Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Test 3, Speaking
Read aloud
1 Topic: Tidal energy
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student
availability, it can be called the energy resource of the future given the current rate of depletion of energy resources.
Examiner’s comments: This student reads the whole prompt with native-like fluency. However, the response would not
receive the maximum score due to small pronunciation problems with ‘costs’ and ‘utilised’.
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student
4 Topic: Future home design
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student
6 Topic: Group work
Test 3, Speaking
Repeat sentence
1 Topic: This module
Examiner’s comments: This response contains less than 50 percent of the prompt and the student’s pronunciation is
mostly incomprehensible.
Examiner’s comments: This student has good fluency and clear pronunciation, but the response has reordered some
words from the original prompt, so the score would be reduced.
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Student’s overall PTE Academic score: 45
student
333 Computer software has changed a lot last year.
Examiner’s comments: This student omits the words ‘in’ and ‘the’, and speaks with poor fluency, so the response would
receive a low score.
Examiner’s comments: This student speaks with good fluency and clear pronunciation but the response’s score would be
reduced because the student omits the word ‘a’. The pronunciation score would be reduced by slight mispronunciations
of ‘has’ and ‘year’.
Examiner’s comments: This response would receive the maximum score because all of the words are read with
native-like fluency and pronunciation.
Examiner’s comments: This student’s hesitant response would receive a low score because the student omits the words
‘next week from’ and adds words like ‘in’.
Examiner’s comments: This student’s pronunciation of words like ‘available’ and ‘course’ is incomprehensible. The
response does not contain the words ‘next’, ‘week’ or ‘from’, so the student would not receive a very high score.
Examiner’s comments: This response would receive the maximum score because all of the words are read with
native-like fluency and pronunciation.
Examiner’s comments: This student omits the word ‘agricultural’ and hesitates frequently, so their response would
receive a low score.
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student
341 The most modern agricultural equipment is now extremely expensive.
Examiner’s comments: This response would receive the maximum score because all of the words are read with
native-like fluency and pronunciation.
Examiner’s comments: The words ‘registering’ and ‘postgraduate’ are mispronounced and the student would also lose
points for replacing ‘risen’ with ‘increasing’.
Examiner’s comments: This student would lose points for omitting the word ‘research’ and replacing ‘risen’ with
‘increased’. Their response also has poor fluency.
Examiner’s comments: This response would receive the maximum score because all of the words are read with
native-like fluency and pronunciation.
Examiner’s comments: This student would lose points for poor fluency and for omitting the words ‘plan’ and ‘educational’.
Examiner’s comments: This student hesitates, adds the word ‘specialisation’ and omits the words ‘plan’ and ‘educational’.
Therefore, their response would not receive a high score.
Examiner’s comments: This response would receive the maximum score because all of the words are read with
native-like fluency and pronunciation.
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student
Student’s overall PTE Academic score: 74
349 The new drug will be tested in South America.
Examiner’s comments: This student speaks with good fluency but the response would receive a low score because they
replace ‘North’ with ‘South’ and they mispronounce ‘will’.
Examiner’s comments: This response would receive the maximum score because all of the words are read with
native-like fluency and pronunciation.
Examiner’s comments: This student’s pronunciation is good, but their response’s score would be low due to a hesitation
at the beginning, and the replacement of ‘which are’ with ‘will be’.
Examiner’s comments: This student replaces the word ‘which’ with ‘that’ and they hesitate for a long time before the
word ‘incur’. The response would receive a relatively low score despite adequately good pronunciation.
Examiner’s comments: This response would receive the maximum score because all of the words are read with
native-like fluency and pronunciation.
Examiner’s comments: This student speaks unnaturally slowly and fails to repeat ‘has’, ‘become’ or ‘these’, so the
response would receive a low score.
Examiner’s comments: This student mispronounces ‘distance’ and replaces ‘has become’ with ‘is becoming’. Despite a
good score for fluency, the response would receive a relatively low score.
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student
Student’s overall PTE Academic score: 45
357 You need to write a proposal of your– for your research.
Examiner’s comments: This student repeats every word from the prompt but also says ‘of’ before ‘your research’, and
would lose points for this error.
Examiner’s comments: This student’s mispronunciation of the word ‘you’ would reduce their score, but the response
would receive a good score for fluency.
Examiner’s comments: This response would receive the maximum score because all of the words are read with
native-like fluency and pronunciation.
Test 3, Speaking
Describe image
1 Topic: Population age groups in Australia
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Student’s overall PTE Academic score: 77
student
362 The graphic shows the population age groups of male and female in Australia. We can see it’s quite a young country.
Er, in the age group of 0 to 19, both gender, has about 13 to 14 percent. And in the age group of 20 to 39, er both male and
female takes about er– 14 percent or 15 percent. And then the– in the age group of 40 to 59, again is somewhere about 13
percent each. And when it turns older, um then there’s about 6.5 percent for male and seven perc– [cut]
Examiner’s comments: This response would receive a high score because, as well as mentioning the key features of the
image, the student also states that ‘we can see that Australia is quite a young country’. This is an implication of the data,
and show’s the student’s ability to develop an answer beyond just reading from the image. The student also speaks with
appropriate fluency and native-like pronunciation for most words.
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student
have [cut]
Examiner’s comments: This response misrepresents some key aspects of the image due to poor word choice, e.g. the
student says ‘according to oil’ when it would be more appropriate to say ‘for oil’. The student’s speech is very slow and
hesitant and certain words are mispronounced. Due to the poor fluency, the student’s response is incomplete.
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student
give birth to live young, breathe air and have a horizontal tail fins, whereas fish lay eggs, get oxygen from the water, and
have vertical tail fins. The similarities between the two are that they both live in water, and they both can swim.
Examiner’s comments: This student describes all the key features of the image. In order to achieve the maximum score,
the student would need to develop the response beyond simply reading from the image. However, the score would be
very high because the student describes the image with native-like fluency and pronunciation.
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student
er into the e– energy for the lights a– and appliances and TVs and so on.
Examiner’s comments: This student describes all the key features of the image, in the appropriate order. However, the
response’s score would be intermediate because the student fails to develop the answer and does not mention any
implications of the image. In addition, although the student’s pronunciation is clear, it is not native-like, and the student’s
speech is very hesitant.
Test 3, Speaking
Re-tell lecture
1 Topic: Homework
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student
poorly pronounced.
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student
change and er be more aggress aggressive and could be affect er, physical ills. So this is, er a well er established link
between [cut]
Examiner’s comments: This student tries to mention some main points from the lecture but due to incomprehensible
pronunciation of key words like ‘urban’ the response would receive a very low score. Words like ‘space’ and ‘illness’ are
also badly mispronounced and the student’s speech is slow and hesitant.
Test 3, Writing
Summarize written text
1 Topic: Inequality
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student
Examiner’s comments: This summary would receive a maximum score because the student has used suitable vocabulary
and an appropriate grammatical structure to summarize the passage’s main points.
Test 3, Writing
Write essay
1 Topic: Types of employment for men and women
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student
with the shills to perform all type of activities and duty that requiere strengten.
Overall, employmente should be the
Examiner’s comments: This essay does contain a sufficient number of words (228), but the student would lose points
because the final sentence is incomplete. Unfinished sentences reduce the essay’s score for development and structure.
In addition, the essay’s introduction does not effectively address the question, which is about whether certain jobs are
appropriate for men and others are more suited to women; it is not about equal opportunities. Although the main body
of the essay does contain sufficient examples and explanation, there are also frequent spelling mistakes, such as ‘onle’ and
‘requiere’, as well as grammatical errors which would contribute to a low score.
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student
Traditionally, nursing was seen as a female occupation. But when dealing with adolescent boys for instance, a male
professional might actually be preferred due to issues around nudity in front of a female nurse. At the same time
however, another male patient might prefer a female nurse because they feel uncomfortable about undressing in front
of another man when they’ve just reached puberty.
In domestic abuse cases, the police force might send a female officer over to talk to the victim in question, believing
that that’s what they prefer because the abuse was at the hands of a man. It becomes more complicated though when
that victim suffered the abuse because of her partner’s (female) family members and she would actually prefer to speak
to a male police officer.
Lastly, most (celebrity) chefs tend to be male, but cooking itself tends to be seen as a task for women in the household.
I’m not sure if even I could tell who would be better suited!
Examiner’s comments: This essay’s introduction clearly addresses the question and makes this student’s opinion clear.
The student continues to develop their opinion by providing clear explanations and examples to support points, and by
suitably dividing the essay into paragraphs. A wide range of vocabulary and grammar is also used effectively, so the overall
score would be high. However, the essay’s score would be reduced in terms of logical development by the conclusion,
which seems to contradict the opinion expressed in the introduction. Rather than saying whether men or women are
better suited to cooking, in order to logically conclude the essay, the student should have said that cooking is suited
equally to both men and women.
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student
protecting and influential. One of the best schemes of cross-cultural integration in Europe is the Erasmus program,
where europeans move to a city in a different country. This has proved beneficial to these students, who are able not
only to learn another language but to make contacts all around Europe that can be important for their future career.
Moreover, they are ready and willing to migrate accross borders to pursue their careers.
In conclusion leaving in a different city will change one’s mind and will make people more open minded, experienced
and flexible.
Examiner’s comments: This essay has not been divided into clear paragraphs, which would reduce this student’s score
for structure and cohesion. However, the student develops the essay well and successfully uses effective explanations
and personal examples to make opinions clear. The student’s use of grammatical structures is also strong, but spelling
mistakes (‘accross’ and ‘positve’) would reduce the student’s score. The overall score would also be reduced by some
inappropriate choices of vocabulary, such as ‘living by their own’; in this case, the student should use ‘on’ rather than ‘by’.
Test 3, Listening 3
Summarize spoken text
1 Topic: Eco-tourism
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Student’s overall PTE Academic score: 55
student
Nowadays a new way of turism is becoming more popular around the world and it is the Ecoturism. This concept is
about having a friendly relation with the environment and to get aware of the ecosystem. Governments are playing
and important role promoting and encouraging using marketing strategies to convey places and culture diversity. It is
important to remember that the aim of the ecoturism is to learn more about nature and to take care about it.
Examiner’s comments: This student has summarized some of the lecture’s main points well. However, the summary
would lose points for omitting the fact that some eco-tourism actually damages environments. There are also spelling
mistakes (such as ‘turism’) and errors such as ‘governments are playing and important role’, which reduce the student’s
score. In addition, the summary contains some poor choices of vocabulary, such as ‘to take care about’. While these
don’t prevent the student from communicating ideas, they do prevent a maximum score for vocabulary being awarded.
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student
spread in the southern hemisphere. This issue has to be addressed in near future.
Examiner’s comments: Summaries should be between 50 and 70 words. This summary is 73 words, and therefore the
student’s score would be reduced. The summary also contains a spelling mistake ‘increse’. However, the student has
included all of the lecture’s main points and has used grammatical structures and vocabulary appropriately. Therefore,
the overall score for this summary would be high.