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 😉
PTE: Five Roads to Success
Like many, you may have heard that the PTE test is ‘easier’ to pass than IELTS, and the good news is, you may be right! Our students have been passing this test regularly every month. Yet, still many find this test another hurdle for them. So, whether you’re aiming for 79, 65 or ‘only’ 50, we are here to help you achieve your target band. Just follow these five (5) easy steps:
- Take one of our courses. This will give you all-round familiarity and understanding of the test. This option will save you plenty of time of self research into the test because we are qualified trainers and assessors in exam preps, including the PTE.
- Get a book. It’s worthwhile to run that extra mile of practice to score higher, and pick a suitable one for your level of English.
- Free practice on the moodle. We’ve designed numerous online practices so that you can apply the tips, strategies and language you’ve learned in class to boost your test-taking confidence.
- Buy the Pearson mock tests. For one thing, you can experiment on your speaking style to maximise your score. Many students pass the test after they know how to approach the mock test and then replicate this strategy in the real exam.
- Book a tutor. Tutors will help push you across the finish line by giving you expert personalised coaching to identify and work on your weaknesses.
FINAL TIPS: Plan and book your favourite test centre 2-3 months in advance and prepare accordingly. Good luck!
19 December 2016
Telaga
Resources for Improving Your ListeningSkills
One of the most important parts of preparing for the listening sub-test is exposing yourself to as much spoken English as possible. Ideally, this should be health-related. To increase your confidence and proficiency, I recommend the using the podcasts found on the websites below:
Health-related programs on Radio National:
All in the Mind
Health Report
Life Matters
However, you need to do more than just listen to the podcasts. The following steps will help you to make the most of these resources:
- Listen to the podcast while reading the transcript.NOTEDOWN any unfamiliar words and add them to your vocabulary list, along with their definition.
- For the CDC website, click “Listen to this podcast”, then click the “Transcript” button.
- For the ABC Radio National, click on the title of the podcast on the program home page, then click the “Show Transcript” button.
- Listen to the podcast again, without the transcript, and write down the MAIN points you heard. You can pause the podcast as often as you want to, but make sure you are still being challenged to keep up.
- Use the transcript, or replay the podcast, to check if you took notes accurately.
Going through steps 1-3 with at least one podcast per day will help you to improve your vocabulary, writing speed and, of course, listening skills.
The key, however, is to do it consistently! 😉
Good luck,
Anna Brzeska
OET Teacher
Hi everyone, 皆さん、こんにちは
My Japanese lessons includes practices to develop skills of speaking, reading, listening, writing, interacting and constructing and performing students’ own dialogues by pairs/groups or by oneself. The learning included the language and cultural skills to be used in travelling in Japan and general understanding on Japanese culture. Speaking practice sometimes used the pictures, information, concepts/ideas or topics from the brochures of Japanese newspapers, the ads, Nichigo Press and other Japanese monthly magazine such as Japaralia.
Regarding my class teaching, Group lessons were finished last month and I had only weekly tutorials for two students’ class (a father and his son who is a secondary school student) and a company executive who I have been teaching for 2 years.
For the above, 2 students’ class, we have been using “Training Material” (for teaching Japanese) of SLS. I also taught other useful grammar, vocab, colloquial phrases, phonetics, dialogue constructions etc esp. based on common use in daily life or travel life Japan. Also, traditional or commonly respected value and behavior and other cultural features, transport system, the thick book of the JR Network of Jikokuhyo (timetable of all the railway network) which you will see at every station in Japan and used by the public. As for script, they learned the basic knowledge of Hiragana, its writing and reading to some extent. It was also done through homework with use of worksheets given. In addition, I read and explained Japanese traditional fairy tales.
The earlier mentioned, my another (and very consistent/committed and hardworking tutorial student in Japanese) a company executive, David Bare, who takes a regular advisor’s role for the NSW government for the issues of building industry and regularly writes/speaks for the media, is happy to help any genuine learners of Japanese for info.
Above David has taken the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), N5 earlier this month. He said it had been a very interesting experience and he was happy to have taken the Test. He informed me that he had been surprised to know/see many people had taken the Test on that day. According to the info., even just at the venue of Uni. of NSW on that day, the numbers of people who took the Test were: 98 people in the Test N5, 120 in N4 and N3, 150 in N2 and 97 in N1. – That is marvelous and so positive, in my view. I had heard that in China and Korea, the numbers of the participants in the JLPT are tens of thousands (biggest numbers for overseas Test conducting). But certainly the numbers of candidates in Australia are solidly increasing that will be good for the relation between Japan and Australia (and overseas).
When Mr Donald Trump was elected for the US Presidency, on the NHK TV’s news program, virtually every interviewee expressed serious worries about that and the future relations between Japan and the US. However, recently the CEO of SoftBank, Masayoshi Son said to the President-elect Trump that SoftBank will invest approximately $50 billion technology fund in the US that would create 50,000 new jobs. (http://asia.nikkei.com/Markets/Equities/SoftBank-shares-soar-on-AI-hopes, news on 19 Dec., 16). Trump said “Masa is a great business leader!” and praised the CEO after their meeting (according to the NHK TV news).
Toshiko Jackson (Japanese teacher)
25.12.16
Latest Comments