Reading Test - PTE

Dear Readers

In this post I'll cover the Reading Section of PTE

Lets get started

General Strategies

• As You Read Each Question, Determine the Type: Main Idea, Detecting Details, Inference, Tone/Mood 
• Look Back at the Passage When in Doubt 
• Before You Start Answering the Questions, Read the Passage Carefully 
• Get the Meanings of “Tough” Words by Using the Context Method 

Context Method: Suppose you don’t know the meaning of a certain word in a passage. Then try to determine the meaning of that word from the context—that is, from the words that are close in position to that word whose meaning you don’t know. Knowing the meanings of difficult words in the passage will help you to better understand the passage as a whole.

• Don’t Answer a Question on the Basis of Your Own Opinion 
• After Reading the Passage, Read Each Question Carefully.
• Build Vocabulary - Refer to my first post on how to build vocabulary
• Read More - Reading and understanding all the TOEFL essays I shared in my first post will help immensely.

 Strategies for Sentence Completion

• For a Sentence with Only One Blank, Fill the Blank with Each Choice to See the Best Fit* 
• Pay Close Attention to the Key Words in the Sentence 

Now, lets go into each section

Multiple choice questions (choose single answer)

What to expect
In this section, you are given a text. Read the text and answer the multiple-choice question by selecting the correct response. Only one response is correct.
There will generally be 2 questions asked in the exam from this section. The text will be around 100 words each with 4 options provided in each question.

How you are scored
Correct/incorrect:
1 Correct response
0 Incorrect response

Strategy
Read the question first and quickly go through the options given. Don’t focus too much on what the correct answer is going to be at this stage. Just get a sense of what is being asked. Now read the text given. As noted, it is important to read with the intention of understanding. Don’t think about the question, just focus on understanding the text. Once you have read it all, get back to the question and eliminate all the incorrect responses, picking the correct answer.
For difficult questions there may be one or two options that seem correct. If needed, re-read the section of the text that contains content related to the question to narrow down on the answer.
Do NOT try to answer the question in the light of any knowledge which you may personally have. Additionally, as far as possible, do not assume anything to be true in the options unless specifically mentioned or implied.
The options generally fall under the below three categories:

1. The option is true
   
2. The option is false
   
3. Insufficient information given to determine true or false.
   

Only category 1 option is the correct answer. Category 3 options are often included to make it harder, so be mindful of these during the exam.
You will better relate to the above concepts after going through the below example.

Select the correct option after reading the below text: 

Other criminologists, political scientists, and similarly learned forecasters laid out the same horrible future, as did President Clinton. “We know we’ve got about six years to turn this juvenile crime thing around,” Clinton said, “or our country is going to be living with chaos. And my successors will not be giving speeches about the wonderful opportunities of the global economy; they’ll be trying to keep body and soul together for people on the streets of these cities.” The smart money was plainly on the criminals. And then, instead of going up and up and up, crime began to fall. And fall and fall and fall some more. The crime drop was startling in several respects. It was ubiquitous, with every category of crime falling in every part of the country. It was persistent, with incremental decreases year after year. And it was entirely unanticipated—especially by the very experts who had been predicting the opposite.
Question:
Why was the fall in crime rate particularly surprising?

1. It had been predicted at the time by President Clinton
   
2. It happened after six years of steeply rising rates of crime.
   
3. It took place despite fewer people expressing an interest in crime and Justice policies
   
4. It happened in all criminal categories and continued for a number of years.
   

Answer explained:
A is false as the opposite was predicted
B is not specifically mentioned so there is insufficient information given to determine true or false. Notice how ‘six years’ mentioned in the paragraph is part of the question. This is deliberately included to test your understanding. Do not assume that the option is right because it contains certain keywords from the text. Select the correct answer after understanding the meaning of the entire sentence in the option.
C is also not specifically mentioned so there is insufficient information given to determine true or false
D is correct because it has been stated that the every category of crime fell year after year.

Multiple choice questions (choose multiple answers)

What to expect

In this section, you are given a text. Read the text and answer the question by selecting all the correct responses. More than one response is correct.
There will generally be 2 questions asked in the exam from this section. The text will be around 100 to 300 words long and each text with 5 options provided in each question.

How you are scored
Partial credit, points deducted for incorrect options chosen: 
1 Each correct response1 Each incorrect response
0 Minimum score

Strategy
Similar guidelines from the previous section apply to this one. Here too, you can expect some category 3 options (Insufficient information given to determine true or false).
Note that more than one option is correct in the question type.
As per Pearson - "You will score marks for any correct options but you will lose score points for any incorrect options; these include:
• options that you have clicked on as correct but which are wrong • options that are correct but that you have not clicked on“
Pay close attention to the second bullet above as it is not something you may have encountered in test before. The minimum score is 0 for each question so it is better to give an attempt.
Scoring for this question explained with an example:
Let us consider a sample question which has 5 options to choose from and 2 options are correct. Let's see how you score for in each of the 4 sample scenarios defined below.

1) You select two correct options: Your score for this question will be +2. (+1 for each correct option selected) 

2) You only select only one option and that is correct: You score will be 0
(You get +1 for the correct option and -1 for the other correct option not selected)
3) You select one correct option and one wrong option: Your score for this question will be 0. (+1 for correct answer, -1 for incorrect option selected and -1 for the other correct option not selected however, minimum score is 0)).
4) You only select three options and they all are incorrect. Your score for this question will be 0 (You get -1 for each incorrect option, however, minimum score is 0)
Given this information, the best strategy is to aim to select all correct answers. Some test takers are under that false impression that they will be conservative and select only one correct answer ensuring at least a point. However, as seen in scenario 2 above you will get 0 if you do this.
Always select a minimum of two answers for this section that you believe to be correct. You can select the third option as well if you have come to the conclusion that it is correct. This will ensure that you are getting the maximum possible score for each question. 

Re-order paragraphs

What to expect

You will be given 5 sentences in a text panel (left) and a blank text panel (right). The text boxes in the left panel have been placed in a random order. Restore the original order by dragging the text boxes from the left panel to the right panel.
There will generally be 2 questions asked in the exam from this section.

How you are scored
Partial credit:
1 Each pair of correct adjacent text box
0 Minimum score

Strategy
You are given jumbled text and need to reorder them in a paragraph that makes logical sense. Most of the sentences given will have a structure and a chronology i.e. sequence of events that happen one after the other. Your goal is to simply identify this.
Start with the first sentence as this is the most easily to identify. This is the sentence that will have the general topic idea/statement within it. Generally; this sentence can stand alone by itself. It will be the first item in the sequence of events. Note any paragraphs that begin with conjunctions such as However, Nevertheless, But, Also, Furthermore, and so on. Such sentences do not usually go first. Additionally, paragraphs that are referring back to text in a previous paragraph will probably contain pronouns referring to someone (he, she, them, they) or something (it). Any other clues that related to sequences (Another, firstly, secondly, finally, next, subsequent, following, in addition, too) should be noted as they will probably not be the first sentence. During the above exercise, you will also get a feel for the other ordering of the sentence.
The below group of words are used to identify connecting ideas.
Words that express the same idea: Additionally, too, also, as well, besides, furthermore, in addition, moreover, likewise, etc.
Words that give an alternate idea: However, Conversely, nonetheless, but, nevertheless, whereas, on the contrary/other hand, then again, while, etc. 

Words that link to reason and outcome: so, as a result, therefore, consequently, thus, for this reason, since, accordingly, because of this, due to, subsequently etc.
Words that demonstrate Sequence or order: Another, firstly, secondly, finally, eventually, in the end, next, subsequent, following, in addition, too, first of all)
Another tool that will help is to ask questions to the different paragraphs in the text. We will try to look at this and some of the concepts above through the below example.
Reorder below text Example

1. a)  However, many citizens resented the Pact due to the invasion of Egypt during the 1956 Suez Crisis
   
2. b)  Britain controlled all aspects of the Iraqi government, which caused resentment towards the Western powers and led to the 14 July Revolution in 1958, overthrowing the Hashemite monarchy.
   
3. c)  When the Baghdad Pact was signed, the governments of the coalition believed it to be beneficial for their citizens.
   
4. d)  Iraq was dragged into the conflict due to their imperial ties with Great Britain, and many Iraqis felt that it was wrong to invade a fellow Arab nation.
   
5. e)  The Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), originally known as the Baghdad Pact or the Middle East Treaty Organization (METO) was formed in 1955 by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.
   

Analysis:
1st sentence
Let’s analyze each sentence to see which is appropriate.
a) - Which pact is being referred? Starts with however, so cannot be topic sentence. 
b) - The timeline of 1958 is given which is later than other dates. 

c) - Refers to Baghdad pact. Have more introductory details been given anywhere else about pact?
d) - Which conflict? Which Arab nation?
e) - Sentence can stand alone. Is introductory to other related sentences. Must be topic sentence)
2nd sentence
Sentence c) Gives more details about the pact directly after it was introduced.
3rd sentence
The Pact mentioned in the previous sentence is being referred back to in sentence a). The ‘however’, indicates a contrarian view which is reflected in the resentment versus the benefit noted previously. So this should be third in the order.
4th sentence
The conflict referred to in sentence d) can be tied back to the invasion in Iraq mentioned in the previous sentence. Invasion of Arab nation (Egypt) is also mentioned in the previous sentence.
5th sentence
Britain and Iraq has been referred to previously. Also, the timeline of 1958 gives clue that it should be towards the latter half.
Correct order: e), c), a), d), b)
Note on timing: This is a section that exam takers tend to spend a lot of time on. Be mindful of the time you spend and keep an eye on the timer on screen. Ensure that you keep sufficient time to answer the subsequent sections. 

Fill in the blanks (Drag and Drop)

What to expect

In this section, there will be a text given, where some words are missing. Drag words from the options given to the appropriate place in the text. To undo an answer choice, drag the word back to the box below the text.
There will be 4 item sets in the exam from this section. Each passage will have between 3 to 5 blanks to fill and have between 6 to 8 options.

How you are scored
Partial credit:
1 Each correctly completed blank 
0 Minimum score

Strategy
Skim through the text quickly trying to guess which word would fit in the blank without looking at the options. Search the options for words which match or are close to your prediction and drag it in the box. Make sure that the whole sentence sound grammatically correct when filling blanks. This can be done by taking into account words surrounding the blank and figuring out what part of speech is appropriate(e.g., preposition, conjunction, adjective, plural noun, adverb). If you are unsure for a difficult blank, then quickly narrow down on the words that are a possible fit, pick what sounds right and move on.
Below a few examples of how you can narrow down between words.
Q. The nation ___ turmoil during the recent war. (Options - suffers, faced).
A. Faced is correct as it reflects correct tense of the sentence and is grammatically correct. Suffered would have been appropriate if given instead of suffers which is present tense.
Q. The thief snatched the chain in a ___ of an eye (options- blink, opening)
A. Blink is correct. ‘Blink of an eye’ is an expression used in day to day speech. Be on the lookout for these.
Q. The man had a ___ expression on his face. He was overjoyed after meeting his friend after such a long time. (Options - worried, delighted)
A. Delighted is correct. Note that in this instance it was not possible to guess just by looking at the sentence. Only after observing the surrounding sentence for the ‘overjoyed’ context could we guess the right answer. 

Fill in the blanks (Select from list)

What to expect

In this section, there will be a text given, where some words are missing (blanks). Click on each blank, a list of choices will appear. Select the appropriate answer choice for each blank.
There will be 4 item sets in the exam from this section. Each passage will have between 4 to 6 blanks to fill and have between 4 options for each blank. The text will be between 100 to 250 words long.

How you are scored

Partial credit:
1 Each correctly completed blank
 0 Minimum score

Strategy

In this question type go through the text carefully once and fill it as you go. You will save time this way. Do not skim but make sure you understand what is being written as you read. Look at the text around the blank for clues on what the best answer is. Similar to the previous section use Grammar to eliminate responses.
Do not skip a paragraph of text even if they do not contain blank. They sometimes contain key information that could be the determining factor in picking the correct answer in the blank in next paragraph. Refer to the example given below to illustrate this point.
“Clive was deeply hurt by the sudden death of his mother due to cancer.
He was sent to boarding school. With the Strict rules and _____ (insensitive, egoistic, coolheaded, purposeful) headmaster he resented the place and missed home.”
Explanation: By looking at the paragraph in isolation, the correct answer could be insensitive or egoistic. If we take into account the death of his mother mentioned in the previous paragraph, we can conclude that ‘insensitive’ is the more appropriate response. 

Guys I'm attaching the link below to the PTE Practise Material below (McMillan Book)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BzZQKPUH3G7aTVpJTjRFaklsRFE

This covers the reading section of the PTE exam.

Last bit of Advice

Practise, practise and more practise....

Happy Reading Guys !

If you have any questions for me please don't hesitate to email me at shristiarya42@gmail.com and if you like my work please share with your friends and follow my blogs.

All the best (Keep an eye out for my Speaking blog for PTE)

Cheers!