PTE TIP!
Many students find the reading section the hardest section of the test because it relies on your fast high level reading skills, wide vocabulary, and strong familiarity with written expressions and collocations. So from now until you pass your test read for at least one hour everyday, in quiet, without stopping to use a dictionary. Choose a book with a good story so you want to read, and use your finger or a pen as a guide to force you to read at a good speed. If you’re not used to reading then this takes practice, but it won’t take long to get your reading speed and comprehension up to 300+ words per minute. We don’t need luck 😉
INTER-RELATED PARTS IN PTE
Different from IELTS, PTE is structured with some parts assessing more than one skill. For example, Read Aloud is not only used to test your Speaking but also Reading skills.
- PTE PARTS THAT AFFECT MORE THAN ONE SKILL ARE:
1.Speaking: Read Aloud; Repeat Sentence; Retell Lecture
2.Writing: summarize Written Text
3.Reading: Fill in Blanks (Drop-down box)
4.Listening: summarize Spoken Text; Write from Dictation; Fill in Blanks
- BELOW IS FURTHER EXPLANATION FOR SOME OF THE “MORE THAN ONE SKILL ASSESSMENT ” PARTS IN PTE:
1.Read Aloud (RA): The RA section affects speaking and reading test scores. It is a simple task but contributes a lot of points to your results. To do this part well, you need to pay attention to 3 elements Fluency, Pronunciation and Content. If Fluency and Pronunciations are used to assess your speaking ability, Content is a factor for scoring reading skills.
2. Repeat Sentence (RS): The RS scores will be distributed to Speaking and Reading. This part requires the candidates to listen to the sentence repeat within 3 seconds after the “beep” sound. It would be essential to sharpen your listening skill by practicing from PTE question banks or listening to news on BBC, 9News… Moreover, you need to enhance your memory by trying to memorizing and repeating sentences in a short time.
3. Fill in the Blanks (FIB): There are three FIB parts the PTE test: FIB Listening, FIB Reading and FIB Reading and Writing. These parts are important because they affect more than one skill and contains numerous points. Each section usually has 4-5 sentences and each sentence has 4-5 points. To do these parts well, you need to pay attention to grammar and practice vocabulary.
4. Write From Dictation (WFD): Like the RS section, you will be assessed for listening but instead of checking the speaking part, you also must show the ability to write properly. You will be evaluated the Content (each correct word in both order and spelling will get 1 point).
By knowing this, you can optimize your time in practicing key parts for the best results. Surely with companions of SLS, you will gain more confidence to win PTE.
Tips on How to Achieve a High PTE Mark
TIPS ON HOW TO ACHIEVE A HIGH PTE MARK:
- Fluency is your main priority in speaking module. Avoid taking long pauses while responding to the question. Mistakes in pronunciations here and there are acceptable, the exam just wants to make sure you can communicate your ideas clearly.
- Work on your spelling: It is really important that you know how to spell your words correctly. Go through past exam questions and make sure you know how to spell all the words right from dictation and fill in the blanks questions.
- Have a good understanding of English grammar: the PTE exam aims to test your understanding of basic grammar. The main areas to focus on would be using appropriate tenses, understanding passive voice and active voice, understanding subject and verb agreement.
- Practice for your speaking test in a noisy environment: this will help you to gain knowledge of how many of your words the machine can pickup even in a noisy environment and will help you speak more clearly and confidently.
- Time management in the writing section: don’t spend all your time writing your article/essay. It is essential to manage your time in such a way that you have time to review and proof-read your work before submitting.
Things You Must Know Before Taking Your OET Exam
Things that you should know before taking OET test
1. No matter what your English level is, the sooner you prepare, the better. OET is a high-stakes English test in which organisation will use it to evaluate its future employees. Such employees are responsible for the safety of patients.
2. You must be aware of OET test structure and how it will be marked. The OET comprises four sub tests, which are graded from A to E (where A is the highest and E is the lowest). Test structure:
- Listening (approximately 50 minutes)
- Reading (60 minutes)
- Writing (45 minutes)
- Speaking (approximately 20 minutes)
3. Check out the minimum marks for the acceptance of your school or your visa, then set the goals that you need and want to achieve. Although the goals are motivation for your study, you need also be realistic about your ability and the goals.
4.OET tests both your English and knowledge of healthcare terms, especially your occupation-related topics. Understanding the most commonly used and more complex terms is the key for your achievement in OET.
5.Practice tests help you familiar with test format, understand your weaknesses and strengths and get yourself ready for the real exam. You can check your Reading and Listening with answer keys but If you have friends whose English is proficient, ask for feedback on your Writing and Speaking.
6.You might feel alone and struggle with OET preparation time, let SLS stand by you. Our experienced trainers with updated materials will give you a higher chance of success on test day.
More Tips on How to Achieve a High OET Mark
- Learn about the test overview and structure: this involves fully understanding each section of the exam and what it is assessing. If you know what to expect on the test, you can go into test day able to focus on the questions and task themselves.
- Create a study plan: Look at how many days you have until you take OET, what your goals are and how much time you will realistically be able to dedicate to revising every day and then create a study plan.
- Sharpen your skills: If you like working in a group, enroll in a preparation course from a certified preparation provider. If you prefer to prepare on your own, find an online course or preparation book that will provide you with exercises and key strategies for correctly answering each part of OET.
- Take practice tests: take multiple sample tests throughout your preparation. Not only will it familiarize yourself with the OET, but it will also give you ideas of your strong areas and where you need to improve.
- Review everything: Go over the test overview again to review the key strategies. It’s also a good time to practice those sections of the test where your performance is weakest. Recheck your OET application to make sure everything is in order and contact the OET help desk if there are any problems.
- Let our experienced OET trainers help you! Sydney Language Solutions offers ONLINE CLASSES!
Tips on How to Achieve a High OET Mark
- Active listening skills during the speaking test: this involves carefully listening to the interlocutor and fully understanding the scenario presented to you.
- Empathy and reassurance during the speaking test: instead of just focusing on what to say next, it is important to first listen to the interlocutor and reassure them in order to avoid skipping directly to another topic.
- Stay within the word limit in the writing section: many students either write too much or too little information related to the case. Your writing can go a little below or above the word limit but try not to have a drastic difference in the size of your writing piece.
- Take mock exams: mock exams are a great way to familiarize yourself with the pattern of the exam and also to identify areas lacking practice and improve in them accordingly.
- Listen to podcasts and youtube videos to help with the listening section: playing podcasts and youtube videos while exercising on travelling on the train/bus can help you improve your listening skills.
- Time management: prioritizing your time in the right way across the different sections of the exam will ensure that nothing is left out and you are able to complete all parts of the exam on time.
Interesting Facts about Vietnam
Vietnam is well-known for its amazing cuisine (Pho, Banh Mi), Vietnam War or being one of the cheapest countries to travel to? What else should you know?
1. Transportation
Vietnam ranks forth in the motorbike ownership rate worldwide. It is an impressive ranking when there are 60 million motorbikes in the population of 90 million people. Vietnamese people choose motorbikes as their main means of transportation as motorbikes are cheap and convenient to travel in crowded cities or tiny lanes. Owning a car is still considered expensive property for wealthy people because the tax is around 100-200%.
Due to the variety of vehicles on the road, crossing the cross is “nightmares” or “cultural shock” for for foreigners. You need both courage and skills to cross the road in Vietnam!
2. Economy
Vietnam is developing country but it is Asian’s shining star during COVID 19 with 2.9% growth in national economy last year.
Vietnam is global king of cashew nuts producers. Besides cashew, Vietnam’s leading export products are rice, pepper, coffee and rubber. Do you know that Vietnam’s Jasmine Rice ST25 was granted World’s Best Rice 2019?
3. Cuisine
Do you know that though Pho is traditional food in Vietnam, it is cooked differently in the North and South? The broth in the Northern Pho is clear and simple while Southern Pho is sweeter and richer. Southern Pho also uses more styles of beef such as rare beef, tendons, meatballs, tripe or brisket. Unlike the South, Northern Pho is not served with lime, beansprout, hoisin sauce, chili sauce and fresh sliced chilies.
One must-try drink when visiting Vietnam is Egg Coffee (Ca Phe Trung). it is a sweet treat made by beating an egg yolk with sweetened condensed milk until it makes an airy, creamy, meringue-like fluff. Worth to try!
4. Surname: Nguyen
You might automatically call a person with the Nguyen in their surname Vietnamese. Over 38% of Vietnamese people have Nguyen in their surname. The second common surname is Tran and Le.
5. Some “most” things about Vietnam
- The world’s largest cave – Hang Son Doong: Being 38.5 million cubic meters, Son Doong is able to accomoate an entire New York city block. The ecosystems within the cave has its own weather systems and can even create its own clouds.
- Vietnam ranks fifth in the Happy Planet Index results, and second in the Asia Pacific region
- The country has the most dishes made from noodles and broth with 164 dishes. Beef Noodle Soup (Beef Pho) came second in the 20 delicious noodle soup chosen by CNN.
- With 272 dishes made from 43 different flowers, Vietnam is the country with the highest dishes made from flowers.
- The world’s most dishes from rice flours with over 143 dishes using various recipes.
Want Your Kids to learn Vietnamese? Join us!
Do you know that learning Vietnamese is a gateway to further explore this amazing country?
Reasons Why Studying Mandarin is Beneficial for Children
Why should children study Mandarin?
- The most widely spoken language in the world in 2020
- Exercise your brain: English speakers use left temporal lobe. Mandarin speakers use both
- Cognitive ability: Learning Mandarin involves learning language, sounds, drawing and math at the same time
- Learn Chinese Culture: Mandarin grammar presents the logic that Chinese people use to think, phrases show how they handle relationships
- Career Growth: China’s economy is growing exponentially. Knowing Mandarin will land your children more job opportunities
Interesting Facts about South Korea
Some Interesting Facts about South Korea
- Blood types are important. Korean people think that blood type reveals bout your personality and characteristics. Therefore, almost every Korean people knows their blood types
- South Korean is one year older when born. One explanation is that people think it’s because the baby is in the mother’s womb for 9 months, which is about 1 year. Therefore in South Korea, the baby is 1 year old when born.
- Almost half of the Koreans are called Lee, Park or Kim. Especially Kim has a special position: one in five Koreans has this last name.
- Food is the essence of everything to Korean. One thing describes Korean best is Food Culture. When Korean parents talk with their children, they care a lot about “eating well”. Sometimes Korea is called “Italian of the East”
- Kimchi is a culture. Back in the days, Kimchi is created because of its long winter. Today, Kimchi is a popular sidedish that you can find in almost every Korean restaurants. Korean say “Kimchi” instead of “cheese” when they take a photo
Interesting Facts About Japan
Japan is long praised for its incredibly rich culture, mouthwatering sushi, developed economy and polite people. What else should we know?
- 4 main islands
While Japan is an archipelago with almost 6,952 islands, only 4 main islands make up the majority of its main lands, namely Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. Tokyo is located in Honshy Island.
- Life Expectancy
Japan takes a second place in worldwide life expectancy, following HongKong with average life expectancy is 83.6 and 84 years old respectively. This impressive rank is contributed by healthy diet, walking habit and family orientation lifestyle
- Karoshi
This is Japanese word for death by Overwork. Japan has some of the longest working hours in the world. To resolve this, Government launched an initiative called Premium Friday to encourage employees to leave at 3pm in the last Friday of the month
- Ban on Dancing
There is a ban in Japan on dancing after midnight or 1 am from 1948 to 2015. This is because many dancing venues are a font of prostitution.
- Vending Machine
On average, there are 23 vending machines for every 1 person in Japan. Japanese people buy almost everything from vending machines. You can buy cans, vegetables, ramen, eggs, toys and even technological devices.
Ways on How You Can Help Your Children Learn New Languages Faster
How you can help your child learn new languages faster:
- Make language learning a daily habit. Research shows that your child only needs 15 minutes a day to make progress while learning a new language. Some ways in which you can instill this habit in them is by making them listen to podcasts or watch a movie in a foreign language.
- Learn cognates. Languages like Spanish have a lot of words that we commonly use while speaking English. Learning these words will help your child transition better into the new language.
- Use flashcards and spaced repetition. Flashcards are proven to be the most effective way to memorize new languages. Flashcards use a concept called spaced repetition that basically prioritizes things your child does not know and helps them prioritize and work on their weak areas.
- Use a notebook and take it everywhere. Ask your kids to write down all the relevant vocabulary that you come across whenever your child is exposed to a new language.
- Speak the language from day one. There are 3 ways to achieve this. You can enrol your child in group learning in a good language school. This is great from a social perspective as your child will be studying with kids their own age and they can collaborate and work together on their skills.
This is where we can help you!
At Sydney Language Solutions we offer the best prices and deals for an atmosphere of fun and engagement in which your children can develop their language skills and aim towards a brighter future.
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