Reading is an essential skill that one must have especially if you are preparing for an exam like PTE Academic. The test has an entire Reading component that is the most scoring among all English language proficiency tests – short passages, 1 question per passage, variety of Reading tasks – what more do you need? If you are someone who gets bored reading long, uninteresting pieces of text, PTE is the right test for you especially since the Reading component is a cake walk. But a lot of students think the other way. Don’t worry!
Remember, it is the focused mind and right set of strategies that serve as the armor in the exam field. The PTE Reading test contains five parts, which test your reading skills and put them into practice. It comprises of Multiple Choice Single Answer, Multiple Choice Multiple Answers, Re-order Paragraphs, Fill in the Blanks, and Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks.
Here are a couple of tips to help you increase – wait boost – your reading score immensely:
Every question on the test contains all the information that is required to answer. This means item writers leave clues for you to pick up. Identify such clues, determine the right and the logical order and voila! You’ve solved Re-Orders Paragraphs. Search out for the topic sentence that can stand apart. The paragraph written in a logical structure must begin with the topic sentence. The other sentences follow to support the main idea. The topic sentence never begins with any linker.
Keep an eagle eye on the Nouns, Adjectives, Pronouns, and other time-related phrases. The pronouns including he, she, these, they, those, etc. will assist you in establishing the right order. Spot the clue words. Practice, pick up the pace, and target to finish these questions in three to four minutes.
It is reckoned as the success mantra when it comes to mastering the PTE Reading section. Analyzing the questions and finding out the key words in them also help to answer the question better. Find the section of the text containing the right answer with the help of keywords.
Keywords may include verbs, nouns, and question words. Once you identify these target words in the passage, you can easily spot the correct answer. This strategy of identifying the keywords can be best applied to the Multiple-Choice Questions in PTE Reading.
In various sections of the PTE Reading test, students will be judged on their ability to identify information explicitly stated in the text. To better analyze the texts, students need to understand what they’re reading. They should try to summarize it in their own words once they read the passage.
To further develop the ability to analyze the text for deriving meaning, practice to identify key details in the text, and check what these details are have in common. Once you’re able to find a connection among these key detail, use them to answer questions asking about theme or main idea.
Be aware of collocations, idioms, and expressions to use. It will help you a lot. You should learn which prepositions are used before or after the common adjectives, verbs, and nouns. For example, a call for, have ability for, be interested in, increase/decrease in, be aware of and the like. Here’s a whole list of collocations tested on the PTE Academic: PTE Academic Collocation List
Learn them by heart and be prepared to solve Fill in the Blank questions in the Reading test.
While looking for answers, you should be ready to predict answers to questions. You should be ready to put your vocabulary and grammar skills to use and then review the options before selecting the right answer. Going directly to the options can make selecting the right answer difficult.
For instance, in the Fill in the Blank questions, you should look at the either sides of the gap to check what kind of phrase is missing. Then choose the correct answer using your grammar and vocabulary knowledge.
Remember that you can’t move back in any part of the PTE Test; so before you move to the next question, be sure that you have selected the right answer. In questions with several parts, like Fill in the Blanks, check that you have completed all the blanks before you click on ‘Next’.
These are all the tips that I have. If you’re already doing this, you must practice as much as you can to ace the Reading test. You must also seek help from an experienced mentor like those at BetterThink™ who can help you out knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and will be more than willing to work with you to reach your target score. Regardless, remember that it’s your intelligence, dedication, and aspiration, what makes you a go-getter!
