Listening is the last section of the PTE academic test. In PTE Listening there are 8 items. But interestingly Repeat sentence and Retell lecture, these 2 items from the speaking section contribute the highest scores in the Listening section.
Our monthly prediction file provides you with a collection of the most important questions of PTE. Before moving forward, let’s have a quick idea about what is a Prediction File?
Our Prediction file is a collection of real exam questions for the PTE Exam that may appear in future exams also. It is developed on continuous checking of the frequency of any question’s repetition in 40 PTE Centres in 12 countries. We bring a new prediction file every month and our students get an overall 60% of common questions from this file.
This June our prediction file has a more than 60% of hit rate for the PTE exam. As the prediction file consists of the most important questions from the most important items, so there are 3 items in the PTE Listening section which contribute higher marks, that are added to the prediction file. Let’s check the most important questions from the PTE Listening section that are predicted to appear in the PTE exam in the month of June.
The items of the Listening section according to their marks contribution are below,
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Write from Dictation (WFD)
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Summarize Spoken Text (SST)
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Fill in the Blanks Listening (LFIB)
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Highlight Incorrect Words (HIW)
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Highlight Correct Summary (HCS)
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Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers (MCQ Multiple)
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Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answers (MCQ Single)
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Select Missing Word (SMW)
WFD is a part of the listening section. It is the last task that comes in the PTE exam. In this item time management is automated. Every task has its own allocated time. You need to save at least 5-6 mins at the end. You will get 3-4 questions containing 9-12 words/ up to 15 words per sentence. The sequence of the words is not important here but sequence matters when there is grammar in the sentence.
Scoring system:
WFD is scored partially. You get 1 mark for 1 correct word correctly spelled. You get 12 marks out of 90 if you do this item correctly.
Importance of WFD:
WFD contributes the highest marks in the Writing session which is 25% and 22% in the Listening section. So, you can’t avoid this item.
Strategy:
In WFD, taking notes in initials is the best method to perform this item. Taking initial refers to listening to the sentence and taking note of the first letter on each word following the sequence. This method is very much helpful in order to deal with sentences with more than 8 words.
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Note-taking in abbreviations or initials.
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1st Half vs 2nd Half
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Checking word by word after typing is a must.
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Numbers are acceptable in the academic format
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5-6 mins at the end for WFD must be saved
Important Considerations for WFD:
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The sequence of the words in the sentence
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Spelling
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Capitalization of words
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Punctuation
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Contracting words
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The tone of the speaking
Top 20 Write from Dictation (WFD) from the August prediction file,
1. The results of the study underscored the importance of early detection.
2. The teacher asked the group to commence the task.
3. The theme of the instrumental work exhibits more of a demure compositional style.
4. Safety glasses should be worn while doing experiments in the lab.
5. The visiting speaker used to be a lecturer in this department.
6. The celebrated theory is still the source of great controversy.
7. I thought a good architectural structure should be useful, durable and beautiful.
8. A group meeting will be held tomorrow in the library conference room.
9. A person’s educational level is closely associated with their economic background.
10. We can all meet at my office after the lecture.
11. All industries are a system of inputs, processes, outputs, and feedback.
12. Economic development needs to be supported by the government.
13. All students are expected to attend ten lab sessions per semester.
14. Leaving valuable possessions unattended in public place is risky.
15. Clinical placements in nursing prepare students for professional practice.
16. Despite their differences, all forms of life share certain characteristics.
17. Economic problems caused a big rise in unemployment.
18. He landed a job in a very prestigious law firm.
19. It was hard to anticipate how all the different characters would react.
20. We are researching the most significant challenges we are facing in our society today.
Summarize Spoken Text (SST) is an item from PTE Listening, It is one of the most difficult tasks among the other PTE tasks. In this task, you will listen to audio and write a summary out of it. You will get 1-2 tasks in the exam. The computer uses an auto-timer for this task. You will get 10 mins to complete per task. The word limit is (50-70). You get 10 marks per task. While listening to the audio, you need to take notes. After taking notes, write the summary in the box. Otherwise, you won’t be able to cope with the time.
Importance of the sentence:
Summarize Spoken text contributes 16 % score in the PTE Writing and 15% score in the Listening section. So, for those who are aiming for 79+ or 65, this item is very important for them.
Scoring System:
The marking criteria for this item are,
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Content (2): You need to make sure to relate to the topic and main idea. If your content goes off track , you get 0 for the entire task.
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Form (2): Word limit 50-70. Less than 50 or more than 70 words make you lose 1 mark per extra word.
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Grammar (2): Can use more than 1 Tense + Complex + Compound sentence.
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Spelling (2): Lose 1 mark for 1 misspelled word.
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Vocabulary (2): Use academic vocabulary. Keep the word as you heard. Don’t use synonyms.
Strategy to identify the content:
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Repeated information or keywords
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The emphasis on keywords ( word stress)
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Supported by examples
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Discourse markers: Connectors(Furthermore/Moreover/ However)
Suggested layout for SST:
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The lecture was about…..(topic)
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Moreover, it highlighted the significance of the fact that….
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Furthermore, it emphasized on the importance of…..
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It also denoted that…..
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In conclusion, it mentioned that….
Note-taking strategy:
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Take Broken Sentences
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Between 10—15
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Create a Road Map
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Write Simple Sentences
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Watch out for grammatical errors
Special note:
Make your sentence short and simple. Don’t make it long. The long the sentence, the more mistakes you make for grammar.
Top 10 Summarize Spoken Text from the August prediction file,
1. Earthquake and Faults
Faults are breaks in the earth’s crust, constructing a fault plane. An earthquake starts at a particular point on the fault plane, called the focus of the earthquake. The rocks propagate out from the focus, creating the rupture that is in that particular earthquake. The epicenter is a point vertically above the focus on the earth’s surface. So, this is the relationship between the faults and the earthquakes.
2. Wildlife as Food and Income
In my view, it’s impossible not to talk about wildlife, and not think about its role in livelihoods. And I guess part of that is my own view, part of the research that I do in Africa. In most eastern west Africa. I look a role, all the humans rely on wildlife as the source of food, and also the source of income. And we talk about our wildlife, it seems we talk about fish, we are talking about what is probably the single most important source of protein for humans across the globe. And so, billions, or more than a billion people rely on fish as their primary source of animal protein, and most of these people live in poverty. So the management of wild fish resources that sense is incredibly important to livelihoods and health. And also, wildlife tourism is the
multiple billion dollars’ industry, and in many places, such as Africa, South America, it can be the number one source of income, it can be the number one source of foreign income for economies.
3. The history of software
The history of software is of course very new. And the whole IT industry is really only 67 years old which is extraordinary and to be so close to the birth of a major new technology, a major new discipline is quite remarkable given where we got to in those 67 years. And the progression has been not so much a progression as a stampede because Moore’s Law, the rapid expansion in the power of computing and the
rapid fall of the cost of computing and storage and communications has made it feasible for information technology to move into all sorts of areas of life that were never originally envisaged. What has happened is that there has been as I said a stampede for people to pick the low-hanging fruit. And that is what’s guided the development of software and information technology over the past decades and continues to do so with a number of consequences that we will explore.
4. Lost childhood
Children have been losing childhood both in the past and now. In the 19th century, the reason for losing childhood was that children needed to work at an early age with high risks of staying around the streets. However, the reasons why children are losing childhood vary according to the change of society, such as the changing aspects of gender and commercial advertisements.
5. Cultural diversity in Australia
Being a multicultural country, Australia has immigrants from all over the world, which makes it the home to the world’s oldest continuous cultures. Cultural diversity is a significant feature of Australian society. Cultural diversity can benefit the productivity, economic performance and labor force of Australia. According to the statistics, nearly half of Australians were born overseas or have a foreign-born parent.
6. Moral Objectivism and Moral Absolutism
In moral objectivism, there are some universal moral principles that are valid for all people in all social environments and all situations. In moral absolutism, there is a firm and absolute boundary between what is right and what is wrong. Therefore, in moral absolutism, there are non-overridable principles that must be followed and never be violated. The notion of right and wrong is not subject to different interpretations or situations. In moral objectivism, we are looking at some universal moral principles for all people. These principles are for all social environments and all situations. On the other hand, in moral absolutism, we are looking at non-overridable principles. These principles must be followed and never be violated. Nothing is subject to interpretation, and nothing is dependent on the situation.
7. Inequality in Children
According to the professor’s sociology research, the capacity of well-educated parents will remain in their prosperous children because these children have sufficient educational capacity and support since they were born. According to studies, the life chance of a child has been set by five years old, which is a compelling and disturbing fact. The professor cannot find obvious ways to address this deep root of inequality in our society.
8. Alternative energy
The natural resources we consumed are not sustainable, so we need to develop alternative energy, such as wind power, biological energy, and hydropower. However, among all of them, solar energy should be placed as the priority because it’s not only reusable and renewable but also can be easily acquired from the land. However, these types of energy are hard to store, so new technology is required.
9. English language in poem
We often talk about the knowledge about the literature in the poem. The English language in poems and poetry is difficult to understand, and often gives readers a feeling of frustration and makes it hard for readers to enjoy poetry. This is because poems use literary expressions. However, the speaker suggests that we should learn to simply enjoy it and to know more about literature knowledge.
10. Define Theory Literature
To define theory literature, we should understand the causes and effects of literature. We should also ask ourselves several sub-questions, such as the definition of author and reader. Theory literature has a lot in common with other types of literature, but there are still some logical differences. How to define theory literature is the most fascinating thing. Literature can be caused by language, and by social, historic and
economic forces.
In Listening FIB , you will listen to an audio and you will be given a transcript. In that transcript you will have some blanks that you need to fill up by listening to the audio. You will get 2-3 tasks. Recorded audio will be of 30-60 secs.
Scoring System:
This item contributes to the Listening and Writing section partially. You get 1 mark for each correctly spelled word and get 0 for misspelled words.
Strategy:
When you are listening to the audio, write down the answer on the note and then write on the blanks. You don’t need to understand the paragraph. To avoid missing the blanks, you need to skim through the paragraph where the blanks are, before the audio starts. You get 30 secs before the audio starts.
Special note:
As writing is involved, you need to be careful about the capitalization of words.
Top 10 Listening FIB from the August prediction file,
1. Nanotechnology
What is nanotechnology? Well, a report that was put together by a ……….(1)………. of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering that came out last summer, ……….(2)………. two topics. Nano-science is the study of ……….(3)………. and the manipulation of materials at atomic, molecular, and macromolecular scales, where properties differ significantly from those as a larger scale. Nanotechnologies are the design characterization, production and application of ……….(4)………. , devices and systems by controlling shape and size at the nanometer scale. So I’ll talk a little bit more in a moment about what a nanometer is, but ……….(5)………. speaking people think of nanotechnologies as being a sort of a hundred nanometers or less.
Answer:
1. combination 2. identified 3. phenomena 4. structures 5. loosely
2. Cars in America
There are some 250 million cars in America, 250 million cars in the country with just over 300 million people. And most of those vehicles, of course, are gas ……….(1)……….. This poses a huge challenge given the limited supplies of oil and the growing ……….(2)………. of the global warming crisis. But there is good news, according to our guests today. And that is we have the know-how and the technology to build ……….(3)………., fast automobiles that don’t use gasoline. These vehicles of tomorrow are powered by ……….(4)………., electricity, bio-fuels, and digital technology. And they already exist. So what’s stopping us from putting them on the roads? Our guests today will help answer that.
Answer:
1. powered 2. urgency 3. sleek 4. hydrogen
3. Ocean Currents
For many years, the favorite horror story about ……….(1)………. climate change was that a shift in ocean currents could ……….(2)………. cool Europe’s climate. These currents, called the overturning ……….(3)………., bring warm water and warm temperatures north from the equator to Europe. Susan Lozier, an ……….(4)………. at Duke University, says scientists have long worried that this ocean circulation could be disrupted.
Answer:
1. abrupt 2. radically 3. circulation 4. oceanographer
4. Beekeeper
Dave Hackenberg, a beekeeper since 1962, can usually tell what killed his bees just by looking at them. If they’re lying on the ……….(1)………. in front of a hive, it’s probably pesticides, he says. If the bees are ……….(2)………. and wingless, it’s probably ……….(3)………. mites. But last fall, Hackenberg saw something he had never seen before. Thousands of his bee colonies simply ……….(4)……….. He was in Florida at the time, pulling the lids off some of his commercial hives. To his ……….(5)………., they were all
empty.
Answer:
1. ground 2. deformed 3. vampire 4. disappeared 5. horror
5. Laurence Stephen Lowry
Laurence Stephen Lowry was an English artist. Many of his drawings and paintings depict Pendlebury, Lancashire, where he lived and worked for more than 40 years, Salford and its vicinity. Lowry is famous for painting scenes of life in the ……….(1)………. districts of North West England in the mid-20th century. He developed a ……….(2)………. style of painting and is best known for his ……….(3)………. landscapes
peopled with human figures, often referred to as “”……….(4)………. men””. He painted mysterious unpopulated landscapes, brooding ……….(5)………. and the unpublished “” marionette”” works, which were only found after his death.
Answer:
1. industrial 2. distinctive 3. city 4. matchstick 5. portraits
6. South Australia
Now that the story’s been scratched, it is only part of contingency planning. But it was a symptom of the dramatic turn of events in South Australia, and it flushed out other remarks from water ……….(1)………. and people like Tim Flannery, indicating that things were really much worse than had been ……….(2)………., even earlier this year. So is Adelaide, let alone some whole ……….(3)………. of South Australia, in serious
bother? Considering that the vast amount of its drinking water comes from the ……….(4)………. Murray, something many of us outside the state may not have quite realized. Is their ……….(5)………. something we have to face up to as a nation?
Answer:
1. academics 2. foreshadowed 3. regions 4. beleaguered 5. predicament
7. Beautiful Buildings
Along the way we have built ……….(1)………. beautiful buildings, two of which have won and another was runnerup in the prestigious United Nations World ……….(2)………. Award: the first time an Australian building has received that international honour. We rely on older ……….(3)………. of Australian architecture that are heavily influenced by the bush. All residents have private verandahs which allow them to
……….(4)………. outdoors and also creates some “defensible space” between their bedrooms and public areas. We use a lot of ……….(5)………. and soft materials to build beautiful landscape gardens.
Answer:
1. unashamedly 2. Habitat 3. concepts 4. socialize 5. natural
8. Sunflowers by Van Gogh
These two paintings, both called “Sunflowers,” are generally accepted as the finest of several ……….(1)………. of the thick-stemmed, nodding blooms that Van Gogh made in 1888 and 1889 during his time in Arles. The first is now in the collection of the National Gallery in London, and the second is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Van Gogh referred to this work as a “……….(2)………. ” of the London
painting. But art historians and curators have long been ……….(3)………. to know how different this “repetition” is from the first. Should it be considered a copy, an independent artwork or something in between? An ……….(4)………. research project conducted over the past three years by conservation experts at both the National Gallery and the Van Gogh Museum has concluded that the second painting was “not intended as an exact copy of the ……….(5)………. example,” said Ella Hendriks, a professor of conservation and restoration at the University of Amsterdam, who was the lead researcher on the project.
Answer:
1. depictions 2. repetition 3. curious 4. extensive 5. original
9. Carbon-rich soils
Rebuilding carbon-rich agricultural soils is the only real productive ……….(1)………. solution to taking excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. She’s ……….(2)………. that scientists and politicians don’t see the same opportunities she sees. This year Australia will ……….(3)………. just over 600 million tonnes of carbon. We can sequester 685 million tonnes of carbon by ……….(4)………. soil carbon by half a percent on only two percent of the farms. If we increased it on all of the farms, we could sequester the ………. (5)………. world’s emissions of carbon.
Answer:
1. permanent 2. frustrated 3. emit 4. increasing 5. whole
10. Dogs and Hygiene Hypothesis
Dogs aren’t just man’s best friend. Previous studies have shown that kids with dogs are less likely to develop asthma. Now a new study may show how—if results from mice apply to us. The work was presented at a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. The study tests what’s called the ……….(1)………. hypothesis. The idea is that extreme cleanliness may actually promote disease later on. Researchers collected dust from homes that had a dog. They fed that house dust to mice. They then infected the mice with a ……….(2)………. childhood infection called ……….(3)………. syncytial virus—or RSV.
Answer:
1. hygiene 2. common 3. respiratory
This is one of the minor tasks of the PTE Exam. The contribution from this task is very little. But if you get 0 in this task that will impact your total score. Highlight Incorrect word is an item from the PTE Listening section. You are given a transcript of an audio. In the transcript, there are errors. Your job is to Highlight those errors.
You will get 2-3 tasks. For each task, you get 5-7 marks. You can get 5-6 errors in one sentence.
Scoring system:
You get 5-7 marks for each question. You get 1 mark for each correct response and get -1 for each incorrect response. The minimum score you get is 0.
Importance of HIW:
Highlight Incorrect words are not that much significant for the Listening section but it helps to boost marks in the Reading section. This item contributes 4% in the listening and 10% in the reading section.
Strategy:
When the audio starts, start moving the cursor along with the audio. When you hear something wrong, click on that. If you are not sure, skip it. Don’t waste time in thinking.
This is another minor task of the PTE Exam. The contribution from this task is very little. But if you get 0 in this task that will impact your total score.
Highlight correct summary is an item from the PTE Listening section. In this task, you will listen to an audio and they will give you 4 summaries. You need to highlight which summary is the correct one. You will get 1-2 tasks for this item. You get 30 secs break after the audio is finished.
Scoring system:
You get 1 mark for each question. You get 1 mark for each correct response and get 0 for each incorrect response.
Importance of HCS:
The importance of Highlight Correct Summary in PTE in very little. It contributes 1% in Reading and 3% score in Listening.
Strategy:
In this item, you need to be careful of 3 types of information that won’t be the answer. These options need to be eliminated.
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Wrong Information
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Contained with examples
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Exaggerated information/ Additional information
In Listening MCQ Multiple, After listening to a recording, the content or tone of the recording needs to be judged and a multiple-choice question needs to be answered selecting more than one response. The time for response is 40-90 seconds.
Scoring system:
You get 1-2 questions for each of the items. You get 1 mark for each correct response and get -1 for each incorrect response. The minimum score you get is 0.
Types of questions:
There are different types of questions, you may get,
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Which is the following is true?
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Which is the following is supported by the evidence?
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Which is the following can be concluded
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Which is the following is the reason?
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Which is the following represents the writer’s tone/attitude/ feelings
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Topic-specific questions.
Strategy :
In MCQ’s elimination method is the best solution to get the answer easily. To Eliminate the options, you need to follow the steps below,
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Wrong information
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Information that doesn’t match what is in the question / being asked
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Tweaked facts that appear to be correct answer
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Opposite details
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Additional information
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Partial information
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Irrelevant information
In Listening MCQ Single, After listening to a recording, a multiple-choice question on the content or tone of the recording needs to be answered by selecting one response. The time for response is 30-90 seconds.
Scoring system:
You get 1-2 questions for each of the items. You get 1 mark for each correct response and get 0 for each incorrect response.
Type of Question:
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True or False
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Not True or not false
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True except or false expect
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Can be inferred or can’t be inferred.
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Can be agreed or can’t be agreed.
In MCQ’s elimination method is the best solution to get the answer easily.
To Eliminate the options, you need to follow the steps below,
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Wrong information
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Information that doesn’t match what is in the question / being asked
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Tweaked facts that appear to be the correct answer
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Opposite details
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Additional information
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Partial information
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Irrelevant information
