How many goes did it take you to pass PTE Academic Superior? Time is not on our side :(

[Beachcomber4]

Hi Everyone

 

I am new here. We are currently applying for a 189 visa with my partner being the main applicant as a Civil Engineer. We have had his positive skills assessment back from Vetasses and even though he has 22 years experience as a Civil Engineer, as he left it a long time to do his degree, Vetasses only deems the last 1.8 years since doing the degree as skilled employment. This has messed us up a bit for points. The other worrying factor is he is 39 so time is not on his side as we need to lodge and hopefully get an invite before his birthday in the beginning of Jan 17 or he will loose points and our dream will be over. He currently has 40 points and needs to get superior in his English test to hit the required 60. He sat his PTE test in Wimbledon (London UK) last week and didn't do overly well. The speaking part really let him down as he only got 56 in speaking. This was surprising as he has a very clear native (london) accent and he thought he had done well in that element so not sure what went wrong? He has said the test center was less than ideal as you has partitions on the desks but nothing between you and the person next to you and you could hear everything everyone else was saying. He has now booked up to re-sit the test next week. I have checked out the Pearson V's IELTS thread on here, and just wondered how many times it has taken you to pass the superior test, and what test centers in the UK did you use? Are there any test centers that have proper individual cubicles?

 

Fingers crossed he passes it next time, though I have heard sometimes its third time lucky!:skeptical:

[bell123321]

Sorry I can't help, my OH is taking it in Holborn in September. We have just brought the PTE Academic testbuilder book from WHSmith (Also available on amazon and waterstones) which seems to be super useful it comes with 3 CD's too to help. My OH is going to use that to practice, may be worth looking into as husband says its a good book so far and has opened up his eyes to the test format etc.

[Penny88]

Hiya,

 

I took my PTE in the Wimbledon centre too, back in March. I found the lack of separate cubicles disconcerting too, it was very distracting hearing everyone else completing their speaking at the same time. However, I somehow managed to get superior on my first go.

 

I'm a native speaker too, which obviously helps, but the speaking section was by far the trickiest bit for me. The first time I did a mock my speaking score was really low, but I watched some of the videos on youtube which had some good tips and also invested in Pearson's online materials (I think it was silver level) which were reasonably cheap and very helpful as well. I think part of the problem can sometimes be that you aren't hitting the phrases or key points that they want, particularly for the questions where you have to describe a graph or summarise a lecture etc. It isn't just about how fluent your speaking is but also what you are speaking about.

 

If it was just the speaking section that your OH struggled with, I reckon a little bit of practise and they should be able to nail it next time around

[JetBlast]

I have taken it twice, I got the required scores in Listening, Reading and Speaking both times. The writing is proving the be more difficult for me, I got the same score on both first and second attempt. I got 75.

 

There are some resources here you might find useful - https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BxSAhiEs5XzvX3lNSnRxc3NWcU0&usp=sharing

In there you will find some software you can run on your PC.

 

This score guide is helpful - http://pearsonpte.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/PTEA_Score_Guide.pdf

Edited July 18, 2016 by JetBlast

[Beachcomber4]

Thank you for all your replies

 

My OH already has the Pearson PTE book that comes with a CD. He did find the graphs quite tricky and said the ones he got in the test were a lot more complicated than the ones shown in the book.

 

He has just purchased the gold level mock tests on the Pearson website to try and help him further. Hopefully he will get there eventually!

[JetBlast]

Thank you for all your replies

 

My OH already has the Pearson PTE book that comes with a CD. He did find the graphs quite tricky and said the ones he got in the test were a lot more complicated than the ones shown in the book.

 

He has just purchased the gold level mock tests on the Pearson website to try and help him further. Hopefully he will get there eventually!

 

When he takes them, I would be grateful if you could please provide feedback on this tread. I am looking at purchasing those mocks. Thanks

 

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/249891-how-many-goes-did-take-you-pass-pte-academic-superior-time-not-our-side.html

[Beachcomber4]

Will do JetBlast. He won't be doing them till the weekend though. Have you booked another test to do? What test centre did you use?

[JetBlast]

Thanks very much, it would be appreciated.

 

I used Manchester.

 

I haven't booked another test. I have a friend who is an A-Level & GCSE English teacher who can tutor me. However she is in Spain for the summer so might wait until she is back.

 

Thanks again.

[Beachcomber4]

 

@JetBlast my OH did the mock tests from the gold level PTE practice. He thinks they have been good as extra practice. Both times his speaking was 90 so that's odd seen as he got such a low score on the actual test in Wimbledon. His other scores have improved too, just have everything crossed that he passes it this time round.

[amyt]

This aspect is really troubling us. To get the required 60 points he needs 20 for English so superior. We were advised to sit to PTE Academic test. My husband would be main applicant so it would be him who sits test. He is a carpenter and has no experience of sitting exams as such. He will struggle to pass this I think. Any tips/advice greatly appreciated

[JetBlast]

This aspect is really troubling us. To get the required 60 points he needs 20 for English so superior. We were advised to sit to PTE Academic test. My husband would be main applicant so it would be him who sits test. He is a carpenter and has no experience of sitting exams as such. He will struggle to pass this I think. Any tips/advice greatly appreciated

 

Have you looked at the resources in post 4?

 

Thanks

[James H]

I am on the 3rd attempt now. Any native English speaker should not struggle with the speaking part of the test. I really messed up a couple of describe images. However, I still got 90's in my speaking.

My last attempt I was 2 marks of reading and 3 marks of writing to get the 20 points ! 

[Ausvisitor]

43 minutes ago, James H said:

I am on the 3rd attempt now. Any native English speaker should not struggle with the speaking part of the test. I really messed up a couple of describe images. However, I still got 90's in my speaking.

My last attempt I was 2 marks of reading and 3 marks of writing to get the 20 points ! 

Just to help you in the next attempt, in the sentence you used above it is "off" not "of" - maybe good for a mark

[James H]

3 minutes ago, Ausvisitor said:

Just to help you in the next attempt, in the sentence you used above it is "off" not "of" - maybe good for a mark

Haha, what can I say I am Yorkshire! God knows how I even passed the speaking ! To be fair that was a genuine mistake. 

Edited June 25, 2019 by James H

[Ausvisitor]

2 hours ago, James H said:

Haha, what can I say I am Yorkshire! God knows how I even passed the speaking ! To be fair that was a genuine mistake. 

If you aren't getting the marks in the PTE reading test it is probably because you are rushing the answer, a lot of them require multiple answers to the multiple choice, so say there are five options maybe 3 are correct. If you choose two correct ones and then miss the third answer you only get 1 pt for the 3 pts (because it is negatively marked). Similarly if it wants you to select two answers and you only choose one you get zero (1 point for the correct answer and 1 pt off for not choosing the second one).

Take your time with the multiple choice (that relate to paragraphs of text comprehension) and be sure you have exhausted all potential correct answers.

With the writing it is generally that you are writing too much and so give yourself more options to be marked down for suspect grammar, spelling or word usage. Generally most people lose marks here because it doesn't have a spell check (and who types without a spellchecker nowadays) so they don't re-read and so don't spot the easy spelling mistake; even if you really stuff up the answer (like it asks for a discussion and you just give a one-sided view) you can pass because the negative marks for not answering in the correct style come off the supporting skills (that Oz migration doesn't care about - but a university might)

I found the online sample tests very helpful - but ultimately it was taking my time that I think was the most important bit (and double checking everything)

Good Luck - you are nearly there on those marks

[JRC]

7 hours ago, James H said:

I am on the 3rd attempt now. Any native English speaker should not struggle with the speaking part of the test. I really messed up a couple of describe images. However, I still got 90's in my speaking.

My last attempt I was 2 marks of reading and 3 marks of writing to get the 20 points ! 

E2 Language on YouTube are free and give really helpful advice. I paid for the E2 language basic membership before doing the PTE test too - mainly because I was determined not to have to pay to resit it after attempting the IELTS one numerous times. I managed to pass the PTE one no problem but definitely think it was down to the revision beforehand.