There are many ways you can improve your chances of gaining points in Part 2: Reading during PTE Academic.
- To improve your reading skills, practice increasing your reading speed and comprehension at the same time. In turn, you will improve your writing, grammar and vocabulary skills.
- To do well in this part of the test, you need to be able to read quickly, using effective reading strategies, as there is a limited time to answer all questions.
- Speed reading tasks will help improve your reading speed. Practice speed reading every day and Aim to be reading at least 220 words per minute
- Reading short articles of around 300 words
- Read often for short periods of time
- You can also try this as a challenge with your friends to help keep motivated. Once you are happy with your comprehension and speed, focus on chunks (groups of words) rather than individual words.
- When your reading skills reach a level you are happy with, you will feel more confident to answer the questions.
- Multiple-choice, choose single answer
In the Multiple-Choice, Single Answer question type, some test takers make the mistake of scan reading and matching the words in the text to the words in the answer. Generally, the words in the text are not used in the correct answer, therefore it is important to learn how to use synonyms and paraphrasing as it will be used in the test. - Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers
In this question type, you will need more time than in the Multiple-Choice, Choose Single Answer question type, as you need to intensively read the stem (the part before the options) as well as the options, then scan read the text on the screen until you find the part of the text that contains information that was in the stem. - Read the options very carefully and match the meaning of the option with the text. Do not match the words – this is something test takers may make errors with.
