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Taking out some time in the beginning to develop a proper plan for PTE Preparation can save a lot of wasted effort in the end. This article goes through the various planning steps and stages in PTE Preparation. Based on this any test taker can develop her own custom plan for PTE Preparation.
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HowtoPlanYourStudiesforPTEAcademic Taking an exam like the PTE Academic Test is a significant endeavour. You are likely to spend several weeks or months preparing for the exam. To make sure that you achieve your goal in the first attempt, it is important to make a plan for your studies. Your precious time should be spent in a way that leads you toagoodPTEScore.
The very first thing that you need to identify is your goal and in this case that is your desired score. Getting a score of 79 plus is not always more difficult than getting a score of 65 plus. It all depends upon the person and current level of language skills. For someone who is reasonably confident of her language skills getting a 79 plus score will be easier compared to someone who really struggles while speakinginEnglishbutneedstogetonlya65plusscore. So, the first step is this – Identify you desired score. If you are planning to apply for a visa, the visa requirements will tell you what score you need to aim for. If you are applying for a University admission, the admission requirements will specifythescoreneeded. The second step is to rate your current skill level and understand the gap that you need to overcome. For this you can try one of the official Pearson practice tests or if that is not possible then you can go through some PTE
Academic Test tutorials on YouTube. If you do that, make sureyoupickvideosfromareliablesource. Once you have completed the second step, you will have a reasonable idea of your current skill level. You will know which language skills you need to work upon, whether it is your Speaking, Writing, Reading or Listening. If you are looking at a score of 79 plus or a significant jump over your previous score, you may also have to work on your corelanguageskillssuchasGrammarandVocabulary. Now, it is time for the third step which is to actually draw upaplan. Ideally, you would have at least 3 or 4 weeks before you take your PTE Academic Test. But several people have to give the exam at a short notice, within a week or so. In either case, you can divide your preparation in the following stages. If you have 4 weeks or more you can
give more time to each stage, if only a week then you will onlytoucheachtopicbriefly. Thepreparationstagesare: 1. UnderstandingthePTEAcademicstructure You must be very clear about the exam structure, the sections tested, the time allocated for each section and so on. 2. Understandeachquestiontype This has 20 subparts corresponding to each of the 20 question types asked in the PTE. You should be very clear about the question prompts, the instructions, the scoring pattern and the methods to tackle each of these question types. This is similar to putting a foundation while building a house. On the exam day your mind should immediately tell you how to proceed with a question. There should be no need to look at any standard instructions or to think abouthowtoapproachaquestion.
3. Practiceeachquestiontype If you have only a week or couple of weeks to go, then you wouldn’t be able to get a lot of practice unless you put in six hours or more every day. If you can’t do that then try to practice at least a few questions of each type – enough to give you some confidence and familiarity with that questiontype. Ideally, you should be able to devote at least one day to practicing each of these question types. But since most people giving the PTE Exam are working or studying full timethisisoftennotpossible. So, just make a guess of number of hours you will be able to take out for your preparation in a day and multiple it with the number of days you have till your PTE exam. Divide that with twenty and you will know how much time you have to spend on each question type. Of course, you can make adjustments here. For example, if you find Answer Short Question easy enough then you can take out half
the time from it and add it to the time you have for practicingWriteEssayquestions. At the end, your goal should be to get to a stage where you feel confident while approaching these 2o question types. 4. Firmupyourcorelanguageskills If you are aiming for a big jump over your previous PTE or IELTS score then you will need to pay attention to your core language skills. Every day set aside some time for brushing up your grammar basics, going through the PTE word list and doing some general language practice by readingnewspaperoronline,watchingsomevideos,etc. 5. Checkyourprogressmidway Midway during your preparation take out some time to check your progress. If you are taking a PTE Online Course you can try one of the mock tests or even take an officialPTEPracticetesttoseewhereyoustandnow.
Compare the results with the evaluation that you did before starting the preparation. The results may indicate that you are well on track. If not, they will highlight the areas that you need to focus on for the rest of your preparation. 6. Timeforreview Leave the day before the exam or even a couple of days before the exam for a simple review. Don’t rush to do mock tests, don’t watch new videos on YouTube, don’t try to learn any new strategies. Just trust your preparation andcloseanylooseends. If you draw up a plan like this with careful thinking you will most definitely find yourself doing well on the exam day. So, take the first step and sit down to plan your PTE Preparation.