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Study strategies and tips for the Pearson PTE exam
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TPS - Pearson (PTE) Academic Free Practice & Study Tips
Textbooks
Unfortunately, PTE books are rare to find at public libraries as the test is not yet popularly established but most often public libraries are accommodating toward requests and will order the books for you. For that reason I will give a list of books and give the Amazon link but ho you can have a librarian order them for you so you do not end up spending a lot on books.
The Official Guide to PTE Academic is a sort of standard book that would be your best bet to try and order. You may be able to find the pdf book online if you are good at searching the internet
Expert Pearson Test of English Academic B1 & B2 Standalone Coursebook Paperback – Student Edition, 14 Jun 2016 is another Pearson book tin B1 & B2 that feature strategies for approaching the exam task types and contain vocabulary sections based on the academic collocations and word lists
If you just want to skip to the PTE practice tests, you can just try to obtain then Pearson Test Plus key Academic Pearson Test of English Academic by Felicity O'Dellc might be best. It was written in 2013 but the PTE academic has not really changed since its inception in 2009 so this should not pose a big problem. I do often think that going through practice tests before you start reading about strategies is a better use of your time because invariably textbooks contain too much information to absorb in the a short period of time and because strategies are often best self derived from your particular test taking preference.
The Official Guide to PTE Academic is a sort of standard book that would be your best bet to try and order. You may be able to find the pdf book online if you are good at searching the internet
Expert Pearson Test of English Academic B1 & B2 Standalone Coursebook Paperback – Student Edition, 14 Jun 2016 is another Pearson book tin B1 & B2 that feature strategies for approaching the exam task types and contain vocabulary sections based on the academic collocations and word lists
If you just want to skip to the PTE practice tests, you can just try to obtain then Pearson Test Plus key Academic Pearson Test of English Academic by Felicity O'Dellc might be best. It was written in 2013 but the PTE academic has not really changed since its inception in 2009 so this should not pose a big problem. I do often think that going through practice tests before you start reading about strategies is a better use of your time because invariably textbooks contain too much information to absorb in the a short period of time and because strategies are often best self derived from your particular test taking preference.
Websites
An obvious place to start is the official site under PTE Practice and in particular if you go to the PTE practice section under free sample, you can register for free sample questions.
Again on the official site under preparation resources you can get an offline practice test if it on the you scroll down a bit on the page
Exam English has a number of listening tests for free divided up into gap fill, multiple choice, summary and dictation.
PTE Lab has a number of speaking tests that are reasonable quality
Interestingly, a website called IELTS Review under PTE Practice tests actually has quite a number of PTE practice questions and although the site is unfinished it is off to a good start.
Again on the official site under preparation resources you can get an offline practice test if it on the you scroll down a bit on the page
Exam English has a number of listening tests for free divided up into gap fill, multiple choice, summary and dictation.
PTE Lab has a number of speaking tests that are reasonable quality
Interestingly, a website called IELTS Review under PTE Practice tests actually has quite a number of PTE practice questions and although the site is unfinished it is off to a good start.
Videos
with Jay Stay away from the type of YouTube sites that offer quick fix solutions by way of magical tips in "1 minute strategies". A very real danger is that you develop a formulaic way of approaching questions that can harm your adaptability to the r of diversity on the test. You will often find many positive reviews but I would guess many of them are contrived. Stick to videos that give you practice tests. Here are a number that do:
PTE Academic has speaking, reading and listening tests and the list is growing and the quality is improving.
PTE Gold has a number of videos organized by type of questions.
There is a full test on a site called IELTS ve TOEFL. It's nice to go through afull test just to see how you respond and to dertimen stregths and weaknesses
Although I find almost all of their videos with Jay garbage, there is one useful video of E2 Learning that goes through a full Academic Mock Test with answers . Any others you would best not waste time on
PTE Academic has speaking, reading and listening tests and the list is growing and the quality is improving.
PTE Gold has a number of videos organized by type of questions.
There is a full test on a site called IELTS ve TOEFL. It's nice to go through afull test just to see how you respond and to dertimen stregths and weaknesses
Although I find almost all of their videos with Jay garbage, there is one useful video of E2 Learning that goes through a full Academic Mock Test with answers . Any others you would best not waste time on
Tip #1: Speaking: Describing an Image
The Official Site has offered very general advice on this sting one should "Describe the general content of the image, then summarize the most significant points, referring to details for support" This statement needs to be flushed out into specifics:
The general content of the image means "what is this an image of? "Starting by saying what the image is, what is measured and what the general communication message is before getting into specifics.
Eg This is a graph showing fitness membership sales within a 30 year period from 1970-2000 and compares men and women memberships every 5 years . The goal is to see which times were highest for membership and how men and women differ.
Now that you have the general "what's there" issues and the general purpose, you can then move to the general conclusion. That general conclusion is without specific times or numbers but should answer the purpose
Eg "The graph clearly shows that men seem to fluctuate a lot according to the time period whereas women are a bit more stable"r
Read more of this tip and others in our PTE Academic Blog
The general content of the image means "what is this an image of? "Starting by saying what the image is, what is measured and what the general communication message is before getting into specifics.
Eg This is a graph showing fitness membership sales within a 30 year period from 1970-2000 and compares men and women memberships every 5 years . The goal is to see which times were highest for membership and how men and women differ.
Now that you have the general "what's there" issues and the general purpose, you can then move to the general conclusion. That general conclusion is without specific times or numbers but should answer the purpose
Eg "The graph clearly shows that men seem to fluctuate a lot according to the time period whereas women are a bit more stable"r
Read more of this tip and others in our PTE Academic Blog