@Julian dito sa ako sa Belgium nag take ng exam.
anyway, a little bit of history.
I took the IELTS twice before taking PTE. First time that I took IELTS (Jan 2014, Philippines), my aim was not really to get a score of 7.0, I only need at that time an average score of 6.5 since that is the requirement for my master's program here in Belgium. But I still wanted to get an average of 7.0 since I know that I will be using it eventually for migration purposes. For my first take, i got L/R/W/S 7.5/9/6.5/7.5 , as expected I only got 6.5 for writing. I blamed it on my handwriting haha! I have the worst handwriting in the world, pang doktor! After year, I decided to take again IELTS to finally start my migration process. Took my second IELTS exam here in Belgium already (May 2015) but as usual, still got 6.5 for writing.
I got depressed and thought that all my Australia dreams are gone, but then I stumbled upon this page and saw how people are recommending PTE instead of IELTS. I took the time to read the experiences of people and got really motivated to try again.
To start, I downloaded the McMillan reviewer posted here in the forum and read through all the pages here in the forum for tips and tricks. I also bought the gold pack for the sample scored test. It took me around 5 weeks to review for the actual exam.
I did my first mock exam after 1 week of review. Results are:
Listening: 69
Reading: 77
Speaking: 68
Writing: 80
Enabling skills:
Grammar: 83
Oral Fluency: 81
Pronunciation: 50
Spelling: 69
Vocabulary: 79
Written Discourse: 90
Satisfied with my scores since I only need 65 for all skills. I was shocked however to get the highest mark for writing since I believe this is my weakness. I was also shocked that my lowest score is for speaking. I am pretty much confident when it comes to speaking. Initially, I thought that it might be due to the fact that I am only using iphone earphones as my headset and mic, but looking closely at the enabling skills, I only got 50 for pronunciation. I had to be objective and reconsider the way I speak. I recorded my speaking voice to see if there is anything wrong with how I speak. I asked my GF also for opinion on how I speak and also compared it with the sample responses from PTE offline and McMillan. In the end, I concluded that my manner of speaking was too soft. I tend to eat up my words when I speak (isipin nyo parang pabebe ako magsalita hahaha!) So I had to focus with my speaking skill instead. Initially, my review plan is to focus on one skill per day, but after getting the results of the first mock test, I focused more on speaking. Everyday, I practiced the read aloud section of McMillan. Kahit paulit ulit, basa lang ako ng basa. I read aloud the text and pronounced each word clearly. I speaked slowly and emphasized important words and punctuation. I needed to get use to the proper pace of speaking. Dun ko narealize na medyo barok pala ako. I noticed na i mispronounce some words, may mga letters na di ako naproronounce ng maayos and to think all the while akala ko ang galing galing ko magsalita ng english haha.
Anyway, 1 week before the exam, I took the mock test again. This time i got better results.
Listening: 90
Reading: 79
Speaking: 84
Writing: 90
Enabling skills:
Grammar: 82
Oral Fluency: 87
Pronunciation: 68
Spelling: 90
Vocabulary: 90
Written Discourse: 75
Very much happy with the results since I am now more confident that I can get above 79 for all sections. Analyzed the result again and this time pronunciation is now better from 50 to 68. Oral fluency scores were also higher, from 82 to 87. I agree with the others here that continuous flow of words is more important than content. and of course, I spoke more clearly. Written discourse was lower from 90 to 75 however. I think this is a result of using short basic sentences in the essay part. For listening, first mock test was only 69 which I think was because I did poorly in the summarize spoken text. I did not follow the instructions to use 50-70 words. Fixed this up and got 90 in the second mock test.
After the second mock test, shifted my focus to reading. I really want to get 79 for all sections now. I noticed that for both mock tests, I was able to finish the reading section in almost half the time required. I changed my reading habits and reviewed each of my answers carefully. Unlike IELTS, you can review your answers for all questions during the exam, for PTE, once you press next, you will not be able to go back and change your answers. So you really have to be sure with your answers when you press next. I found the -re-order paragraphs to be really hard. Even if paulit ulit ko sinasagutan yung McMillan, namamali pa rin ako sa re-order paragraphs pero practice lang ng practice. Basahin yung rin yung tips sa McMillan.
Day before the exam, i used the PTE offline tests lang and familiarized myself with the exam sequence.
actual tips next post. super haba na pala. may word limit pala dito haha