The score for some obviously linked sections and questions can be confusing if they don’t tally. Sometimes after getting your scorecard whether it is after expert evaluation or after taking real PTE Academics you realize that you have scored really high in the reading section but failed to score more than 40 in pronunciation and oral fluency enabling skills. If they both assess reading the score should be similar or on the same level right? WRONG!

The scoring criteria for the communicative skills and the enabling skills are vastly different. All the question under the speaking sections except for summarize written text contribute marks towards speaking, pronunciation and oral fluency. The questions include read aloud, repeat a sentence, describe an image, re-tell lecture, and answer short questions

Why are the scores different?

Communicative skills

Read aloud – the question requires a test taker to read a 60 words long sentence displayed on the screen as fluently as possible. Errors that includes omitting or repeating words, lead to loss of marks. The highest marks depend on the number of words of the sentence.

Repeat sentence – requires the test taker to repeat the exact content of the audio word for word. Loss of marks depends on omitting or replacing words with new ones, stammering, starting a new sentence before completing the previous one and similar aspects. The marks range from 0 -3 with zero meaning no words from the audio content were repeated while 3 marks mean the repeated sentence has similar content and delivered in a similar logic.

Describe the image

The scoring scrutinizes the test taker’s ability to explicitly describe the image including the meaning and representation of the feature. The features may include data and the way it correlates with other features. Simply put can another person use your description to replicate the image as precisely as possible? The highest mark which is 5 is awarded based on the complete description with no ambiguity but portrays how the elements relate, what they imply, etc. Zero marks, however, is awarded if the description was ambiguous.

Re-tell lecture – requires a paraphrased version of the spoken text. The test taker is tasked with retelling the lecture in his/her own words. To better understand the score please refer to the describe image section since the scoring criteria are similar.

Enabling Skills

Pronunciation and Oral fluency
Read aloud, repeat words, describe the image, Re-tell lecture

The enabling skills for this question assess the test taker’s ability to deliver a speech that can easily be understood by an English native speaker. The scoring scrutinizes the basic rules that apply to the proper use of the English language such as the correct pronunciation of consonant and vowels, and similar aspects. The score ranges from 0-5 with zero meaning the test taker’s speech doesn’t sound English like while 5 means native language deliverance.

From the above description, it is clear to understand how the enabling skills and the communicative skills whose marks are generated by a similar section don’t always have to be similar. The best way to understand the score, to be able to analyse the scorecard and finally to provide answers that will get you more marks is to read the scoring guide before taking the examination.

This may sound like a cliché but how do you expect to obtain high marks when you don’t know the scoring criteria or what constitutes to a certain score? Failing to follow the scoring guide will result in providing incomplete answers which leads to scoring below-average marks or no marks at all, therefore, it is very important to know the ins and outs of the scoring criteria.

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