 (including personal introduction) |
32.5 - 45.3 minutes |
Note:- While the minimum and maximum time limits for the PTE test's Speaking section have been provided - they do not add up to the total exam timings mentioned. The number of tasks of each type is balanced such that the total duration of the exam doesn't go beyond 2 hours.
Here are the best PTE Speaking section tips according to each type of PTE Speaking question to help you prepare for the PTE Speaking section of the PTE exam.
PTE Speaking Section: Personal Introduction
This item is not scored but provides you with an opportunity to tell the institution about yourself. You get 25 seconds to prepare before you can record. After the tone, start speaking. You should speak clearly and not rush. You get 30 seconds to record your introduction. You should finish speaking before the progress bar reaches the end. You will be able to record your introduction only once. Your response will be sent along with your score report to the colleges and universities you selected.
PTE Speaking Section: Read Aloud
- Raising your tone at the beginning and lowering your tone at the end of the sentence will make the sentences sound authentic.
- If you realise you made a mistake - continue speaking and don't stop.
- From day 1 of preparation - practice with different tongue twisters every day until the exam day.
PTE Speaking Section: Repeat Sentence
- Listen with closed eyes and memorise the sentence.
- There is no beep at the end - so just start speaking after the clip ends.
- If you can’t manage to remember the whole sentence, at least focus on the keywords and repeat those.
PTE Speaking Section: Describe Image
- Start with words like illustrate, elucidate, depict, etc.
- Notice whether it is a bar chart, line graph or pie chart. Line graphs have a 'timeline', pie charts have 'slices' and bar graphs compare.
- Make use of the following words - on the left-hand side, on the right side, next to, below/bottom, above, at the top, foreground, background, etc.
- Try finishing in 30-35 seconds and don’t leave incomplete recorded sentences.
PTE Speaking Section: Retell Lecture
- Notice the keywords; they can help you understand the context of the topic.
- Instead of complete full names, you can use titles like - Dr. says or the professor mentions, etc.
- Try to capture the best 3-5 sentences. They should be enough to retell the lecture.
PTE Speaking Section: Answer Short Questions
- Add articles (a, an, the) before some words.
- If you don’t know the answer - just repeat the words in the question.
PTE Speaking Test Tips
Provided below are some of the best PTE Speaking Tips and Tricks when dealing with the PTE Speaking Section.
- You will have to watch YouTube pronunciation videos to achieve desired oral fluency.
- Try to mimic native English speakers with either British, American or Australian accents. As the PTE exam's AI scoring algorithm is trained on data from millions of test users, accent is not a problem as long as your answer is grammatically correct.
- For better pronunciation, use Google or YouTube for IPA and phonemes. You need to be aware of the position of the tongue, jaw and lips while speaking each word.
- Focus on mimicking intonation, as each word has ups and downs for each letter.
- Apply the 3-second rule of the PTE but avoid pausing for more than 3 seconds, as long pauses may cause the mic to go off and you cannot restart the recording. You can severely drop your oral fluency score if you fail to use this trick effectively.
- If you mispronounce or skip a word in Read Aloud, keep moving forward rather than stopping to fix it. As your mic records only once, repeating/correcting the words or sentences will only reduce your overall time to imitate the answer.
- In the Repeat Sentence task, capture meaning chunks instead of individual words and make sure to start from the beginning of the sentence even if you only catch 50-60% of it.
- Stay focused and do not rely entirely on sample answers/answer templates. PTE's AI scoring algorithm is trained to trace any common template usage patterns and this might affect your scoring.
Which Skills are Assessed Through Different Speaking & Writing Tasks of the PTE Exam?
The descriptions of how the different Speaking & Writing tasks are to be answered and which skills are assessed through them are given in the table below.
| Skills Assessed by Different Speaking & Writing Tasks in PTE | |
|---|---|
|
PTE Module |
PTE Speaking Task / Skills assessed |
|
Read aloud |
Read the provided text aloud (Reading and Speaking) |
|
Repeat sentence |
After listening to a recording, repeat the sentence (Listening and Speaking) |
|
Describe image |
Describe the image provided in detail (Speaking) |
|
Re-tell lecture |
After listening to a lecture, re-tell it in your own words (Listening and Speaking) |
|
Answer short question |
After listening to a question, answer with a single word (Listening and Speaking) |
|
Summarise written text |
After reading a text, write a one-sentence summary (Reading and Writing) |
|
Essay |
Write a 200-300-word essay on the given topic (Writing) |
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How to Improve PTE Speaking Section Scores FAQs
Commonly asked questions
To improve your PTE scores, you must:
- Practice speaking with diverse speaking tasks.
- Expand your vocabulary with academic language terms.
- Ensure proper pronunciation and fluency.
- Take more and more mock tests to get rid of the exam day anxiety, if you have one.
- Speak naturally at a normal pace while also maintaining proper punctuation and intonation.
- Avoid Repetitions or start seaking with learnt paragraphs for building up upon the subject.
Candidates are advised to appear for the PTE Academic exam after having prepared well for the exam. Candidates are advised to refer to online/offline study material available on the official PTE website and also go through our preparatory guide.
An AI-based automated scoring system assesses your performance in each section of the PTE exam. Scores are assigned on a 10 to 90 points scale - overall and for communicative skills reports (for Speaking, Writing, Reading and Listening).
Ideally you must spend at least 2-3 hours daily on studying for the PTE exam for a period of 2-3 months. It is recommended that use only the official preparation materials such as books, sample papers, taster test and mock tests. By the medium of taking the mock tests - you can get to know about the areas for improvement and work on them in due time.
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Priya Garg is an Assistant Manager in the Editorial Team of Shiksha Study Abroad (Shiksha.com, InfoEdge India Ltd), where she has served as the primary content owner on studying in the UK, Ireland, France, Spai
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