Sometimes time is not enough to dedicate the whole year or few months preparing for PTE Academics. Question is whether you can prepare in one month and score high right? Well with the right strategy, dedication and hard work anything is possible. However, before deciding to prepare for your examination in one month, you must know your English knowledge and proficiency. If your knowledge and utilization of the language are not good it will be best to take a longer than a month practicing than writing the test and performing badly. This is a waste of time and money so it is best to be honest with yourself about your capabilities.

Knowing your strength and weakness is highly beneficial if one decides to prepare for PTE Academics in a month before the test date. Below are a few tips that will help you with your preparation so you can succeed in the examination.

1. The listening section

The one section that a lot of people haven’t come across in their English studies before is learning through the audio. If you have been taught the English language before, chances are you have learned reading and writing, therefore, those are the skills you are good at.  With the listening skill, practising daily is vital to get accustomed to the listening section. Listen to podcasts, audios, videos and whatever spoken communication media you can get your hand on.

2. Understand the listening skill test format

The PTE score guide and websites outline the test format for each section, therefore, it is important to understand how the questions are asked and how to respond appropriately. While listening to podcasts it may benefit the test taker to learn to summarize spoken content, repeat the lecture and retell the lecture. This will help with listening skills and other skills tested in this section.

3. Practice speaking

This means practice speaking by recording yourself since it is a requirement for PTE Academics. To take this up a notch, the test taker may even take his practice mock tests in a busy coffee shop or internet café to get accustomed to the buzz in the examination hall. Remember there are hundreds of student divided by just a desk cubicle meaning if you lose concentration you can still hear them. Simulate the test condition by practising in a busy, noisy or slightly silent place.

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4. Learn keyword and key phrases

This is important for all the sections of the PTE Academics. Keywords are the important words that give the story or content its meaning. Also, you can use the synonyms of these words easily when paraphrasing. It will help you with summarizing i.e. all the summaries required in the examination. Moreover, keywords will help you in retell the lecture and repeat the lecture. So it is important to learn how to identify these words.

5. Spelling mistakes

While your English knowledge foundation may be good, technology and social media have somehow ruined spelling and grammar. When typing reports or anything that requires typing there is spelling checker and other online tools to correct grammatical mistakes and spelling errors. Sometimes we don’t even try to correct ourselves because of the correction tools. It may be best to stop using any tool to correct your grammar and spelling. Disable spelling checker and stick to the basics. Practice your summaries and essay writing without any correcting tool assistance. Only use the tools to correct yourself at the end.

6. Practice your mock tests

I believe that no matter how much time one has for preparation mock tests still need to be practised. Mock test is an introduction to the real PTE Academics. It will help you understand the test format and different ways to respond to the questions. Just like the real test which is timed, the mock tests are the same. Therefore, practising your mock tests as much as possible can give you the confidence to succeed in PTE academics.

7. Go back to the basics

If you are a fresh college graduate who had to write a thesis and proposals, then you have this under control. However, for people who do not write as much, it might be beneficial to learn the basics of sentence structure. It is important in all the writing sections to learn the use of complex sentences and complex compound sentences. For college student who had to submit a thesis in academic tone, it may be important to remember while PTE Academics supports academic communication this is not synonymous to the language used in science paper only to be understood by the science community.  Keep it academic but simple.

8. SMS and Social media “Lingo”

The goal is to score high in enabling skills so everything you do that requires the use of the English language must be professional. Avoid the use of SMS language whether you are sending a message to friends, family and colleagues or when sending a tweet.  Be professional at all times because this will go a long way when it comes to grammar punctuation and spelling.

9. Remember the enabling skills

The enabling skills test all the aspects of English language proficiency. The skills tested are vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, spelling, written discourse and punctuation. During your preparation always try to use study material that will help you practice all the skills that are tested in the PTE academics

10. Practice, Practice and more practice

This will depend on your English language knowledge. You can only get better at something if you are dedicated so practice as much as you can.