PTE Mock & Real Exam Experience

Don't miss to read my 8th attempt and what PTE expects!!

Mock Experience        

Date	7 Apr 2019 Scored Test A	14 Apr 2019 Scored Test B	14 Jul 2019 Scored Test A	21 Jul 2019 Scored Test C
Listening	69	72	74	70
Reading	66	69	73	79
Speaking	80	89	83	71
Writing	67	77	74	84

Mock A

Even though I took the Pearson Mock A from home, I was so scared and anxious to take the exam. This resulted in bad scores, so I was totally down. My husband (Sivy) motivated me and asked me to compare with the previous results. I soon realized that I was the one who has to circumvent the anxiety, but I was still helpless. I slowly stopped thinking that I have an exam, and I kept in mind that I can take another exam even if I fail in this.

Mock B

With a fresh mind, I took the Pearson Mock B, and this time I was little satisfied with my results.
After attempting the Pearson Mock B, I planned to focus more on the Reading, and I realized that fear can corrode my performance in the exam. So I stopped thinking that I have an exam on April 23rd itself and just concentrated on my preparations.

Mock A

From the other 79+ scorers (Skills PTE Academic's Performers), I got to know that most of them didn't use a template for SST, so I practiced without a template in SST. As I didn't record the previous Mock A test (using Zoom) and not remembered the questions, I thought of taking the same Mock A since it was mentioned as the toughest (through quora). After the mock, I thought SST without template increased my scores, but I wasn't content with the marks. So I forwarded the recorded video to other 79+ scorers. To my surprise, one redeemer could point out exactly where I was missing in listening. He told that I wrote one thing from audio in SST, but I corrected to my convenience while summarizing. He also suggested me to take notes using pen and notepad as I could take only a few notes directly on the screen. Sometimes I captured around 56 words directly on the screen, but I haven't captured as a sentence and just noted as key points. Another 79+ scorer suggested me to use a complex sentence in RL. Though it was initially difficult, I was able to retell with the complex sentences with continuous practice, but I believe this is not required for scoring 79+.

Mock C

For a week, I prepared many SST & RL and evaluated, and I was confident that it will definitely improve my listening scores. With the same hope, I took Mock C, but I didn't attain the desired scores in listening. I was optimistic that I will definitely get 79+ in listening with the above few changes mentioned.

Real Exam Experience

Date	6 Oct 2018	26 Apr 2019	10 May 2018	3 Jun 2019	14 Jun 2019	20 Jun 2019	2 Aug 2019	9 Aug 2019
Listening	55	77	75	72	75	74	79	89
Reading	51	79	78	86	85	78	70	90
Speaking	36	90	90	86	88	81	86	90
Writing	60	86	88	82	83	82	82	90

Nothing is Impossible

Luckily I got this pic from Instagram, and this quote says predominantly about my success.

Attempt 1

I attempted on 6th Oct with zero practice, but I just watched E2 videos to understand the exam pattern. To be honest, I watched for his English and decent jokes ;-) I felt PTE real exam is a roller-coaster ride for 3 hours, so I decided this will not work out, and I thought I will never be able to crack this. I gave up.

Real Questions 

Reorder - Scottish bank
SST       - Light bulb
Essay    - Experience is the best teacher

Attempt 2

 I took my 2nd attempt which is my first attempt after joining Skills PTE Academic. I wasn't aware that ASQ contributes to listening also, so I just spoke the words from the questions instead of answering. After seeing the scores, I felt that my preparation doesn't meet the opportunity. Though I was happy and content about the marks, I realized I can achieve soon like other scorers. This time I started yearning badly to score 90 in all sections in the next attempt because I dream big ;-)

Mistakes 

I screwed up two to three RS
I repeated the question in the ASQ.

Attempt 3

I practiced more RS, WFD, ASQ, Reorder, and listening & Reading FiBs. I observed that I was good at writing, so I never practiced SWT, Essay, and SST. In the exam, I screwed up Read aloud, RS and started fumbling due to my neighbor's loud voice. I completely lost my concentration. After the results, I started fretting about cracking PTE. I started feeling I'm a failure. I didn't realize that I need improvement in listening.

Real Questions 

Essay - Devoting to job leaves less time for private life

SWT  - Educational Quality 

SST    - Globalization

Retell Lecture - Early Robots

Reading FiBs (Repeated from realpte.com)

1) Arbitration

2) Chain Restaurant

3) Modes of assessment

4) Plainness

5) Comparing the intelligence of animals

6) Plagiarism

WFD

You must submit your research papers by Monday.

Everyone must evacuate the premises during the fire drill

Mistakes 

I screwed up four RS and Read aloud

Attempt 4

I didn't practice SST & RL, but I practiced other sections.  In the exam, my immediate neighbor was shouting like a hell, so I lost my patience.  I was too confident that I did the reading well. After the results, my disillusionment increased with PTE exams, and I badly believed that PTE is failing me, but not me. Sivy suspected that I'm missing something and told me that your results always reflected your experience in the exam. i.e., When I told him I did really good in reading, the marks reflected as same. 

Real Questions 

I confronted a few new sets of questions in RS. 

Reading Fibs 

1) The American cabinet, unlike the British, has no connection with the legislature,

2) A dog may be man's best friend. But man is not always a dog's.

3) One of the characteristics of ‘good’ information identified earlier was that it should

4) What is music? In one sense, this is an easy QUESTION.

5) Last year I went to Germany. The trip …

6) Researchers already know that spending long periods of time in a zero-gravity

7) The world’s atmosphere is forever on the move. Wind is air in motion.

WFD

While reconciliation is desirable, the basic underlying issues must be addressed.

The qualification will be assessed by using a conference criterion to approach

You don't need to have specialist knowledge to read the book.

Please don't ask me how I could remember :-D I was analyzing my scores to know where I was failing, so I tried to recollect at least a few questions on the way to office from the Pearson Center.

Mistakes 

I wasn't able to grasp two RS words, and I wasn't sure about two blanks in the listening FiBs.

Attempt 5

I still believed that my SST and RL(contribution to listening) was super good, so I didn't practice them. After the 5th attempt on June 14th, 2019, the listening module again began intimidating my performance. Abandoning thoughts often appeared that I'm going to give the worst. I started realizing my salient mistakes and practiced hard to overcome. I realized that I'm a bad listener who couldn't grasp the fault lines, so I heard it as false lines. I doubted whether one wrong word in RS and two wrong words in WFD will screw up the listening scores. My intuition was telling that content is not a matter, and only the grammar matters in SST, so I didn't realize that SST is also contributing more marks to listening.

Real Questions 

SST - Fault lines and Earthquake (Click here)

Mistakes 

1) I was not able to grasp 1 word in one RS
2) I was not able to grasp 2 words in one WFD
3) Listening fibs' answers were all perfect as the audio is slow
4) I made 2 mistakes in Reading Fibs
5) I made 1 reorder completely wrong
6) I made 1 SST completely wrong as I wasn't able to understand and grasp any words other than earthquake.

Attempt 6

I was devastated, and I was in a bad mood, so I thought that I will fail again. My 6th attempt scores on June 20th, 2019 tied me down to the life of mediocrity and unhappiness, and after two days I woke up as a giant and unstoppable woman. This time I wanted to circumvent it, so I started to prepare the listening module with much care and interest, as I wasn't sure where I was failing.

Mistakes 

1) I repeated 8 RSs exactly as it is, but I was not able to grasp one word in each remaining RSs.
2) None of the RSs are repetitive questions, but all are simple sentences with one or two difficult words.
3) I didn't know the answer for two questions in ASQ, but I was able to answer related answers
4) I wrote 259 words, so just 1 minute 30 seconds left to proof  read
5) Reading was okay
6) Not much time left for one SST
7) I don't know the answer for one listening FiB, so I wrote something relevant.
8) In one WFD, I was not able to grasp 2 words.

Attempt 7

I took one month break from attempting the exam, so Sivy & I planned for a trip <Click Here>. After the trip, I began my preparation. I took Mock A followed by Mock C, but my scores didn't improve (Please check the above Mock experience to know where I missed these many days). After the mock, I practiced more SST and RL than any other sections. I understood by practicing more SST, I don't want to practice listening FiBs or other few listening sections separately. After the results, I was so happy that I scored for the first time 79 in listening. Therefore, I realized SST was the reason for all my screwed up scores.

Mistakes 

1) I just paused in one of the read aloud, and I hope it wouldn't be more than 3 seconds.
2) I wasn't able to grasp the whole sentences in 2 RSs
3) In DI, I fumbled in the last.
4) RL was okay but didn't do too good. Just spoke fluently.
5) Two of the ASQs answers were wrong.
6) The writing was always good.
7) I confronted almost different set of questions in Reading except for Reorder
8) In SST, I got body fat experiment, earthquake and trading. I realized that I understood and took notes clearly for the very first time.
9) In FiBs and HIW, I did everything good except one blank.
10) In WFD, two out of four were completely correct. In one WFD, instead of extracurricular, I have written as extra curricular, and in other, I missed to write earned instead, I wrote owned. Click here to know how to overcome these mistakes.

Attempt 8

After the exam, I stopped remembering questions as I was frustrated with reading(Click here to know the reading trick) and speaking RS. Most of the questions were not repetitive, so I got all-new set of questions, even the words in listening were all new. Luck did not favor me this time also, but with more concentration, I was able to choose blanks correctly. I was thinking that I might fail again as I got totally a new set of reading questions. I started convincing myself and my husband, but as I knew, I told him I did it with good care and much concentration. He was constantly telling me not to worry, let's take another exam. 

The score report came, and I understood that PTE expects something to be 90. It expects to be grammatically "perfect", "perfect" in spellings, "perfect" in comprehending (audio/text), and "perfect" in fluency. Though every time I tried to investigate the evaluating system of listening, I couldn't get a single clue. It doesn't expect all your responses to be perfect and doesn't demand high vocabulary. Just approach it with a good strategy and methods, but learn English grammatically at the end of the day. It's just a proficiency test. I know I'm not good at English, but I know simple grammar. I eventually got my dream score (89, 90, 90, 90), and this score warns me that I'm still a bad listener. I was extremely happy that I didn't score these marks with repetitive questions but scored with my own knowledge and proper approach with Nakul's methods & strategies.

Speaking 

1) RA, DI, and RL were good and with no fumbling.
2) I used 2 complex sentences with the template (given by Nakul) in each RL.
3) I repeated only 50% of words in 5 questions out of 12 of RS, and I filled up with some verbs if I couldn't grasp, 80% of the questions were not repeated questions this time.
4) I don't know the answer for 1 ASQ, so I repeated the word in the question.
5) I repeated the answer thrice because I wasn't sure whether my answer was correctly captured at the beginning of the recording.

Writing

I wrote almost 44 to 46 words in SWT.
I wrote 209 words in essay with a template from Skills PTE Academic.

Reading

I remembered only 2 questions repeated from realpte.com FiBs, and remaining were new to me. As I went with a fresh mind, I was able to proofread the answers twice and hoped that all my answers would be correct. Reorder questions were repeated from PTE Tutorials Exam Memories Materials, and I scored only 4/6 in reorder.

Listening

SST Questions were Body Fat Experiment, Fault lines and Earthquakes, and Globalization.
I was pretty sure here that my SST was super perfect because I verified thrice during the exam.
In FiBs, I wrongly wrote "exquisties" instead of "exquisites", and it was a little challenging. Listening questions were not repetitive too. In WFD, I followed Skills PTE Academic Nakul's tips, so all were perfect.

Again, I tried to find the algorithm of the evaluation system (wink). Though I did a few mistakes, I scored full marks. I feel the actual full mark lies somewhere around 110 or more, so even if we make silly mistakes it gives us full marks. 

My days always started with tea & PTE. I didn't focus on anything other than PTE for the past six months. Click here to know how I practised and approached the exam.

I personally thank three persons(PTE crackers) Dheepan, Sudha, and Sunaad who guided and motivated me throughout the journey, and these are the persons who constantly telling me that I'm a 90 candidate ;-) 

Please let me know your queries by commenting below, and if I missed something, I can add them up also. Happy to Help :-) :-) !!