How to get your desired PTE Score?

Dear Friends

First of all a big thank you to all of you who have made my blogs a success and for all your emails of support.

I received hundreds of emails asking me for help and advise and I tried my best to help all those who emailed me.

My blogs are meant to help students who are in same shoes as I was.

This blog is dedicated to all of you who need a game plan to achieve your desired score. All the best :-)

If you are just starting with the PTE and want to know where to begin. These are the steps you should follow.

Step 1: Know the score you want

How much you need to prepare, depends on the score you need. For example, if you need a score of 79+ you may need to put in more preparation than if you need a score of 65+.

Step 2: Take the official mock test:

Pearson has been kind enough to offer scored online mock tests for the PTE Academic. The official Pearson mock test can be taken from home over the internet. You will receive scored results similar to what you would receive in the actual exam, which is the best part. This eliminates the guesswork on how good your English is and gives you a true picture of where you currently stand.

Taking this test is highly recommended, as it is as close you can get to the actual PTE exam, at a fraction of the cost. It makes sense to take this mock test and know where you stand. 

If you've followed the suggestions above and have taken the mock test, you will end up in either one of the situations below:

1. You have got more than the score you need in all sections.
   
   
   Woo hoo! Good for you. You can pat yourself on the back, break into a victory dance or whatever you like to do to have a mini-celebration. You are all set to take the real exam and don't need to put in much work. The actual exam is usually not more difficult than the mock test.
2. You scored below your desired score. Not the best situation, but now you at least know the areas you need to improve upon.

Now after taking the mock test:

• If you fell short of your desired score by 0–7 points, usually all you need to do is to practice a little more. 
  
  
  A good source for practice is the official Pearson Practice CD that comes with their ‘The Official Guide book’. Note that the content in this book is pretty generic and not too useful by itself. It’s the three practice tests with answers that come along with the book that is valuable. 
  
  
  Another one from Pearson is their offline test which you can download here for free. I also recommend using Macmillan Test Builder.
• If you fell short of your desired score by 7–20 points, you need to invest more time and effort in preparation. 
  
  
  For the speaking and writing section, you need to understand the scoring parameters and work to ensure you are hitting on all those parameters in your answers. 
  
  
  Below is a link to the official PTE Score Guide which breaks down how each question type is scored. It will be a good idea to browse through this to make sure you understand the scoring. Click here to get the PTE Score Guide (Free download - Page 1 to 39 is what you need to know)

• If you fell short of your desired score by 20 marks or more, in addition to the above steps you also need to work on improving your overall English. 
  
  
  There is no ‘shortcut’ or ‘strategy’ that is going improve your overall score by 20 points or more in a relatively short amount of time. Based on my experience, to improve your English enough to cover 20+ points is something that can take a minimum of three months to over a year depending on how much effort you put in. The quickest way to improve your English is to consume as much high-quality English you can. You need to work on developing habits that allow for this. A few suggestions to do this:
• Switch from consuming media/entertainment in your local language to English.
• Read as much as possible. Books, articles, newspapers.
• Start listening to English podcasts or Audiobooks while travelling to work/college or doing non-critical tasks.

Guys! getting your desired score is not impossible and you all can do it. What you need is

WILL TO SUCCEED

DETERMINATION

HARD WORK

Nothing is impossible, If I could do it you can too :-)

GOOD LUCK