Hi peeps, I have currently finished my study (at least for now) and preparing for PTE Academic Test for immigration purpose. Anybody can help me with any sort of suggestion, resources or wisdom would be very thankful. (BTW i am not a native speaker)
Does Pearson GOLD TEST PREPARATION KIT (A$ 59.99) helpful for preparation and worth the money?
I have learned that there are several coaching centre for PTE A Exam preparation. Any thoughts about those?
Thanks.
Plenty of these ‘coaching’ centres don’t have qualified English language teachers.
That might go a fair way to explaining why.
Often they are just started by business driven people seeing an opportunity.
Government accreditation/certification (ELICOS/CRICOS) gives independent verification.
Where are you based? What score do you need?
The online PTE materials from Pearson are good. I have to echo and clarify what Lysander said: many many people resit the exam numerous times due to having very high expectations, furthermore they don't understand the exam or simply do not have the level of English required. Training centres are expensive and will not necessarily give you one on one focus, you'll be in a class.
PTE (and IELTS) is just a cash cow - expect to do the test at least twice and spend money on good tuition and a reputable institute OR with a private teacher.
Happy to answers any questions you may have.
Good luck.
Source: TESOL teacher for the past 10 years
PTE scores an individual based on a number of areas… so even if you screw up you might actually do well. All I have to say is make sure you can type fast.
Get a copy of the marking rubric and find out what you're being scored on. Most candidates have no idea what it takes to get a particular score.
And bear in mind that the only way to get really really good is practice the hell out of each skill each and every day. You need to be reading an hour a day for fun: newspapers, magazines, etc. Join a sports team/gym/arts club/dance group and spend lots of time speaking and using English with native speakers. Write and the continuously rewrite essays and writing tasks.
Most tests like PTE are designed so that you can't just cram the test and magically get a higher score. You might show a marginal increase if you better understand how the test works but the only way to get a much higher score in ielts, PTE and most other English tests is to actually get better in speaking and using English.
Something to consider for practice is to offer to teach someone your native language in exchange for some hours spent on conversation in English (in case you are finding it hard to have opportunities to speak and listen a lot).
I’m interested as to why so many migrants use training centres that don’t have qualified English language teachers.
Emdad’s PTE is a perfect example.
It’s like any man & his dog starts a centre because they ‘passed the test’ & gullible migrants fall for it.
is pte easier than ielts?
Not if you have an accent that is too strong for the PTE computer algorithms to decipher - its common for immigrants to score poorly on speaking
However, some people find an IELTS examiner intimidating
What the previous poster said is correct. As the speaking is computer marked, some accents (Irish being the famous example) confuse it. Having said that, Pte is easier than IELTS in some ways. The computer can not detect natural English, so students can write verbose, confusing sentences and still get a high score. This is difficult in IELTS.
We recommend that students from countries in South America and Europe do IELTS, but those from the Subcontinent use Pte. For Asia, there does not seem to be much difference.
What is also sad is these PTE/IELTS coaching centres can’t even spell properly or use grammar correctly.
PTE Study Centre for weeks on the front page of their website had the word ‘Sydeney’ for a location!!
So many of these coaching centres use the phrase ‘gave the test’ rather than ‘take the test’. How sad!
Poor migrants don’t know the English language well enough to be aware of such basic mistakes, yet they rush to these places purely because it’s cheap or some certificates were uploaded to Facebook, but don’t seem to care that these places don’t have qualified English language teachers. It’s as if migrants want to be lied to or lack critical thinking skills.
how was the test? was it easier than IELTS mate like everyone says?
check e2 language pte youtube channel. it is more than helpful. watch all the videos and you are ready to roll.
Thread closed as there is a staggering amount of overseas spammers in this node.
You should probably consult your local library for some English textbook and some IELTS preparation books. Your sentence structure/grammar requires quite a bit of practice judging by the above text.
I would start with that first, and after a couple of months of intense practice move on to more advanced preparation kits as then you will get the most out of it.
The coaching centres might help but are expensive. I had a friend who spent a fortune on lessons from test markers and yet after 7 attempts he is still trying. His problems was that he thought kit and test centres are a quick fix.
The only sure thing to get you through is practice, lots of practice and commitment.