Hello everyone! In this post we are going to see PTE Read Aloud tips. Read Aloud is the very first task in PTE speaking section. It is one of the very easiest task but we have some rules to follow. Why we have read aloud as the first task. It is to relax ourselves. Suppose if we have re-tell lecture or repeat sentence as a first task, we may struggle sometimes as they are tough tasks and we may end up losing in all tasks of speaking section. It is also to set our tone and to fix the speed before proceeding to further tasks.
Ok let us go deeper into this task.
Understanding read aloud task
Now we will see tips and tricks in PTE Read Aloud. Read Aloud is a simple task but little challenging. Why it is challenging? Because sometimes we may do hesitations, fumbling and replacement of words. We will be getting around 6 to 7 questions in the exam. Affects the scoring of speaking and reading sections. In speaking section fluency and pronunciation contributes the marks and in reading section content and pronunciation carries the marks.
Also read aloud is interlinked with Describe Image and Retell Lecture in terms of pace. We have to maintain same speed in RA, DI and RL. You can record only once. If you do mistakes that’s fine but don’t go back and correct yourself because the fluency marks will be affected negatively.
Scoring structure
Understanding the scoring structure is also very important. It is one of the high scoring task in speaking section. For both speaking and reading sections it carries around 22 marks. It is further classified into 3 categories. Content, fluency and pronunciation, which carries 5 marks each.
Content
The content is scored by counting the number of correct words. Therefore, we should not add or skip any words. We have to stick to whatever is given in the passage.
Fluency
Intonation, phrasing and stress should be smooth. In Intonation we should know where we have to rise and fall appropriately. For that we have to understand the passage but not entire meaning. Phrasing is nothing but group of words. We should know where to break the sentence even if you don’t see the punctuations. Intonation and phrasing comes together. So we should know where we have to pause and lower our pitch.
Stress on important words. We can understand all these things by,
- Listening to BBC News channel or any audio source.
- Don’t watch the video, just hear to improve your concentration and listening skills.
- Don’t follow their speed, just ignore it as they are too fast.
Fluency is also affected by hesitations, repetitions and false starts.
No hesitations – For example, fa fa… For both speaking, speaking and reading. You should not fumble like this.
Repetitions – We should not speak like, for both speaking, speaking and reading. We should not repeat like this.
And false starts – We should not start before the short tone or few seconds later after the tone. We should start exactly after we hear the beep sound.
Pronunciation
Pronunciation should be understandable to regular speakers or native speakers. You should not read but explain the passage. Like talking to a friend or giving a lecture. Pronounce past tense, plurals, vowels and consonants correctly. For example, in past tense, in the word learned the ‘ed’ part also should be pronounced properly. We should not pronounce as learn, it should be learned.
Plurals – The match starts sharply at 10am. In this example, sharply starts with ‘s’. Therefore, we will unknowingly merge these two words as start sharply. So focus on those areas and pronounce as starts sharply.
The baby is sleeping. Do not merge it as ‘isleeping’.
Vowels and consonants – car. Here a is vowel and c and r are consonants. We should pronounce all these 3 letters properly as car.
Pronunciation of words are also very important – In some places, especially in my country the words ‘environment’, ‘research’ is pronounced differently.
Five – Sometimes if it comes along with a sentence we may speak like fie. For example, This is fie times greater than that. Its not fie times, its five times.
What mistakes we usually do in read aloud?
Failing to maintain the pace. In RA, DI and RL we have to maintain the same pace. Don’t alter the speed, otherwise your fluency will be affected negatively. Speaking too quickly or slowly. Don’t be in a rush. Maintain a normal speed so that your speech is understandable. RA is easy task but other two tasks are difficult, as we have to think and speak. Speaking loudly or softly or without intonation. Speaking in a flat tone or speaking like a robot will affect your marks. Never do these mistakes.
How to practice and improve PTE read aloud using tips?
Read the newspaper or any article every day. If you feel that you are pronouncing wrongly, check the google dictionary audio immediately and correct yourself. Practice RA, DI and RL together to set the tone. Don’t practice RA one day and describe image on the other day, otherwise, your modulation may vary. As a result, in real exam you will be speaking RA in one tone and DI and RL in the other tone. Hence, always practice these 3 tasks altogether.
Improve PTE read aloud by record, understand your voice and correct yourself – Sometimes we may eat some words or fumble. You can correct the flaws only by hearing your own voice. Record, hear your voice, correct the mistakes and rerecord it to understand your mistakes.
Practice using google speech to text or any other source. I used to practice in Real PTE where we can directly check the pronunciation and meaning of the words by clicking that word itself. In addition, we can check our own voice, pronunciation and it will also correct and mark your content, fluency and pronunciation out of 5. This is an user friendly website.
Seek your friends help or any experts for correction. Don’t go to any institute and waste your money. It is absolutely not required. Instead you can join any of the whatsapp groups or telegram groups to validate our recordings. I personally suggest to join one of the telegram group called PTE Guru where we have lot of friends to help correcting our mistakes.
PTE Read Aloud Test tips – Preparation time
We have a maximum of 40 seconds to prepare ourself. Don’t read in your mind. In our mind we can read fluently but when we speak out we may fumble. Speak softly during preparation time but don’t shout. Read the difficult words couple of times. Twist your tongue until you pronounce the words properly.
Read the first phrase again in the last 5 seconds. This is one important point that we have to notice. Sometimes if we start speaking the first passage, we may get nervous and our fluency will be affected negatively. I too have this starting trouble. Therefore, read the first phrase couple of times in the last 5 seconds of preparation time, get ready to hear the beep sound and start immediately. Also keep an eye on the next word while reading, to ensure that your fluency will also be smooth.
PTE Read Aloud Test tips – After the beep
Start immediately when you hear the short tone. No false starts – You should not speak before the beep sound or 3 seconds after the beep sound. You should start immediately after the beep sound. Try to complete within 20 to 25 seconds. We have a maximum of 40 seconds to respond but don’t take much time. If you are able to complete within this timeframe your speed will be accurate. Fix the speed.
The recording stops if you remain silent for more than 3 seconds. If you remain silent for 3 seconds, computer thinks that you have completed recording. Unnecessary pauses may also affect your fluency. Keep the mouse over the Next button. In some places the microphone may not be noise cancellation, it may capture the background noises as well. When you move the mouse to the next button it may take half a second. Even during that time, it may capture the background noises. Therefore, before hearing the beep sound, keep the arrow over the next button and once you complete your response click the button immediately.
Even after clicking the next button, you will see a confirmation message yes or no. During that time as well, the recording will continue at the background. Hence, click the yes button immediately after clicking the next button. Be confident while speaking. Don’t follow any accent. Speak naturally and stress on important words. Pause on long sentences, comma and full stop. Use hand gestures so that you can speak naturally. Open your mouth and speak clearly. Don’t murmur. Watch the video to see how to do this task. I have explained with examples similar to real exam.
Conclusion
If you follow all the strategies and tips for PTE read aloud mentioned in this post, you can easily improve yourself in PTE read aloud and get lot of points in speaking section as well as in reading section. Don’t get nervous while speaking and don’t make any mistakes. If you practice properly, you can get even 90 in speaking section (read my post on how to get 79+ in PTE to score more than 79). Hope you got some tips. That’s all I have for Read Aloud. Thanks for following my tips.
