10 PTE Myths which you should not believe
In this article, we are going to be debunking 5 PTE myths that you may have heard before but which are not actually true. Some myths about the PTE Academic test lead people to believe it is more difficult than it actually is, causing them stress as they prepare for it. We hope that after reading these points, you will feel a little less stressed out about taking the PTE!
What are the common misconceptions about PTE?
If you are planning to take the PTE Academic Exam, you have undoubtedly heard and read strange stuff about it. However, be careful not to get overwhelmed because the majority of them are technically incorrect. In reality, some of them are so perilous that you can lose points for pursuing them. Let’s look at some common myths and what we should do instead.
PTE Myth 1: Using the backspace button reduces your score
Many students have been misguided into believing that using backspace reduces their PTE score. But you should know that backspaces have no effect on your PTE Academic scores in any way. It is true that if you make any spelling errors, your score may decrease. If you take your time to avoid backspaces, you have the chance to reread your answer or correct your spelling, which in turn lowers your chances of the question being incorrect.
PTE Myth 2: Speaking faster increases your score
Speaking faster on PTE is often believed to boost your scores, but this is only true if you’re able to stay focused during the test and if it doesn’t cause any pauses in between sentences or words.
You should remember that your score in fluency depends on your ability to speak without unnatural gaps. If there are long gaps while answering questions, for instance, then your score in fluency will go down.
PTE Academic uses automated scoring. Therefore, unlike in the real world, when you pause for a little longer than usual, your fluency score dramatically goes down.
As a result, the most important thing to remember is to speak consistently. You can speak as fast or slow as you naturally do and still get the score you desire as long as you do it consistently.
PTE Myth 3: You need to speak LOUDER to get a higher score
You do not need to talk louder in the PTE exam to get good scores. It is not only futile but also utterly disrespectful to other candidates. If you are scared that the background noise may interfere with your recording, then be assured the noise cancellation headphones are really to good at isolating your voice from the recording. Not only that, but the PTE algorithm can also separate background noise from your answer before analyzing your recording. To do well on your PTE speaking test, you must talk at your natural volume or at a standard volume. If you are normally a soft-spoken person or have a soft voice, you will need to exert some effort to talk loudly.
PTE Myth 4: Accents help you score better
The PTE test is designed to assess the speaking ability of non-native speakers. The AI used to assess your speech is trained with the accents of people from all over the world who use English as a second language as well as the native speakers. Therefore, you do not need to worry about your accent.
However, you must make sure that you can pronounce words clearly and naturally. If you are feeling confused about the difference between accents and pronunciations, it will be a good idea to spend some time understanding this difference. This will help you to stay confident about your speaking ability even if you do not exactly sound like native speakers.
PTE Myth 5: You should choose all the options in Multiple Choice Questions
In Multiple choice questions multiple right answers, you get one point for each correct option you choose, but you lose one point for each incorrect option you choose. Also, the number of incorrect options will always be equal to or higher than the number of correct options. Therefore, if you select all of the options on “multiple choice, multiple answer” questions, you will receive zero points as the incorrect choices will cancel out the score you obtain from the correct choices.
Instead, I advise you to proceed with caution here. If you are confident in one answer but uncertain about the others, stick with the one you are confident in and leave the others blank. If you are not sure about any answers, then you can select at least select one option. If your guess is correct, you will receive one point; otherwise, you will receive zero, which you would have received anyway if you had skipped the question.
PTE Myth 6: Choosing the language you speak at home can affect your score
It is possible that this myth is the result of people believing that the language they speak at home has some effect on their PTE scores when it actually doesn’t.
There are two reasons for asking which language you speak at home: to collect information about the test takers and to train AI to understand the accents of people of all languages taking this test.
Pearson says that its algorithm can understand all types of voices and accents including the accent of native speakers as well as non-native speakers. Based on what we have seen so far, it seems to be true as well.
PTE Myth 7: Memorising the answers of past questions is enough to get a high score
Some people think they are able to pass the test only by memorizing old PTE questions. This is simply not true.
This is because while memorizing past PTE questions may help you find some of the correct answer choices for future tests, it will not teach you how to approach different types of questions in this format. It will not help you develop the English language ability required to excel in the test. It’s like learning math by memorizing formulas, but never learning how to apply the formulas to real-world problems.
If your plan is to use past questions for your practice, try to learn the following things whenever you practice using past questions:
- Vocabularies used in the PTE questions
PTE Myth 8: You can say anything in describe the image and still get your score
There was a time when people were saying anything they wanted and still getting scores in speaking. Sadly, this is not the case anymore. You can still use a template and just describe what you see on the image to get a high score but now talking blindly about the colour of the image, your favourite colour or random information may reduce your score dramatically.
PTE Myth 9: You should be careful while choosing the test centre
No. No matter where you go for the test, your answers are evaluated by the same algorithm. All test centres are tested many times before they are allowed to operate as a test centre. But yes, since there are many aspects in a test, which include a headset, computer software, computer hardware, internet, and electrical issues, it is the duty of the test-taker to report any incident which happens in the test immediately by raising their hand at the time of the issue. Tell the supervisor about the issue which happened so that they can guide you accordingly.
PTE Myth 10: You should skip the questions you cannot answer
There is no reason for you to do this. Some students say that since PTE has negative scoring in some questions, it is better to skip them. What you should remember is even in these questions, your total score cannot be less than zero. This means even if all your guesses are wrong, it is not going to affect any other question. So, it is better to take a chance and make an educated guess in questions that do not have negative markings. In questions with negative scoring, you can make one guess but for more than that, you have to be really cautious as otherwise, it may cancel out the score you got by correctly answering the questions.
Conclusion
If you want to achieve the best possible score, do not trust any of these common misconceptions. Using backspace your speed of speaking or the information you use while booking the test do not affect your score. Also, simply memorizing the answers to past questions is not enough and you should not say random things while describing an image.
You should also know that we have a free class available for those who want to prepare PTE examination. We can help you find out which areas are your weakest and offer tips on how to study them most effectively so that all your time is spent going over what matters most.
Get in touch with us today if you’re interested!
