PTE Study Plan : How to prepare for PTE at home?
COVID has changed the way we used to think about life and its applications. We are spending more time at home than ever before in modern history. However, it also means we have now learned to do many things from home which we did not even think we could do from home. One example of that is preparing for PTE at home. In this article, I am going to discuss the important things you need to keep in mind when you are planning to prepare for your PTE academic exam at home. I will also provide you with some helpful resources and strategies that will help you prepare for the exam.
What do you need to prepare for PTE exam at home?
You can’t just show up on your first day of class without knowing anything about the course material or having any idea where you stand in terms of preparation. The same goes for taking the PTE Academic exam: You have to know something about the content before sitting down to take the test. Let’s look.
Know the test format
The way you approach and prepare for the test can have a huge impact on your test performance. Understanding the types of questions in the exam and how to answer them is crucial for obtaining a better result. Therefore, start by first making yourself with overall format of the test. You should know the order of the questions, the time you have for each question, the skills required to answer these questions and the importance of each question.
Know your desired score and understand how the test is scored
Deciding on your score requirements helps you prepare a plan that revolves around your target and can yield a better result. | The decision to set your score requirements is the first step in preparing for a test. Setting your score requirements helps you prepare to achieve the best possible result for your target by working on important skills required to get your desired score.
The next important thing is to know how the test is scored. PTE is an integrated test and the scoring is sometimes confusing to understand, However, you have to make sure that you know about the scoring of the test so that you can prioritise the questions which carry more points. Also, for integrated skills questions (that is, those assessing reading and speaking, listening and speaking, reading and writing, listening and writing, or listening and reading) the question score contributes to the score for the communicative skills that the question assesses.
Allocate adequate time for your preparation
You should make sure that you are spending enough time every day in your preparation. How much time you need depends on what score you are looking for, how much time you will spend on your study, what is your basic English level, and how quickly you grasp new information and concepts. In general, if you spend 3-4 hours every day for 4-5 days in a week for 4-6 weeks on the right preparation materials, you can increase your score by about 10 points.
Another important thing to remember is that you spend more time on highly rewarding question types and less time on less rewarding questions. Your decision to spend time on any questions should be based on the score they carry than on their difficulty level. In other words, if you a find a question type difficult, then first find out if this question is important or not before you start spending hours and hours on perfecting your skill for this question type.
Make a study plan and follow it consistently
It is important to be consistent with your preparation. It is always better to spend 2 hours each day than spending 10 hours on a single day. We should not waste our time on questions that are not useful for us. If we spend too much time on unimportant questions, then we will not be able to practice important questions adequately.
You can first make a high level plan before starting your preparation which means you first know what are the fundamental steps to prepare for the exam and get your required score. There are 3 important aspects of PTE preparation at home. You have to study the basic skills required to pass the exam, practice all the questions in the exam format and test yourself. You can do all of these things on our website. Our website contains all the essential features and facilities to excel in this test.
Spend time working on your English test skills
There are two important aspects of your exam preparation: building good English language skill and being able to use those skills to answer the questions asked in the exam. Learn different tips and tricks to enhance your efficiency but also work on your basic skills. Whenever you struggle in any question type, try to figure out why are you are not able to answer that question and which skill will help you to answer in better.
For example if you are struggling with fill in the blanks reading and writing question and you find out that you cannot understand most of the words given in the option, first you should be working on your vocabulary skill, and only after that if you learn some tips and tricks, they will help you. otherwise only focusing on tips and tricks only is not going to help you in increasing your score.
Learn Strategies to answer the questions quickly and correctly
PTE is a structured test. Therefore, you have to make sure that you know all the strategies to deal with all the question types. Remember even if your English skill is good if you do not know how to tackle different question types and do not know the tips and tricks to answer different kind of questions asked in your exam, you will struggle to get your desired score.
Our website contains the tutorial videos for all the 20 question types along with the solved examples. In these examples you’ll be able to see how we can use basic English skill to answer different types of questions and get the maximum possible score.
As a free user you’ll be able to watch some of these videos but if you want to watch all the videos, or also want to attend the Live classes, you can sign up for one of our paid plans. As a paid member not only you’ll be able to access all the materials, and practice them for as many times as you wish, you can also take part in the live classes and discuss your problems with the teachers.
Start your preparation from an appropriate section
Although you can start from any section and by practising any question, it is better to start from the speaking section. the first reason for this is that this is the only section which is not affected by any other sections in your test. The second reason is that you can use a lot of tips and tricks to increase your score in speaking. Also, by increasing your score in speaking, you can simultaneously increase your score in listening and reading as well.
However, if you are already good in speaking and you do not want to spend time on speaking you can also start your preparation from the reading section. this is especially helpful for those students whose basic English skill is not so good.
Practice as many questions as you can
You can Practice PTE questions on our website for completely free. All the questions are asked in the same format is that asking exam. Additionally there is a timer as well which will help you in getting idea about time management. You must go through all the question types asking your exam. However, make sure that you are spending more time indoors questions which carry more points.
While practising these questions also try to make sure that your listening skill, your writing skill, your reading skills as well as your speaking skills in general are improving. If you think your basic skills are not improving, you must find out why is it so. For this you can take help of a tutor who can actually listen to your answers or check your answers and help you in understanding your problems. This kind of coaching will reduce your preparation time and makes your preparation more efficient.
Do mock tests or mock mini tests
PTE online mock tests are similar to the PTE real Exam, but you can do them at home at your convenience. Doing PTE mock tests can help you get familiar with the exam, explore your issues, assess your level and enhance your time management skills.Therefore, you should do as many mock tests as possible and discuss your performance with your tutors. This way, you will never go out of track during your preparation and will also know about your weaknesses all the time.
We offer both full length mock tests as well as section based mock mini tests at ROMAN PTE. After completing these tests, not only you will get the scorecard as in the real exam but you will also be able to discuss your performance with the tutors.
Keep reenergising yourself
It is very easy to lose motivation while preparing for PTE because of its long duration and high stakes nature. But don’t worry, just like every other thing in life, practice makes perfect. So, whenever you feel low, remember how much effort you have put into studying and motivate yourself again. It may sound clichéd but it works wonders.
Also, when you feel exhausted, take some deep breaths and relax. Try to avoid stress and anxiety before taking the exam. Stress has been proven to decrease memory retention and cause poor focus. Relaxation techniques such as meditation, yoga etc., can improve your mental health and boost your confidence levels.
Finally, always stay positive and believe in yourself. Remember that even though you might fail once, you won’t ever fail twice.
Tips for Test Day
So, now that you know everything about PTE preparation, let us see how you can crack the test:
- Read the instructions carefully
- Don’t panic on the day of the test
- Be ready to speak in a noisy environment
- Try to write your templates for describe image and retell lecture during read aloud
- In writing section, first write your template and then start completing it afterwards
- Do not spend too much time on multiple choice questions in reading
- Take the optional break after the reading section
- Take notes while listening to the recoding in summarise spoken text
- Try to answer quickly in the listening section
- Make sure to leave enough time for write from dictation
Conclusion
It is possible to prepare for PTE using resources available at home. There are many websites offering free practice tests, and you can use them to prepare for your exam. However, you should make sure that you are preparing using authentic materials and getting feedback on your preparation. With guided practice and consistent effort, you will be able to get your desired score in PTE in your next test.
