stas007

Hi everyone. First of all, many thanks to supercow for this great post. It really gave me knew hopes and helped me to successfully prepare for the PTE exam. In short - I needed 20 points for my PR and the only way to do this was via the English test. Quick background - I'm not a native speaker, but I've been studying English a lot at school and at private courses. I consider myself to have an advanced level, but not perfect. For about 8 years I've been living, studying and working abroad, and my main language of communication was English. I've lived mostly in Sweden and Belgium, which are not English speaking countries, but are still places where English is spoken at a very high level. I have worked for an international company, where English is the corporate language. I took IELTS in September 2015 and scored R9; L8,5; W7,5; S7,5. It was pretty disappointing, as I prepared quite intensively for the test and felt like I nailed it... But... there is always a big hairy butt somewhere in the middle... After getting this bitter result, I started to read forums about IELTS. I then discovered that PTE can be a good alternative and investigated this option. I didn't contest my IELTS results, since I didn't want to fuel this unethical money making machine. Nor did I book another test with them. Unfortunately, I could not take PTE immediately after that, because of my location at that time, which delayed my application process for 3 months. Thanks to this post, I focused my time and preparation on PTE. I agree with supercow on many points he presented. IMHO, PTE is a more difficult test than IELTS, but at the same time, probably more objective. Particularly, for similar candidates like me, who are gravitating around the 8-9 score, but are held back by the greedy IELTS business model. I bought the online PTE mock up tests and found them very useful. The price was Ok. About 60 bucks. But it gave me the opportunity to take 2 real computer based tests, and to practice the format and timing. My results for mock ups weren't exceptional. Partly because I didn't know the format of the questions: Mock up 1 – Overall 76. L75; R80; S68; W83 Mock up 2 – Overall 83. L79; R90; S84; W84 But the lower results motivated me to focus on areas I was weaker, and ultimately it paid off Bottom line - I took the test in Melbourne and scored 90/90/90/90. Got the results in less than 24 hours. My main takeaways from the test: 1) Buy the mock up tests. Both of them. Don’t be cheap. You will save money by preparing better and not re-taking tests. 2) Practice the areas where you feel weak. The mock up tests will normally show this. I personally found it difficult to explain the pictures and graphs in 40 sec. I have devoted extra time for this and it paid off. 3) Learn and practice the test format (question types, sequence, timing etc.). This is very important. Otherwise you will lose time during the exam and it will hurt your score. 4) Make sure you understand what is expected of you. Seriously. Invest some time and brain cells into this. You need to fully understand what is required to score well in PTE. Research and practice. There are some good youtube videos like this one: .5) During the test you will be for sure (99%) distracted by neighbours. Mine was screaming like crazy. I could not hear my own voice in my mind. Ask the supervisor to calm your neighbour(s). Regardless, be prepared to speak & listen in noisy conditions. 6) Be respectful yourself. Don’t scream like nuts. Consider your neighbours too. Test your microphone recording at the beginning of the test. It works just fine. Speak normally. It will help you with pronunciation and fluency as well. 7) Be careful with the listening section. Train in focusing your mind. Listen to audios and repeat what they say. Sentence by sentence. Good memory skills are needed. This can be tricky. 8) Practice your typing skills. I used this site: play.typeracer.com/TypeRacer. Very important for all questions where writing is required. Learn to type without looking at the keyboard. 9) The reading part can be very tough. Don’t overestimate yourself. I did. It almost hurt me. ALWAYS have an eye on the remaining time. Learn to read as quickly as possible. 10) Be confident and trust your guts. If you scored more or less OK in the mock ups, you should be fine. For god’s sake don’t panic. I think they give you an error margin and somehow in the end the scores are averaged. 11) Before the test find a way to motivate yourself. Listen to your favourite music, do some stretches, clear your mind of negative thoughts and get yourself in a peak performance state. Conclusions I'm happy with the PTE experience I had. Particularly after the frustration I had with IELTS. I know this might be a bit subjective, but I felt I have to spread the word. IELTS in my view is a compromised system. It behaves arrogantly with test takers and should be punished by us, customers. The monopoly they established should go down. IELTS thrives on failing students. PTE, on the contrary, gives you the chance to assess yourself before the test and prepare youself for the types of questions and format. PTE might not be perfect, but definitely more customer oriented and objective. And, of course, there are no shortcuts. To get good results in any test you need to practice, practice and practice. With hard work and passion you will make it. Good luck mates!!