TIP: If you remain silent for longer than 3 seconds, the recording will stop.
PTE Read Aloud is the first question after the personal introduction in your PTE exam. This is one of the simplest questions in the speaking module.
In the Read Aloud section, you’ll see some text (paragraph) on the screen. You will be given 40 seconds to understand the text and prepare your response to read it aloud. The microphone will open up after which you’ll have 40 seconds to record your read-aloud response.
This question also contributes your reading score in addition to the speaking score. You’ll score high if you remain calm, speak naturally, demonstrate fluency, put appropriate emphasis on certain words, use correct pronunciation and flow of speech.
To score high in this simple question, you need to understand a few tips and tricks.
Try and pause at punctuation marks, they are there for a reason. You should pause at commas, conjunctions such as for, but, or, so, and, nor, yet, etc. You should briefly stop at full stops. Try to be logical enough to understand the sentence and follow this guideline.
In a paragraph that you will be given, you don’t emphasize on all the words that you think are important. You need to find the keywords that are being used in the context to explain a situation and you, emphasize those words, the most. Emphasizing means you are providing significance to the word to explain it in a meaningful context.
Do not stop in between your reading. If you pause unnecessary, your score will go down. If you find a difficult word, break it down if possible into chunks of that word e.g. disambiguation – dis~ambi~gua~tion. You will be able to emphasize the word as well as pronunciate it properly.
Read loudly to get your voice captured in the microphone for the software to assess it. Don’t worry about others sitting next to you. They won’t help you improve your score so stop thinking about anyone else. You focus only on your speaking, read it loud and clear enough to be heard. Don’t try to whisper words into microphone, it won’t help at all.
Even if you are poor in English, you should remain confident while speaking. Do not doubt yourself – just be comfortable and confident. Try to be as fluent as possible to improve your reading and speaking score.
When speaking any sentence, people keep changing their tone and voice to match to the sentence they are either reading or speaking. You may raise your tone while starting the sentence, then you should lower it while you reach to the end of a sentence. Don’t read like you are mocking up someone, don’t be too fast and don’t be too slow. Diversify your tone just right.
All the above can only become simpler if you practice reading aloud. Read English newspaper, magazines or browse websites to read online. You have to be aware of the vocabulary that you come across as and when you read more. Try a few read aloud practice questions with answers to compare your reading.
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