Listening Test - PTE

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I welcome you all to my PTE Blog.

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the delay in writing the PTE blog for the Listening Test.

So lets get started,

Listening

Summarize Spoken Text

 In this section, you listen to a recording. You are required to write a summary of the recording for a fellow student who was not present at the lecture. The summary should be between 50-70 words. The duration of the lecture is 60 to 90 seconds. You will have 10 minutes to write your summary. The timer counts down from 10 minutes. After 10 minutes the screen expires and automatically move to the next section, so make sure you finish the summary in about 8 minutes, review your writing and spellings in the rest 2 minutes, and then click next. In this section both your listening & writing skills are tested. You have to listen to all the key points in the lecture, and then write a quality summary of the recording.

Score guide for summarize spoken text

Remember, if you write less than 40 words or more than 100 words, you will score zero marks. Also, If you write all the summary in capital letters ,you will also get zero marks.

Strategies for writing Summary 

• Take notes on the recording. Identify the main points. Pay attention to words which are stressed or phrases that are often repeated. These are central to the main idea of the recording. 

• If you are a fast typer, you can take your notes in the summary dialogue box. This is much easier than writing on a notebook. If you take notes in the summary dialogue box, form your summary of it and then select your notes and click on cut. Your notes will disappear from the summary but you can bring it back by clicking paste. If you don’t need your notes anymore, just delete it with a keyboard command.

 • Write between 50-70 words. The score guide says, for a good score you should cover all the main aspects of the recording. Thus, ideally, I would write 70 words or from 65-70.

 • You should identify the theme or gist of the talk. What’s the main purpose of the summary. Identify the points that supports the main idea.

 • Do not write everything you hear. Try to understand the lecture and take notes at the same time. 

• Start your summary with a topic sentence, add background information only if the word limit allows it. 

• Your summary should follow speaker ideas. If speaker mentions idea A first, B second, and C third. Do the same. Follow the same organization as the speaker. 

• Listen for the speaker opinion if he provides one. Sometime, the speaker also provides an opposing opinion. Mention these in your summary.

Section 2 - Multiple choice-chose multiple answers 

In this section, you listen to a recording. You are given a question about the recording with several options. You have to mark all the correct options. Mostly, two are correct but can be more.

Scoring Guide, Multiple choice, chose multiple answers 

This item only contributes to your listening score, so it means you must practice a lot for these items. It can really boost your listening score if you mark it right. There is negative marking in this section. For each correct option, you score + 1 and for each incorrect answer you score -1. For example, if you mark two answers, one wrong and one correct, you will score zero marks. The minimum marks are zero in this section. So, If a test taker marks two incorrect options, he will still score zero marks.

Always try to answer all the correct options. You may be right.

Strategy for Multiple choice chose multiple answers 

The recording counts down from 7 seconds, you have 7 seconds to look at the question, understand it. Just briefly look at the options. This is the most important part.

• Take notes about the question now. Write everything the speaker says. Don’t worry about the options at this time. 
• Once the recording finishes, answer the question according to your notes.
• Some of the options contain synonyms of words from recording.
• Eliminate options which are clearly wrong or contains opposite information from the recording, this will make your job easy. 
• One of the options is mostly not mentioned in the recording, eliminate this as well.
• Now mark the correct options and move to the next question.

Section 3 - Fill in the blanks 

In this section, you listen to a recording. The transcript of the recording is also given. The transcript contains up to seven blanks. You have to fill in the blanks by listening to the recording and type the missing words. You get about 2-3 of these items depending on your test. The audio counts down from 7 seconds. You can have a quick look at where the blanks are. 

Score Guide, Fill in the blanks 

For each correct blank spelled correctly, you get 1 marks. There is no negative marking in this section. The minimum mark is zero. For example, If you fill 4 correct blanks and one wrong you will get 4 marks. 

Strategy for Fill in the blanks 

• You have 7 seconds before the microphone opens, look at all the blanks and their position in the recording.

• Keep in yours head the word which comes before the blanks. 

• Put your mouse cursor in the first blank and be ready to type. 

• At this point, just type shortcuts of the words, not their full spellings, you can fix the spellings once the recording is finished. 

• If you are not comfortable with typing, you can note the words in your notebook, however, there is a chance you might lose the track of the recording. 

• As soon, as you type the first blank, move your mouse to the next blank, but keep your eyes on the transcript as well. 

• You should spell the missing words correctly otherwise you will not score any marks. 

• If you miss a blank, don’t leave it blank, just guess the blank by looking at the words around it. You might be right. 

Section 4 - Highlight correct summary 

In this section, you will hear a recording. You are given three to five paragraphs in the options. You have to select the paragraph which represents the best summary of the recording. You will do two to three items depending on the combination of your items in your test.

Scoring Guide, Highlight correct Summary

In this section, you are tested for your reading & Listening skills. This item contributes towards your reading & listening score. This item is marked correct or incorrect. There is no negative marking. If you answer the question right you get 1 mark, otherwise you get zero. 

Strategy for Highlight Correct Summary

 • When you hear the recording, you should take notes. You should practice effective note taking.         This helps immensely in the listening test. 

• Identify the main idea in the recording. 

• Identify the points that support the main idea.

 • The correct summary should have the main idea and the supporting points.

 • Exclude summary or summaries which focus on minor idea in the recording.

 • Exclude summary which contains information not given in the recording.

 • Exclude summary which contains opposite information of what is said in the recording.

Section 5 - Multiple choice, Choose single Answer 

In this section, you will hear a recording mostly about academic subjects, such as Science, humanities etc. You are given a multiple-choice question with three to five options. You have to select the correct option according to the recording. Only one response is correct.

Scoring Guide, Multiple choice, Choose single Answer 

This section only contributes to your listening score. This item is scored correct or incorrect. There is no negative marking for this section. 

Strategy for multiple choice, Choose single Answer

 • This question test you for the main idea of the talk or the gist of the talk. If you understand the main idea, you would easily be able to answer the question. 

• Take notes in every listening section. Understand and write as much as you can. Practice your note taking skills. 

• One of the option would not be mentioned in the recording, exclude this. 

• One of the option would contain information from the recording, but it wouldn’t be the right answer. • One of the option would contain opposite of what is said in the recording, Eliminate this.

Section 6 - Select missing word 

In this section, you listen to a recording about a topic which is mentioned in the instruction. At the end of the recording, the last word or group of words is replaced by a beep. You have to predict the correct word from a group of options.

Skills tested in this section

 • Listening

 • Identify the theme 

• Words and phrases appropriate to the context 

• Predicting a sequence of information 

• Predicting a conclusion 

Score guide - Select Missing Word 

This item is either mark correct or incorrect. There is no negative marking in this section. 

Strategy for Select Missing Word 

• The recording counts down from 7 seconds. Quickly look at the topic and skim the option quickly. Then get ready to take notes. Remember, you can do this question without taking notes, however, I strongly recommend taking notes for this one. 

• In order to predict the missing word, you have to follow the speaker ideas. 

• What is most important in this section is mapping of ideas. Listen actively for discourse markers. Discourse markers are used when the speaker introduce new information or link ideas in the recording. Some examples are Anyway, however, in fact, so, well, you know etc. 

• Don’t worry if you miss some words in the recording. If you focus on overall idea of the recording, you will still be able to answer the question. 

• Most important, listen to the second last and last sentence carefully. The meaning of the option should match the last sentence. The meaning should match the second last sentence and the meaning should match the whole recording.

Section 7 - Highlight Incorrect Words 

One of the easiest section of the listening module. Make sure you answer these questions right. In this section of the listening test, you will listen to a recording. The transcript of the recording is given as well. Some word in the transcript differs from what the speaker says. You have to click on the words which are different from the recording. When you click the word, it becomes highlighted in yellow. If you want to deselect, click on it again and the word will be deselected. You will get 2-3 of these items depending on the combination of items in your test. Each recording is 15-50 seconds long, and every recording contains up to seven incorrect words

Scoring Guide - Highlight incorrect words 

This items contributes to your listening and reading scores. There is negative marking in this section. According to the official guide, if someone scores 2 marks for two correct options and -2 for two incorrect one. They will score zero points.

If you mark 2 words right and 3 wrong , you will score zero marks not -1 as the minimum marks is zero in this section. 

Strategy for Highlight incorrect words

 • Listen actively

 • You should move your cursor or mouse with speed of recording. 

• Just one click is enough. 

• Don’t look back to the recording or take notes. 

• You hear the recording once in any listening item in the test.

 • Some recordings maybe fast so train yourself to anticipate this type of question.

Section 8 - Write from Dictation

This is the last section of the test. In this section, you will hear a short sentence. You have to listen carefully and type the sentence in the response box exactly as you hear it. You get about 2-3 of these items. This item contributes to your listening and writing score.

Score Guide write from Dictation 

If you write all the words of the sentence exactly as the recording with correct spellings, you will get full marks. If you make mistakes you will get partial credit.

Strategy for Write from Dictation

 • Listen carefully
 • Type the sentence or take notes in your erasable notebook
• Don’t write full words or spellings just use shortcuts. You can re write the sentence quickly once the recording finish.
• Start your sentence with a capital letter and end it with a full stop.
• Pay attention to grammar and spellings as this item contributes to your writing score as well.
• Don’t forget full stop at the end.


Guys, this concludes my blogs on PTE.  I wish everyone all the very best in their PTE preparation and hope you all realise your dream.

Feel free to email me on shristiarya42@gmail.com if you have any questions. I'll try my best to answer all your queries.

GOOD LUCK :-)