PTE Speaking tips & tricks Part 2-Answer Short Questions

This is one of the easiest task to score. You just have to listen to the question and give the answer in one or few words within 10 seconds.

You’ll receive question prompts of 3–9 seconds and about 10 such questions.

When the audio finishes, mic gets active and ‘Recording’ starts. There’s no ‘beep’ , so start answering immediately. But don’t rush, speak clearly.

Sample from PTE exam

Don’t give long answers. For example,

Q: What rises in the East in the morning and sets in the evening?

A1: Sun rises in the east and sets in the west. ❌

A2: Sun ✔️

This is something you can easily practice on your way to work. Just find a YT video with repeated questions and practice them on the go.

Here are some special points to remember:

• If you know the correct answer, give a short accurate answer. No extra mark for additional words.
• While practicing, jot down all the questions and answers you got wrong or you didn’t get the answers immediately. Because in the exam you only have 10s to answer. If you don’t answer within the allocated time you will automatically go to the next question. There isn’t much time to think really.
• Wait till the Recording start. If you answer too early, your answer will not be recorded. Dah..
• Finish speaking before the progress bar reaches the end. The word “Recording” changes to “Completed.
• You can not replay the audio and can record the response only once.
• Click ‘Next’ soon after you answer. So that it won’t pick noise in the background and you’ll save time.
• Don’t take a long pause when recording start (in the beginning and while speaking), if you wait more than 3 seconds, recording will stop.
• If you don’t know the answer to the question, just say ‘Not sure’ and click ‘Next’ button. You will lose 1 point for content, but it won’t affect your overall fluency score.
• If you can not recall the answer immediately, buy time by saying ‘Not sure’ in the beginning and then you can give the correct answer.
• If there are 2 answer and you can’t pick one, say both . There’s no negative marking, so you’ll get points if at least one answer is correct answer. (you may test this with the PTE official mock exams)

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Comment down below and let me know for which task you want to learn the tips and tricks.

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