PTE-A Exam- Common Mistakes That Ruin Your Overall PTE

Score

Here, we have listed some common mistakes made that are overlooked by the aspirants in each
module.

Speaking
1. Speaking before the short beep/ tone.
2. Speaking too fast.
3. Explaining everything in the given image of describe image task without telling about trends
or comparisons.
4. Flat tone of speech. Not giving stress on appropriate words and speaking in a monotone.
5. Not giving importance to the content.
6. Using too many fillers.
7. Using words ‘like’, ‘so’, too frequently.
8. Using incorrect form of tense.
9. Not paying attention to singular/plural.
10. Pausing for a long time. If you pause for more than 3 seconds, the microphone will go off.
11. Not taking short pause after a full stop or comma.
12. Repeating verbs or words.
13. Correcting yourself in middle of a speech.
14. Trying to cover each word of re-tell lecture.
15. Clicking on next before the bar shows ‘Completed’ status.
16. Trying to develop & speak in an accent.
17. Reading the punctuation marks.

Writing
1. Writing less than or more than the word limit.
2. Failing to understand the topic.
3. Writing the introduction same as the topic.
4. Using informal language or slangs or jargons.
5. Incorrect use of phrases or quotes.
6. Not using punctuations or incorrect use of punctuations.
7. Being lax about grammar especially the articles and singular/ plural.
8. Making a lot of spelling errors.
9. Not using appropriate Vocabulary.
10. Generous use or absolutely no use of collocation words.
11. Improper use of connectors.
 12. Failing to give examples.
13. Not writing the conclusion.
14. Writing more than one sentence in the Summarize Written Text task.
15. Writing a lot of ‘and’.
16. Not proof-reading the essay.

Reading
1. Not reading the question carefully.
2. Trying to know the meaning of each and every word even if it is unfamiliar.
3. Selecting all options in Multiple Choice-Multiple Answers.
4. Using illogical or grammatically incorrect words in Fill in the Blanks.
5. Making spelling mistakes.
6. Reading the entire passage for all the questions.
7. Not implementing skimming and scanning.
8. Leaving the answer blank.

Listening
1. Day dreaming while listening.
2. Forgetting that the recording is played only once.
3. Not checking the time remaining.
4. Not making the smart use of erasable notepad.
5. Not practicing enough to develop the skill of reading and listening at once.
6. Loosing concentration.
7. Trying to search for the exact words in the passage, question or the choices given.
8. Highlighting the wrong word in a hurry while answering the highlight the incorrect word
task.
9. Not checking the spelling while answering the fill in the blanks task.
10. Not attempting an answer.
11. Trying to listen to the words or part of recording you missed.

Are you guilty of committing any of these mistakes? No one got a perfect score with zero
preparation and even those who have the knowledge of native English language commit mistakes.
What is important is that you recognize, accept the errors and then work to rectify them. It is
obvious and undeniable fact that when you try something for the first time, in this case, any tips or
strategy, errors are more likely to be found. However, that doesn’t matter unless you are bound on
perfecting the implementation of a strategy.