<blockquote class="Quote" rel="liyah22">thanks @xiaolico , @IslanderndCity 🙂
I think from all the 4 components, Speaking is the most challenging one. My scores in this area went down from 73 to 21(which I think was a result of technical problem as my enabling scores for oral fluency and pronunciation were both 0, that couldn’t be true unless I didn’t talk at all during the test right?).
Anyways, allow me to share with you some tips. Kung ano binago ko during my last test.
SPEAKING
Mostly, I changed the overall tone of my delivery on READ ALOUD section. Nilagyan ko ng confidence yung tone and conviction, or TIKAS. This has improved my pronunciation a lot. In order to maintain this, my hands would move as if I’m banging something to emphasize every word. Hahaha. Parang medyo galit. From my previous exams, my tone was more of like pang customer-service, malumanay. Although most speech software would understand what I’m saying, I guess, iba ang algorithms ng PTE.
Also, I made sure na loud and clear ang voice ko during mic test. Pinapalitan ko pa headset ko kasi hindi ako happy sa background noise. The perfect position for me was putting the microphone above my nose, almost eye level. First time ko marinig yung difference ng clear voice dun, it’s like HD kunbaga.
A colleague of mine once said, <i class="Italic">short answer questions</i> don’t give points. Syempre hindi ako naniwala kasi PTE would not put it there for nothing. She claimed she skipped them altogether during her test and still got 90. But during my test, I encountered questions na hindi ko alam ang sagot. Out of 10, baka 4 lang nasagot ko. So what she stated must be true. Pero ginawa ko kahit hindi ko alam sagot, sumagot ako kahit ano, at pinaniwalan ko na tama yung sagot ko. I delivered it with confidence. Hindi patanong ang tono. Another person claimed, what PTE is looking for is kung tama yung word stress and pronunciation, which I think makes sense.
For <i class="Italic">describe image</i>, I memorized some templates, but during the exam, na mental block ako, nakalimutan ko lahat 😃, so what I did was read whatever’s on screen. Hindi ko din sinabi kung line graph or bar graph. Lagi lang, this graph shows…. this table shows… Inulit ko lang kung ano type of image ang nasa instruction. The images I got were difficult ones kaya I think dito ako namental block. Then again, it only proved that content doesn’t matter in PTE. My take on this is, PTE doesn’t know what is on your screen. Parang bulag lang, it can only hear. Narinig ko din dati na all recording goes through the same system. PTE is not designed to grade <b class="Bold">each and every</b> recording, it only checks for oral fluency and pronunciation. Again, makes sense considering how many test takers we have all over the world.
<i class="Italic">Retell lecture</i>, dito ako sobra nahihirapan, kahit gaano pa pag ‘take note’ gawin ko. Hindi ko rin kasi maintindihan sulat ko after. Hehe. So what I usually do, parang describe image na lang. Kung meron image, I talk about it. Kapag minalas at wala, I talk about the lecturer, yung tone ng voice, my belief on the topic.
Overall, if I were to rate my exam from 0-10, I would say 6/10. I had some pauses, false starts pati na stuttering. But I believed in the power of God, I relied on Him not only with my own strengths. So dasal dasal ng madami, trust your Faith and don’t be too hard on yourself. Goodluck!</blockquote>
Thanks for sharing.
Let's keep inspiring each other mate 😉