Hi everyone! Let us see PTE retell lecture tips from the speaking module. After listening to a lecture, you have to retell it in your own words. In this task you should be able to convert the entire prompt into 40 seconds response time. Don’t try to speak as is. Because, your response is evaluated based on the ability to give a lecture on the provided information. So you have to rephrase and deliver it in your own way. At the end of this page, I will explain how to write the template only once in the erasable notebook, which can be used for all questions – yes, one template for all questions will help to save the time. Before that let us understand the task.
Understand the task
Audio will play after 3 seconds – You have 3 seconds before you listen to the recording. During that time get ready to take notes in the given textpad. The audio length will be a maximum of 90 seconds. Sometimes it may exceed to more than 90 seconds. After the lecture, you have 10 seconds to prepare before you start speaking and 40 seconds to respond. Make sure you are able to read whatever notes you have taken.
For Speaking section, fluency and pronunciation contributes the marks, and points for Listening section is scored by content and pronunciation. You cannot hear the lecture again, and can record your respond only once. Please watch the below video to have a complete understanding of retell lecture task.
Scoring structure
Retell lecture contributes 11 marks for speaking section and 10 marks for listening section. 5 marks each for content, fluency and pronunciation.
Content
Content is scored by speaking all important points, related to the lecture and conclusions. Speak only whatever you hear and don’t add any irrelevant ideas. You can paraphrase the sentences but don’t rephrase the keywords. But if you use the template, you can directly include the phrases without paraphrasing.
Fluency
If you repeat the ideas, or correct yourself or hesitate, you will lose some points. False start is nothing but you have to start exactly after the beep sound.
Intonation, phrasing and stress should be smooth. Make sure you are using the correct rhythm – i.e. rising and falling. Break the sentence wherever required with a small pause, and stress on the important words. For example, The speaker was talking about green house gases. Here stress on green house gases. I have described about these in detail in read aloud and repeat sentence tasks. Also please watch the videos in which I have explained the fluency and pronunciation with some examples.
Pronunciation
Pronunciation should be understandable to regular speakers and for everyone as well. Pronounce past tense (ed), plurals, vowels and consonants correctly.
For example,
This is innovative. Sometimes if we speak along with a sentence we may speak like innovati instead of innovative. He is such an innovative person. Stress on entire word.
Having great impact – don’t merge the words as havingreat. It is having great impact on country’s economy. You have to speak like that.
What mistakes we usually do in retell lecture?
In retell lecture, sometimes we may get the image as well. If we get the image in the first question, we may get confused, as we may think it is a Describe Image task. So read the instructions carefully for each question. Capturing excessive or unnecessary content. Sometimes we may struggle to frame the structure and exceeds 40 seconds. The common mistake people do is, not able to get proper information from the lecture. If you capture correct phrases and use the template, you will be able to perform well and complete within 35 seconds.
Poor handwriting while taking notes. If you don’t understand your own handwriting you will not be able to speak properly. So make notes clearly in the textpad. In the exam you will get an erasable marker and notepad. Try to practice at home using a marker instead of pen or pencil to ensure you can write quickly using marker. Take care of these basic mistakes.
How to practice and improve PTE Retell Lecture using tips?
Practice retell lecture every time by writing the template in erasable notebook and just read it in the response time. It improves fluency marks. Moreover, we don’t need to think while speaking. Capture up to 5 phrases (not keywords) and fit into the template. Most people capture 4 to 5 keywords and struggling to make it as a sentence. This affects the fluency marks negatively. But if you capture the phrases, you will be able to speak continuously and your flow will be good.
For example, with the keywords the sentence will be like this: The speaker talked about traditional instruments, computers and music. Here I am unknowingly making lot of pauses. Instead, if we speak with phrases, it will be like this: The speaker talked about traditional instruments in which strings are good and computers are used to design music. Here, the fluency will be smooth if we speak the sentences with phrases. Practice along with Read aloud and Describe image. You should always practice along with these two tasks so that your modulation and pace will not be changed.
PTE Retell Lecture Test Tips – Preparation time
Utilize the 10 seconds preparation time. During this time, read the phrases and ensure that you are able to pronounce properly. You should be able to understand what you have written in the notebook. Pronounce the phrases once in your mind to avoid fumbling.
PTE Retell Lecture Test Tips – After the beep
Start immediately when you hear the short tone. Your voice will not be recorded if you speak before the recording bar displays. If you capture 5 phrases and speak using the template, you will be able to speak up to 35 seconds. If you feel that you are taking much time, just capture only 4 phrases.
The recording stops if you remain silent for more than 3 seconds. Again your fluency will be negatively affected as there is a long pause and background noises. Once your response is done, click the “Next” button. Keep the mouse over the Next button. Get ready to click next once you speak and press the confirmation message. As discussed in Read Aloud, the process bar will not stop until you press yes.
Use the template in Retell Lecture
I have consolidated the template from few sources and modified according to make it easy for everyone.
Template:
The main idea of the lecture was about the impacts of <main topic>
First and foremost the speaker was discussing <phrase1>
He then talked about <phrase2> and <phrase3>
Finally he mentioned <phrase4> and <phrase5>
Overall, it can be concluded that this lecture is having crucial information about the topic, strongly supported by important facts and figures and have great impact on <main topic>
Here the fifth phrase should be the last sentence of the prompt. Don’t miss it as it may have some important information. And also the main idea is very important. Moreover, whatever template it may be, the conclusion part is significant to complete the lecture. If you use this template for PTE Retell Lecture using the tips, you can easily go for around 30 to 35 seconds and you don’t need lot of information from the lecture. Even for listening score this will do.
You have to write the template in the notepad before the exam starts, during the time when you read the set of instructions. But in some centers they won’t allow you to write before the exam. If you are not able to write the template, then practice a lot and memorize the template. In addition, try to write at least the first few words of each sentence, so that you can read it without interruptions.
| The main idea of the lecture was about the impacts of | First and foremost the speaker was discussing | He then talked about | Finally he mentioned |
| climate changes to agricultural productions | millions of people facing hunger in Africa | difficulties due to financial status anddevastating effects on world economy | weather conditions such as floods and huricanes anddecline in food supply |
| sound of a cracking knee | electrical engineer’s experience with cracking knees | the engineer found tiny microphones andhow bone surfaces rubbing each other | squishy sounds are more irregular andhelp people to perform particular activities |
Overall, it can be concluded that this lecture is having crucial information about the topic, strongly supported by important facts and figures and have great impact on <main topic>.
This is how I wrote in the exam. We will get 2 or 3 questions. So if we write the template like a table we can use the same template for all questions. In the video above I have shown how I used to take notes when the audio plays with some examples. Get ready with your marker and notepad in the exam during the first 3 seconds before the audio plays. During the 10 seconds preparation time, we can read the phrases that we wrote to ensure that we can understand our own handwriting and can pronounce difficult words couple of times.
Sometimes we can’t write the entire phrases in the notepad as it takes more time. Therefore, for long words just write the first few characters. For instance, agricultural productions – write only agri prods but you should be able to remember the entire word while speaking. After the short tone, we have to start speaking immediately and complete it in 40 seconds. Once you are done, click “Next” and get ready for the next question. In the real exam I wrote my template like below. I wrote the conclusion part at the top to make sure I have enough space, because sometimes we may get 3 or 4 questions.
Conclusion
To sum up, if you use the template in PTE retell lecture using tips, manage the time properly and write your notes well, you will be able to include most of the key points and can complete the task in 35 seconds. Moreover, you can get good marks in both speaking and listening sections as you can speak fluently with the required content. Make sure you follow all these points in this task. That’s all about retell lecture. Hope you got some information from this post.
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