PTE Read Aloud Tips and Tricks | Top 12 Tips

Want to see some easy ways to improve your score in PTE Read Aloud? Let’s look at our Top 10 tested and proven PTE Read Aloud Tips and Tricks.

Use the time before the microphone opens up to become familiar with the text

It is your time to rehearse and understand the theme of the text. Quickly skim through the text and become familiar with it.

Chunk the text before you speak by breaking it at punctuation marks

You can also break longer sentences at logical marks such as conjunctions. Mentally put a “/” in front of words where you are going to pause. Full stops and commas are natural places for these pauses but you can also stop at words like “and”, “but”, etc. In a long sentence you can pause after 5-6 words or wherever it makes logical sense.

Pick some words that you can emphasize on

This is a very important point in our list of PTE Read Aloud Tips and Tricks!When we speak naturally, we highlight the words that carry information. We put some stress on these words. This is a sign of good speaking ability as it indicates that you know which pieces of the sentence are more important than the others, and you also have the ability to pass on that information to others. Don’t think too much about these – pick 3-4 words that seem key in the sentence.

Read some starting text aloud just to get in the right state of mind

That way you can speak as soon as the microphone opens us. Read a little bit already before the actual recording. That way you won’t be starting from fresh when the microphone opens up.

Start reading as soon as the microphone opens us

You will hear a tone and see the recording status. That is your sign to begin speaking. If you hesitate that will be considered as a negative sign. Fill the time available with your words.

Don’t stop too much when you are reading the text

Don’t stop too much when you are reading the text – either the microphone will close down or you will come across as unnatural. Even when you are not confident about your response or you think the words are difficult or that you have made a mistake, still keep going. If you are silent for more than 3 seconds the microphone will shut down and your response won’t be recorded any further.

Raise and lower your voice at the right places

Intonation is very important. Without it you will sound like a robot. If there is a list of words or phrases in the sentence separated by commas, then you should raise your voice while speaking each word in the list. When you are beginning a new sentence – that is also a place to raise the tone. When you are concluding a sentence you should lower your tone. Your voice should have that wave like effect.

Understand the pace at which you should speak

Understand what the right pace for you is – whether you should speak fast or slower. As a general guideline if you speak faster you will sound more fluent. However, this is not the best approach for everyone. Sometimes if you speak too fast you can muddle the speech – your words might mix into each other and become very unclear. So before the exam you need to figure out what the right pace is. Try speaking at different paces – slow, fast, faster and record yourself. Then listen and decide what works the best for you.

Go to the next question if you finish early

Very simple but important point in our PTE Read Aloud Tips and Tricks list – Go to next! If you finish before the time quickly click on the Next button and go to the next question. Don’t wait for the recording timer to finish. You don’t want to fill your response with unnecessary silences.

Practice read aloud by starting with small sentences and gradually going up to longer sentences.

A good way to build your fluency is by practicing this every day. Take any academic sentence and pick 10-20 short, medium and long sentences from it. Start with the short sentences. Once you speak them well move on to medium and then long sentences. The PTE Mock Test packages provide a good mix of such questions.

Learn the most common academic vocabulary and its usage in sentences

For this you can refer to the academic word list for PTE and IELTS. Learn the meaning and pronunciation of all the words in the list. Then also try to use them in different sentences. This will make you more confident when you find any complex text in the exam.

Record yourself and try to understand how you sound

Even better get a friend or someone more fluent in English listen to it and suggest to you what need to improve. Practice always with authentic PTE Academic materials i.e. audio must be from actual real academic situations. Record your answers to these questions and listen to all of them with a focus on finding mistakes and areas for further improvement.