PTE Academic: Skill Assessment
In PTE there is a total of 10 skills which are assessed on the scale of 10-90, where 10 is for the worst and 90 for the best. These 10 skills are subdivided into two categories: Communicative Skills and Enabling Skills.Communicative Skills · Listening · Reading · Speaking · Writing Enabling Skills · Grammar · Oral Fluency · Pronunciation · Spelling · Vocabulary · Written Discourse
Here, enabling skills only assess the performance in speaking and writing.
Do you know, there are many item types in PTE in which multiple skills are assessed?
Yes, it is true, there are a number of item types in PTE in which the multiple skills are assessed, in other words, those item types are linked with two or three modules. In simpler words, they will add scores into the score of other communicative skills, hence, it will uplift your score in individual parts.
Those item types are as follows:
Item Types Skills Assessed
Speaking
ØRead aloud
Speaking, Reading, Oral Fluency, Pronunciation
ØRepeat the sentence
Speaking, Listening, Oral Fluency, Pronunciation
ØDescribe the image Speaking, Oral Fluency, Pronunciation
ØRe-tell a lecture
Speaking, Listening, Oral Fluency, Pronunciation
ØAnswer short questions
Speaking, Listening, vocabulary
Writing
ØSummarize the written text
Writing, Reading, Grammar, Vocabulary
ØWriting Essay Writing, Grammar, Vocabulary, Written Discourse, Spelling
Reading
ØMultiple choice question: (choose single answer) Reading
ØMultiple Choice Questions: Choose Multiple answers Reading
ØRe-order the paragraph Reading
ØReading: Fill in the blanks Reading
ØReading and writing: Fill in the blanks
Reading, Writing
Listening
ØSummarize the spoken text
Listening, Writing, Grammar, Written Discourse, Spelling,
ØMultiple Choice Questions- Choose Multiple answers Listening
ØFill in the blanks
Listening, Writing
ØHighlight the correct summary
Listening, Reading
ØMultiple Choice Questions: Choose Single Answer Listening
ØSelect Missing Words Listening
ØHighlight the incorrect words
Listening, Reading
ØWrite from dictation
Listening, Writing
The misconception
Since PTE is quite a flexible test and its approach to answers is quite easy, so, some candidates misinterpret things about the assessment.
For example writing:
The first writing task is Summarize the Written Text, in which the test taker has to type a summary of the given text using one sentence and between 5 to 75 words.
There are 7 marks for each summary and they are segregated as :
Form: 1 (Should be in single sentence and within the word limit)
Content: 2 (How effectively the main ideas are chosen)
Grammar: 2 (Correct sentence frame)
Spelling: 2
Now a few students have the misconception that, ‘if they will write the summary by using two or more sentences, they will lose marks only of the Form and rest of the 6 marks will be credited to them’. Well, unfortunately, it is a MISCONCEPTION. If the summary is in two or more sentences, the task will be counted as invalid, and no score based on any skills would be rewarded.
However, with word limit this is not the case. It you exceed the word limit, there would be penalty but the other elements will still be evaluated.
Hence, don’t fall prey to such misconceptions and misguidance. Understand the scoring while preparing for the test.
All the Best!!
