Hi All,

Got a good score in first attempt (score card on last page) hence thought to share about the
sources/strategies I used so that it might be helpful to someone.

Background: I’m a full time working Software engineer

Before starting to practice understand the scoring criteria and which sub-section contributes where.

I just practiced few of the first tasks and ignored the least scored ones but sometimes even a single
point matters. Time management is important in exams and Speaking and writing section is fine but
managing for reading and listening gets tough. In that case, spare 2 mins for the least scored ones
not more than that and ignore and move on so that you don’t miss the important ones.

I got 15 questions in Reading Section and 32 mins in main exam but in mock tests time was 41 mins
for the same number of questions so prepare well.

5 - RW:FIBs

2 - MC:CMA

2 – RO

4 – R:FIBs

2 – MC:CSA

Listening section had 18 questions excluding two SSTs and just had 25 mins for 18 questions.

If you don’t understand just select something in single ans multiple ans but make sure you don’t
miss WFD because 25 mins are too less for 18 questions.
Speaking:

This section is of utmost importance as if you manage to score 90 in this section, it’ll contribute
more than 50% to listening and 30% to reading section. As this image is not clear, i’ll write the
scores. Navjyot Brar youtube videos are quite good for boosting the confidence in speaking.

90 in speaking(with proper fluency and pronunciation)will fetch 46 in listening and 30 in reading

RA, DI and RL

Used realpte.com for practicing Read Aloud, Describe Images (around 100) and a few Retell Lectures.

For fluency I scored 5 at times but pronunciation never went beyond 4(which is fine I guess). This
was in April and maybe they’ve changed something now so you might get it.

RA:

Just maintain you normal tone, intonations are fine. Very small pauses at commas and periods.

Not sure if pitch of the voice impacts the scores. Out of curiosity I just downloaded Voice Pitch
Analyzer application from play store and tried to record my range. It went beyond 270 but in my
opinion it doesn’t matter. Even someone tried to tell me that my read aloud wasn’t fine after I
scored low in reading in my second mock test but I didn’t change anything neither did I try to be
monotonous. Just went with my normal flow 

Being monotonous works for some people I guess but I can’t comment as I didn’t follow it.

Used Jay’s strategies for DI and RL

DI:

This bar/pie/line chart/ image represents...

2-3 sentences with maybe highest/lowest numbers or some comparison

Overall, ....

RL:

The speaker was discussing

Firstly, he mentioned that

He highlighted

He discussed the way in which

He talked about

Finally, he suggested that

You might not be able to speak so many sentences so keep it simple. I spoke 4 sentences and
sometimes 5 but made sure about the opening and closing sentence(first and last).

RS:

Careercoves(3-4 videos after December 2018) and moni pte magic YouTube Channel.

Don’t worry about the content just be fluent. Even if it’s 50% correct you’d score 2 out of 3 marks for
content.

Also remember RS is very important as it contributes to listening section.

ASQ

Various sources but still had 2-3 new in the exam so wasn’t sure but speak something as maybe it’ll
not score you for content but will score for fluency. Don’t keep mum. Even if you speak the word
“something” is fine but speak something 

Writing:

Didn’t practice it though at first I felt it’d be the toughest section but after writing Pearson’s scored
official mock test, I gained the confidence that we just have to follow some rules.

Also, make sure to double check the spellings and full stops.

SWT:

Initially I followed Jay and wrote less than 35 words, practiced around 15 SWTs and it fetched good
scores in writing but after my second mock test my reading scores will still low. I’m not sure if other
factors contributed to low scores but in the main exam I got 3 SWTs and wrote around 60 words as
someone told me it should have more keywords. Jay’s method should work but I felt I should
change.
Essays:

Practiced writing 3-4 essays in simple English but followed Jay’s structure

Para 1:

Generic sentence

The two sides

This essay will discuss

Para 2 and 3:

Opening sentence for the side I chose

Supporting sentence

Example

Closing sentence

Para 4:

This essay discussed

In my conclusion,...

Some Tips:

Write 250 – 290 words 

Don’t stress yourself with finding the template for essays. It’s okay to write simple vocab but just
understand how a paragraph is formed. This would fetch high written discourse marks.

You can also an empty line in between 2 paragraphs.

Myth:

Using backspace key too often will lower the scores – No it doesn’t impact

Reading:

I found it to be the most difficult section  but worked hard on it during the last week before my
exam.

I just focused on 3 sections. APE UNI prediction file was good as I got one FIB in the exam from it.
Almost 7 from emdad and 1 new. There are a total of 9 FIBs (both R and RW)

FIBs
Did as much as I can from realpte.com initially to see how I’m able to manage. It’s good for practice
however if you don’t have time read all the blanks from the attached emdad file.

FIB.pdf

RO

Most confusing for me. Did both wrong in exam 

One was new and the other repeated. I did 106 ROs from Firefly 5.1 (1150 pages main file) but still
got confused in the exam as time is less. Sonny pte on youtube has some good strategies for RO. I
watched the video on my way to exam centre and felt should have watch it during practice.

Work hard on this section. Cram if you want to..do whatever it takes as if luckily you get some
repeated questions in reading section, you’ll save sometime as time management is quite difficult. I
didn’t cram it but went through those 399 blanks twice and had practiced once before on
realpte.com as well.

Listening

Least practiced section by me 

SST

Used Jay’s strategy

The speaker was discussing

He highlighted

He mentioned

Finally, he suggested

Just practiced few FIBs from PTE tutorials

HIW from realpte.com

WFD – moni pte magic and careercoves

I never directly typed anything WFDs and FIBs but wrote on notepad first
My exam memories

My Exam
Memories.docx

First Mock test

Messed it as I used inbuilt laptop mic (85 59 64 84)

Second Mock test

Used over the ear headphones but lacked in reading. Practiced FIBs and RO (90 71 90 89)
Finally, my score card (90 88 90 90)
And my PTE journey ended after this first attempt 

Feel free to contact me for any queries that you have. I’ll try to answer as I believe in being kind and
extending a helping hand

Believe in yourself and be confident.

Good luck!! 