In my previous article ,I wrote about Speaking & Writing of PTE. This article will throw light on the reading tips of PTE. I will discuss about all activities included in reading one by one:
Reading
Reading of PTE is not at all difficult but person needs to understand its format completely . this module includes different type of questions .The first activity includes:
1.Multiple-choice, Choose Single Answer
- Scoring method:
- 1 Correct response
- 0 Incorrect response
- Tips & techniques:
- Understand the main reason/text behind paragraph and focus on repeated words to find the correct answer.
- Also focus on the frequency words (sometimes, always, never many, often, all, never, only.. etc.) eliminate those options and find the correct answer. Since, there is NO NEGATIVE marking in this question, at least answer the question. Don’t leave it blank. Use this tip only when you are not able to understand the paragraph and hence unable to evaluate the right option.
- Use the rule of elimination. Narrow down your options as much as you can. It really helps a lot. These are not straight-forward questions, elimination helps.
- Read the question before you read the text. You will know before hand, what information to look for in the passage. There are going to be very few people who are actually going to form a habit of reading books. Most are just going to apply the strategies and techniques.
- You can expect to find 60% of the answers in the first or last 2 lines of the paragraph.
- Retaining leads to gaining. It is important to remember the information in the questions because the questions are not going to move in the chronological order and you might find the answer anywhere in the passage.
- You need to familiarize yourself with paraphrasing. Paraphrasing is a technique by which the same meaning in conveyed by the use of different words. The sentence structure is also changed in order to complete the process of paraphrasing.
- Multiple-choice, Choose Multiple Answers
- Scoring Method: (Negative marking)
- 1 Each correct response
- - 1 Each incorrect response
- 0 Minimum score
- Tips & Techniques:
- Same as above
- Remember to put aside your worries and distractions. Focus, focus and focus.
- If you score 1 point for correct option and -1 for wrong. It’s not worth. Choose carefully only the right answer. If you are not sure, leave the option. It may be just 2 options, don’t push yourself to click 3rd option.
- Re-order paragraphs
- Scoring method:
- 1 Each pair of correct adjacent text boxes
- 0 Minimum score
- Tips & techniques:
- Search for heading/topic with major idea of the paragraph to be formed by re-ordering. It should be first sentence like a topic sentence, a stand alone - Independent sentence that is not dependent on any other sentences given there.
- Check Proper Nouns-Common nouns-Pronoun-Articles Usage-Time Phrases order to re-order the sentences.
- Focus on pronouns he, she, him, her, they, them, these, those, etc… as these sentences will never come in first.
- Also look for contradict phrases like (however, but, although) and addition phrases like (Also, moreover, furthermore, besides.. etc), they could never be first and are generally related which could easily be found. Try finding sentence before it.
- Reading: Fill in the blanks / Reading and writing: Fill in the blank
- Scoring method:
- 1 Each correctly completed blank
- 0 Minimum score
- Tips & Techniques:
- Skim for main idea first and then start answering.
- Answer all the questions, even if you’re not sure in your answer. You don't get penalty for wrong answers, so try your luck and write the most probable answer.
- Concentrate on parts of speech before and after the blank, it helps in finding the missing word.
- Select the word, which is mostly collocated with words beside it. You will find many collocation articles and lessons, if you google it.
- Most of the time, missing word will be in the text but as synonym, it helps in finding an answer, same as paraphrasing.
To recapitulate, it can be concluded by saying that the reading of PTE is not very difficult task but one needs to concentrate fully as well as he should practice as much as he can.