Scoring of PTE Academics depends on various factors and marks attainable per section and question depends on the test taker’s ability to cover all the basics of the scoring criteria. The more the test taker answer questions according to the guidelines set in the score guide the better the chance of scoring high and succeeding in PTE Academics.

For all the section that assesses the enabling skills, it is very important and highly recommended for the test taker to read the PTE Academics score guide. The scoring guide provides all the information needed to obtain the highest mark in each section. During the exam preparation, it is advisable for the test taker to incorporate scoring guide to better give the required responses and to check the progress.

Speaking and writing

All the question in speaking and writing except for answer short question contributes marks towards the enabling skills. This means the scoring for this section is a bit compressive and complicated.

Answer short questions

The test taker is expected to answer a question in a single word or a few words based on the content of a 3-9 seconds long audio. The time allocated to answer is 10 seconds.

Tip: Follow the instruction and only answer in a single word answer or a few words. Explaining your answer doesn’t get you more marks so don’t do it.

Reading

The reading section doesn’t contribute any marks towards the enabling skills, therefore, the scoring is straightforward and not as comprehensive as the other sections. In this section, the scoring criteria in the communicative skills are 1 mark for each correct answer and 0 for the wrong answer. The negative marking only applies in multiple choice: choose multiple answers.

 Multiple choice: choose multiple answers
Guessing in this instance is risky but just how many answers apply to the question? For this question just know that there is more than 1 correct answer therefore select answers with that in mind.

Failing to attempt other questions is one method to easily lose marks. For every correct answer selected, 1 mark is awarded therefore it is best to attempt all the question.

Tip – answer all the questions and if you are not sure, guess answers.

Listening skills

The only question in the listening skill section that contributes marks towards the enabling skills is summarizing the spoken text. In this section, each correct answer gets 1 mark while a wrong answer is awarded 0 marks. However in multiple choice: choose multiple answers each wrong answer gets a -1 mark.

Ø Summarize spoken text
The easy way to lose marks is not adhering to the word count. The instruction requires the spoken text to be summarized in a 50-70 words long sentence. There is a loss of 1 mark if the number of words is between 40-49 or 71-100. A test taker gets zero for writing less than 40 words or more than 100 words.

Tip – stick to the required word count.

Test taker fails to attempt other questions

In all the other questions except in summarizing spoken text and multiple choice: choose multiple answers, the test taker gets 1 mark for each correct answer, therefore, there is no reason not to attempt all the question.

Tip – attempt all the questions even if you don’t know the correct answer

Losing marks unnecessarily can have a bad impact on the test taker’s overall score, therefore, it is beneficial to be highly alert both during preparation and examination. Using the appropriate study resources such as mock tests that provide the real PTE Academic experiences beforehand can lead to obtaining a desirable score. For more information visit us here.