Test overview
PTE Academic (Pearson Test of English Academic) is an international computer-based English language test, similar to IELTS Academic. It accurately measures English language ability and can be used to apply to educational institutions, and professional and government organizations. The test uses task-based questions to represent the kinds of functions and situations students will find themselves in during academic study.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS CONCERNING THE TOEIC
More than 4,500,000 people take the TOEIC each year, and this number is growing. The TOEIC is administered in Europe, Asia, North America, South America, and Central America. Since the test is relatively new (compared to the TOEFL, which was first given in 1963), many test takers are unfamiliar with the TOEIC. The following are some commonly asked questions about the TOEIC.
Linguaskill is not a ‘high-stages’ test like IELTS, but it is a quick and convenient online test to help organisations check the English levels of individuals and groups of candidates, powered by Artificial Intelligence technology. It tests all four language skills - speaking, writing, reading and listening - in modules.
Within Linguaskill there are two test options, General and Business. This lets you choose the type of English that will be tested, based on your objectives.
There may be times when it is useful to know how a CEFR level, IELTS band score or old standardised score compares to a Cambridge English Scale score.
What is the polishing stage?
This is when you look through the final version of your writing in order to correct grammar and spelling mistakes and make any other final changes to improve your work.
Why is it necessary?
It's not always easy to spot mistakes, especially if you are thinking about meaning rather than grammar. But careless mistakes will give the reader a bad impression and may cost you marks in the exam, so it's worth allowing time for a polishing stage.
While you can go into any language test with a lot of confidence and even enthusiasm, one thing you don't have a lot of in the exam is time. Your ability to read quickly and to process the information effectively is of paramount importance.
You need to develop the ability to read quickly. Two key techniques that can help you do this are skimming and scanning.
Please note that Pearson Test of English General Paper 02 (speaking test component) will be undergoing a redesign.
Interpreting your IELTS scores
Here are some examples of how marks are translated into IELTS band scores.
Below you will see a side-by-side comparison of the old TOEFL and the new TOEFL, after August 1, 2019.
Cambridge English Qualifications
B1 Preliminary and B1 Preliminary for Schools - 2020 exam update
What’s new?
Reading and Writing have been divided into separate papers. There are now four papers (rather than three).
Identifying the language needs of your student and designing a course that matches up with them effectively is one of the most challenging aspects of one-to-one teaching.
The VAK Learning Styles Model was developed by psychologists in the 1920s to classify the most common ways that people learn. According to the model, most of us prefer to learn in one of three ways: visual, auditory or kinesthetic (although, in practice, we generally "mix and match" these three styles).
What’s the difference between IELTS Academic, IELTS General and IELTS Life Skills?
Choose an exam format depending on your needs!
The updated Cambridge English: Starters test will start being used for exam sessions from January 2018.
Cambridge English examinations use 'Extended Certification', which means that they give you additional credit for the language skills you demonstrate in the exam.
Metric and imperial measurements
In Britain, two systems of measurement are used — the metric system and the imperial system. The metric system is now commonly used for most purposes, but the imperial system is still used for people's heights and weights, drinks in pubs, distances on road signs, and sports such as cricket, football, and horseracing.
Many words are spelled with consonants that are not pronounced. Here are the main rules about silent consonants.
Suggestions
neutral suggestions
firm suggestions
less firm suggestions
more formal suggestions
suggesting doing something together
very firm suggestions
suggestions about what would be best
replying to a suggestion
Run-on Sentences
A run-on error is two or more sentences joined together without a word to connect them or a punctuation mark to separate them. If you put a comma between them, it is still incorrect. This error is called a comma splice.
1 PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE
The present subjunctive is used mainly in certain fixed phrases and in formal, impersonal English. In more informal language we commonly use the Present Simple or should.
Register: degrees of formality
Some words are formal or informal, and others are quite neutral.
Sometimes it is possible to arrange words into sets of neutral, formal and informal words.
Interjections (or, as they're sometimes called, exclamations) are words or short phrases that stand apart from the rest of a sentence grammatically or appear on their own without a subject and verb. Because they're often used to exclaim, interjections often pack an emotional punch that can make fictional dialogue more realistic.
Standard American English and standard British English are very similar. There are a few differences in the use of structures and in spelling rules, and rather more differences of vocabulary and idiom. Modern British English is heavily influenced by American English, so some contrasts are disappearing. Pronunciation is sometimes very different, but most American and British speakers can understand each other easily.
These collocations are taken from the British National Corpus.
What grammatical strategies can you use to make your English more emphatic?
The ten strategies given here should not be used all the time in your speaking or writing. If you were to use them all the time, their impact would be lost! Instead, it is better to use them occasionally, in order to maximize the effect which they can have.
In the Writing paper, there may be a question which asks you to write about an event or tell a story. The question might ask for this in the form of a short story or a description of an event.
Use a revision checklist! When you revise, you should check the content and language of your essay. You need to make sure that the content is well developed and well organized and that you have used correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Use this revision checklist to practise revising!
A trend is a movement of data in a general direction over time. In IELTS Academic exams, the first writing task is usually a line graph, bar chart, pie chart or table that you will have to describe, so describing trends is essential.
The words in this section are homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently). It is easy to confuse them.
Do you suffer from FOMO? Well, IMO, you’re not alone. If you fear missing out on the latest new words, then you’ve come to the right place.
What is ‘inversion’?
When we want to emphasise an event because it is new, rare, unexpected, sudden, impossible, etc. we can use negative or restrictive adverbials followed by inverted word order:
I had never been there before. > Never before had I been there.
They didn't try to help me. > Not once did they try to help me.
When he came home we realised we had missed him. > Only when he came home did we realise we had missed him.
Ways of linking ideas and actions
Another way to bring variety into your composition is to use different connecting words and phrases (linkers) like although, when, however.
Study the following linking words and phrases.
Writing about events
Stories will be more interesting to read if you can avoid using only the Past Simple tense, e.g. ‘First we went to … and then we saw … and then I played …’
Most stories use a variety of past tenses. Read the following review of story-telling tenses.
