# Improve PTE Speaking Score / Give TOEFL



## Tinaj (May 27, 2017)

Hi, 

I gave PTE (Academic) in Feb 2017 and scored:
L:70, R:79, S:45 and W:90

In May (second attempt) the scores were:
L:70, R:60, S:33 and W:83

I am unable to understand where I am going wrong specially with the speaking section. I am wondering if I should attempt PTE for the third time or give TOEFL a try.

Anyone who has dramatically improved PTE speaking scores or has given both PTE and TOEFL please suggest.


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## Gurdeep225 (Apr 14, 2017)

Tinaj said:


> Hi,
> 
> I gave PTE (Academic) in Feb 2017 and scored:
> L:70, R:79, S:45 and W:90
> ...


Hello Brother,
It is better to got for PTE but take the help of E2 Language. Just go to youtube and search E2 Language PTE Videos. You will find videos related to PTE Speaksing. Also you can take E2 Language paid membership which will be very helpful for you.
Regards


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## desiaussie (Dec 2, 2015)

Tinaj said:


> Hi,
> 
> I gave PTE (Academic) in Feb 2017 and scored:
> L:70, R:79, S:45 and W:90
> ...


i personally find navjot brar videos more helpful


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

Tinaj said:


> Hi,
> 
> I gave PTE (Academic) in Feb 2017 and scored:
> L:70, R:79, S:45 and W:90
> ...




I can with most certainty conclude that you are a lady from India. The reason is I know many such people whose general English is decent. However, their PTE scores suggests otherwise. Check your oral fluency & pronunciation. These must be low. Hence you have scored less.

I wouldn't suggest you PTE. Their software is not designed for Indian female voice. People here can debate. However, I know many such instances. You would only burn precious money & time!


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## Tinaj (May 27, 2017)

shets said:


> I can with most certainty conclude that you are a lady from India. The reason is I know many such people whose general English is decent. However, their PTE scores suggests otherwise. Check your oral fluency & pronunciation. These must be low. Hence you have scored less.
> 
> I wouldn't suggest you PTE. Their software is not designed for Indian female voice. People here can debate. However, I know many such instances. You would only burn precious money & time!


Thank you for the input. My oral fluency and pronunciation scores are low; even though I do have a very good command over the language and infact, English speaking is quite good. So I guess you must be right when you say that PTE software is not designed for Indian female voice. 

Any lady from India got a good score in speaking section of PTE (if any)? Do add your point of view.

I should start preparing for TOEFL then! 

(btw, I had practiced a lot used: E2 language and Navjot Brar content available online along with free Pte practice test before giving PTE).


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## rabs138 (Apr 21, 2015)

There are ladies here in this platform from india scoring 90 All. Dont fall for the myth


livetolove said:


> I had 8+ in each section in the IELTS, and my sister has 80+ in PTE.
> Both of us thought our respective exams were fairly simple.
> 
> Reading and Listening sections are very easy. You need to pick out the exact word from what you read/hear and answer it. There are no trick questions. It's very straightforward.
> ...


You and your sister are native speakers?


Tinaj said:


> Thank you for the input. My oral fluency and pronunciation scores are low; even though I do have a very good command over the language and infact, English speaking is quite good. So I guess you must be right when you say that PTE software is not designed for Indian female voice.
> 
> Any lady from India got a good score in speaking section of PTE (if any)? Do add your point of view.
> 
> ...



Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

rabs138 said:


> There are ladies here in this platform from india scoring 90 All. Dont fall for the myth
> You and your sister are native speakers?
> 
> 
> ...




I have already mentioned that people can have their views. It is a fact. Their website boasts that they have collected samples from 10000 people including native speakers. 

Also, can you suggest the OP that how she could score better? Her command over written language is quite good; even though her scores suggest otherwise..


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

Tinaj said:


> Thank you for the input. My oral fluency and pronunciation scores are low; even though I do have a very good command over the language and infact, English speaking is quite good. So I guess you must be right when you say that PTE software is not designed for Indian female voice.
> 
> Any lady from India got a good score in speaking section of PTE (if any)? Do add your point of view.
> 
> ...




See, I was bang on target. I personally wouldn't suggest you PTE. Some are more suited for IELTS. It is basically which format you are comfortable with.
IELTS as a general perception is easier than TOEFL. It again depends. I would strongly suggest that you browse YouTube videos on the subject. Give a mock of each test format. Decide for yourself!

I can be so sure since I have spent a bomb coming to this conclusion and in the bargain lost precious time as well..


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## rabs138 (Apr 21, 2015)

shets said:


> I have already mentioned that people can have their views. It is a fact. Their website boasts that they have collected samples from 10000 people including native speakers.
> 
> Also, can you suggest the OP that how she could score better? Her command over written language is quite good; even though her scores suggest otherwise..


I havent given PTE yet. Going abroad to appear in test since its not offered in Pakistan

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

rabs138 said:


> I havent given PTE yet. Going abroad to appear in test since its not offered in Pakistan
> 
> Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk




We (my spouse) have wasted sufficient time behind PTE. As a matter of fact, many tests including PTE mock. It is simply not suited for Indian female voice.

I wish you luck!


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## rabs138 (Apr 21, 2015)

shets said:


> We (my spouse) have wasted sufficient time behind PTE. As a matter of fact, many tests including PTE mock. It is simply not suited for Indian female voice.
> 
> I wish you luck!


Would a pakistani female voice be different?. How many tests your wife has so far attempted?

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

rabs138 said:


> Would a pakistani female voice be different?. How many tests your wife has so far attempted?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk



Look I cannot vouch for Pakistani lady's voice..Would guess, it should not be much different from India's. 

Well, I know many many instances wherein people (female) who generally have good command over the language struggle with PTE. For instance, look at the OP's two PTE results. How can the test result differ so vastly? She scored 90 something and then 33 in speaking?? Unless, she did miserably bad, it is simply not acceptable to the thinking mind..

In my wife's case, in spite of her English being good, she gave 5-6 PTE tests including two mock..then finally after several IELTS attempts, she got the scores..

Initially we were surprised ourselves with the PTE scores..I am just writing this so that people can benefit from our experience..it is again up to the concerned how he or she wants to take it!


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## rabs138 (Apr 21, 2015)

shets said:


> Look I cannot vouch for Pakistani lady's voice..Would guess, it should not be much different from India's.
> 
> Well, I know many many instances wherein people (female) who generally have good command over the language struggle with PTE. For instance, look at the OP's two PTE results. How can the test result differ so vastly? She scored 90 something and then 33 in speaking?? Unless, she did miserably bad, it is simply not acceptable to the thinking mind..
> 
> ...


Great insight. People consider ielts as evil but PTE can be troubling for others as well. My wife is appearing in PTE and we are travelling specially outside of Pakistan for this due to no test centers present in Pak. So lets see what happens. Your point is very valid as per your wife experience with PTE

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk


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## FFacs (Jul 6, 2016)

Let's be honest: two things are happening here. First, Indian accents are notoriously difficult to understand for native English speakers with little or no exposure. I've witnessed countless "accent neutralisation" courses that have some woman with a plummy accent add another layer of incomprehensibility, but the fact remains, it's a tough accent. Second, PTE is automated, and computers are not yet at the level of human ability. Combine the two and you might find the computer struggles. Trying to decipher a strong Indian accent, delivered at pace (which IMHO tends to be a trait for Indian women especially) and you're pushing the boundaries of what natural language processing can do when trained with native English speaker accents.

So go for IELTS, right? Yes and no, I think a good IELTS examiner needs to be careful. They will likely have had vast experience of hearing such accents as they will be based in a location. There's a high chance that they would grade-up speech which your average Aussie would struggle to understand. That benefits nobody.


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

FFacs said:


> Let's be honest: two things are happening here. First, Indian accents are notoriously difficult to understand for native English speakers with little or no exposure. I've witnessed countless "accent neutralisation" courses that have some woman with a plummy accent add another layer of incomprehensibility, but the fact remains, it's a tough accent. Second, PTE is automated, and computers are not yet at the level of human ability. Combine the two and you might find the computer struggles. Trying to decipher a strong Indian accent, delivered at pace (which IMHO tends to be a trait for Indian women especially) and you're pushing the boundaries of what natural language processing can do when trained with native English speaker accents.
> 
> So go for IELTS, right? Yes and no, I think a good IELTS examiner needs to be careful. They will likely have had vast experience of hearing such accents as they will be based in a location. There's a high chance that they would grade-up speech which your average Aussie would struggle to understand. That benefits nobody.




I have always been impressed with your posts. Here I beg to differ. One common mistake westerners/outsiders do is to generalise India which is simply not possible. We have the best schools here and kids these days I presume have better vocabulary than most outsiders would even think it is possible. Not all Indians have the same accent here. I can go on here..every district in India is different from the other. Coming to the point, PTE should ideally cover all aspects from the test takers point of view. Indian men have scored much better than their lady counterparts. I don't have stats to prove but whatever little information I have in my dealing with people and through following this forum. So if the accent theory is true then it should be also for Indian men. 
Well, PTE has very clearly overlooked this fact. Their website mentions some 10000 samples have been collected. Again, it shouldn't affect people in an ideal scenario. Well as a matter of fact, it is affecting. If some stats are available on the test takers, then don't be surprised that a very large number of Indians, perhaps a bulk of the lot take PTE tests.


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

rabs138 said:


> Great insight. People consider ielts as evil but PTE can be troubling for others as well. My wife is appearing in PTE and we are travelling specially outside of Pakistan for this due to no test centers present in Pak. So lets see what happens. Your point is very valid as per your wife experience with PTE
> 
> Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk




Thank you for your kind words. The thing with IELTS is that it is very subjective, especially when they are monitoring writing & speaking. Hence, people tend to score less in these two when compared to listening & reading. People will only complain when they don't get the desired results. Again each test is different. The question is which format, the test taker is more comfortable with!


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## FFacs (Jul 6, 2016)

shets said:


> I have always been impressed with your posts. Here I beg to differ. One common mistake westerners/outsiders do is to generalise India which is simply not possible. We have the best schools here and kids these days I presume have better vocabulary than most outsiders would even think it is possible. Not all Indians have the same accent here. I can go on here..every district in India is different from the other. Coming to the point, PTE should ideally cover all aspects from the test takers point of view. Indian men have scored much better than their lady counterparts. I don't have stats to prove but whatever little information I have in my dealing with people and through following this forum. So if the accent theory is true then it should be also for Indian men.
> Well, PTE has very clearly overlooked this fact. Their website mentions some 10000 samples have been collected. Again, it shouldn't affect people in an ideal scenario. Well as a matter of fact, it is affecting. If some stats are available on the test takers, then don't be surprised that a very large number of Indians, perhaps a bulk of the lot take PTE tests.


Thanks for the complement, you flatter me 

I think I see this from a different angle. Firstly, let's tackle that generalisation point. That's not really a fair challenge. Your point was that "Indian women" will find PTE doesn't work for them. That's a generalisation *you *made that I ran with. If you're going to challenge my rebuttal, based on the idea that I am generalising, you're actually challenging your own point, because it was you that initially made the grouping. So, yeah, you're right, different accents etc. but your point was on Indian women in general.

Onto the main discussion. Your wording points to where we differ:



> PTE should ideally cover all aspects from the test takers point of view.


and



> Their website mentions some 10000 samples have been collected. <SNIP> don't be surprised that a very large number of Indians, perhaps a bulk of the lot take PTE tests.


My perception is that you conflate the average profile of the test taker and the target profile for speaking "excellence". The purpose of the exam is to test capability within a native English speaking environment. In reality, what would be ideal would be to train the exam *only* on Australian accents for DIBP use. That's probably prohibitively expensive and would likely get complaints for the British (they did invent the language, it would be a bit rich to claim they can't speak it.... though looking at cricket, there's a point to be made ). The Americans would likely complain also, and as they tend to run the things, I guess we're stuck with their accents being part of the training data. 

I digress. Back to the point. By limiting the training data, the system is *designed* to discriminate accents that are distinct from native speakers. In fact, my argument would be that it is likely the IELTS assessors are more prone to incorrectly rate strong accents because their familiarity with these accents puts them in a position where a) they have a better ear and b) they are unaware of this and assume their ability to detect meaning from the strongly accented speech is typical. It probably isn't, and that's a tough bias to compensate.

Your thoughts?


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## Tinaj (May 27, 2017)

FFacs said:


> Let's be honest: two things are happening here. First, Indian accents are notoriously difficult to understand for native English speakers with little or no exposure. I've witnessed countless "accent neutralisation" courses that have some woman with a plummy accent add another layer of incomprehensibility, but the fact remains, it's a tough accent. Second, PTE is automated, and computers are not yet at the level of human ability. Combine the two and you might find the computer struggles. Trying to decipher a strong Indian accent, delivered at pace (which IMHO tends to be a trait for Indian women especially) and you're pushing the boundaries of what natural language processing can do when trained with native English speaker accents.
> 
> So go for IELTS, right? Yes and no, I think a good IELTS examiner needs to be careful. They will likely have had vast experience of hearing such accents as they will be based in a location. There's a high chance that they would grade-up speech which your average Aussie would struggle to understand. That benefits nobody.


The typical nature of Indian accents and a trait for Indian women that you mention here, might not be applicable in my case. My schooling has been from a convent school and I have lived in the United States for some time; and was complimented for my accent which they referred to as "The Queen's English."


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

Tinaj said:


> The typical nature of Indian accents and a trait for Indian women that you mention here, might not be applicable in my case. My schooling has been from a convent school and I have lived in the United States for some time; and was complimented for my accent which they referred to as "The Queen's English."




Bang on! This was precisely my point. A lot of westerners/outsiders have a perception that Indians cannot speak fluently. I am convinced after reading your post(s) that you certainly don't qualify for 33 in speaking..


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

FFacs said:


> Thanks for the complement, you flatter me
> 
> I think I see this from a different angle. Firstly, let's tackle that generalisation point. That's not really a fair challenge. Your point was that "Indian women" will find PTE doesn't work for them. That's a generalisation *you *made that I ran with. If you're going to challenge my rebuttal, based on the idea that I am generalising, you're actually challenging your own point, because it was you that initially made the grouping. So, yeah, you're right, different accents etc. but your point was on Indian women in general.
> 
> ...





Why is it only women from India score less in PTE -speaking and not men? So your logic of Indian accent only applies to women, is it?

My wife is a qualified engineer with many years of experience. I would rate her command over the language as good and most certainly she deserves more than what she could manage in several PTE tests. We spent almost a year to understand what could be the possible issue. We tried every trick in the book. YouTube videos, Mock tests, Tutors, Steven Book, Speaking to countless people, Voice recording, Speech translator, you name it, bet- we have done it!

I am writing here so that people can benefit out of it. Each person may have an opinion but the question is does he have a solution?

You have scored possibly the best anyone can score! It was during our PTE/IELTS struggle days, I got to know your scores. I have been reading your posts since then..

Let me know if you have a solution. You never know whom you might benefit!


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## FFacs (Jul 6, 2016)

Tinaj said:


> The typical nature of Indian accents and a trait for Indian women that you mention here, might not be applicable in my case. My schooling has been from a convent school and I have lived in the United States for some time; and was complimented for my accent which they referred to as "The Queen's English."


and



shets said:


> Bang on! This was precisely my point. A lot of westerners/outsiders have a perception that Indians cannot speak fluently. I am convinced after reading your post(s) that you certainly don't qualify for 33 in speaking..


OK. So your position is that the PTE system has a bias against Indian women (obviously not a conscious bias, it is a machine); i.e. "It is simply not suited for Indian female voice" (to use your words)

If we assume that Tinaj does indeed have an accent that is "The Queen's English" (though you will note my comment on adding 'plummy' overtones is often a tactic used in accent neutralisation courses that do nothing of the sort) we must look elsewhere for the source of this discrimination. 

I'm at a loss to what you might be suggesting as the source. I'm not aware of any differences in timbre resulting from genetic disposition towards certain traits in the vocal chords. I'd also hazard that any differences would be dwarfed by the distribution in any case. So what is it, if not the accent (including pacing, stresses, intonation, etc) that would distinguish these Indian women?


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

FFacs said:


> and
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I am still clueless why you are defending the PTE system. You sound like one of the creators of the PTE model. If that is the case, accept our apologies and let's move on!

If not, then why don't you get the message? I know dozens of women from India who have given this test and fared miserably in the speaking section and an equal number of men who have done well. I clearly said, we tried every possible trick in the book, (stress intonation, etc). Let's not harp on the same thing again! This forum is for people looking for answers. I still haven't found the answer to my query which is why Indian women score poorly in the speaking section. 

You can conclude the way you want that we have Indian accent, etc which to me makes no sense. Besides, if you are not aware as yet, PTE is accent free test. Your accent has no bearing on the result! Hence they have collected over 10000 samples from across. 

My assessment is that there could possibly be an error in the sample collection as after all you are dealing with a machine!

I repeat the story for you "Get back- if you have a solution"


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## FFacs (Jul 6, 2016)

shets said:


> I am still clueless why you are defending the PTE system. You sound like one of the creators of the PTE model. If that is the case, accept our apologies and let's move on!
> 
> If not, then why don't you get the message? I know dozens of women from India who have given this test and fared miserably in the speaking section and an equal number of men who have done well. I clearly said, we tried every possible trick in the book, (stress intonation, etc). Let's not harp on the same thing again! This forum is for people looking for answers. I still haven't found the answer to my query which is why Indian women score poorly in the speaking section.
> 
> ...


Of course I'm not a PTE designer. I'm just applying Occam's Razor. Your point on the sampling is interesting, and in particular on the exam being accent "agnostic" in principle. I've had a look around. It's very interesting reading. 

So, the way they appear to train is not to have a model profile and score fit against that, but to train based on scoring provided by human raters, including low scores. The system then weights to favour certain scoring ranges for different artefacts, It's a neural network, one would assume. This means that for strong accents the machine does understand what is being said, as a string of words, but scores it low as it has learned that association. This means it's possible for someone to have a poor pronunciation score, but high scores for grammar. And here's where we can check if it's the accent. If a number of those getting poor speaking scores are getting (comparatively) high grammar scores, it's likely the system is actively scoring down the accent as opposed to just not "understanding" based on poor samples, etc. The more often we see that the more confident we can be that this is the case. Note that the inverse does not apply: poor pronunciation accompanying poor grammar might just mean they have poor grammar too!

Would be interesting to see.


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## Eany (Sep 23, 2016)

Agreed with you


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## american_desi (Feb 27, 2017)

shets said:


> We (my spouse) have wasted sufficient time behind PTE. As a matter of fact, many tests including PTE mock. It is simply not suited for Indian female voice.
> 
> I wish you luck!


I second this. My wife's English pronunciation is on-par or better than mine, she consistently got <60 in speaking while i got straight 90.

PTE software does have some major flaws....specially for Indian Female voices...


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## american_desi (Feb 27, 2017)

To add more details...., my wife is also an engineer living in English speaking countries for the past 9+years. None of the native speakers seem to have problem with her speech. She definitely does not have a "heavy accent"

It's high time someone brings this up with the PTE folks....their algorithm is flawed....if you listen to their scoring method on youtube, it's based on "statistical analysis", if you work in the analytics space, you would understand that a minor flaw in the algorithm can completely throw off the results...

My suggestion would be to take the practice tests and if you score low consistently only in speaking, then it is time to move on to IELTS or TOEFL...


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

american_desi said:


> To add more details...., my wife is also an engineer living in English speaking countries for the past 9+years. None of the native speakers seem to have problem with her speech. She definitely does not have a "heavy accent"
> 
> It's high time someone brings this up with the PTE folks....their algorithm is flawed....if you listen to their scoring method on youtube, it's based on "statistical analysis", if you work in the analytics space, you would understand that a minor flaw in the algorithm can completely throw off the results...
> 
> My suggestion would be to take the practice tests and if you score low consistently only in speaking, then it is time to move on to IELTS or TOEFL...



It took us many dollars/rupees to figure out this. Most importantly precious time lost. Perhaps, one interesting thing to add is Indian female voice is generally softer and maybe they speak in a low or softer tone. I also think it is quite different from the way perhaps a westerner would speak. Why did I bring this up here? 
The reason is many people have suggested in the different forums, videos etc to be loud. May be females in India as a result score less than their male counterparts in spite of having better command over the language.

Again since none of this can be backed by actual data; this is all guess work! Hope people are more aware when they appear for their tests. All our discussion is pointing towards a possible flaw in their model.


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

FFacs said:


> Of course I'm not a PTE designer. I'm just applying Occam's Razor. Your point on the sampling is interesting, and in particular on the exam being accent "agnostic" in principle. I've had a look around. It's very interesting reading.
> 
> So, the way they appear to train is not to have a model profile and score fit against that, but to train based on scoring provided by human raters, including low scores. The system then weights to favour certain scoring ranges for different artefacts, It's a neural network, one would assume. This means that for strong accents the machine does understand what is being said, as a string of words, but scores it low as it has learned that association. This means it's possible for someone to have a poor pronunciation score, but high scores for grammar. And here's where we can check if it's the accent. If a number of those getting poor speaking scores are getting (comparatively) high grammar scores, it's likely the system is actively scoring down the accent as opposed to just not "understanding" based on poor samples, etc. The more often we see that the more confident we can be that this is the case. Note that the inverse does not apply: poor pronunciation accompanying poor grammar might just mean they have poor grammar too!
> 
> Would be interesting to see.



Sure Mate! Their scoring pattern is mentioned on their website. The software for reasons unknown does not pick up key words from the speaker. I guess why some score less than others. It would be really interesting, if any lady from India and rest of the world could share their scores, so we can have a better look at it from the regional scoring point of view..

All my assumptions are based on personal experiences and our interactions with people having similar concerns..


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## FFacs (Jul 6, 2016)

shets said:


> Sure Mate! Their scoring pattern is mentioned on their website. The software for reasons unknown does not pick up key words from the speaker. I guess why some score less than others. It would be really interesting, if any lady from India and rest of the world could share their scores, so we can have a better look at it from the regional scoring point of view..
> 
> All my assumptions are based on personal experiences and our interactions with people having similar concerns..


I think an interesting score to understand would be those who score well on grammar but poorly on pronunciation. That would point to the software catching what was said, but not liking the "sound" of it.


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## american_desi (Feb 27, 2017)

FFacs said:


> I think an interesting score to understand would be those who score well on grammar but poorly on pronunciation. That would point to the software catching what was said, but not liking the "sound" of it.


My wife's grammar score was consistently >80 but speaking score <60......i could be wrong but from what i understand grammar scores are more for the written section of the exam....

Honestly, there is no point trying to make sense of this issue, but we need to spread awareness (maybe a sticky post on the PTE-A thread) for people to move on instead of wasting time....

Soon enough PTE will notice and hopefully fix this bug...


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## Tinaj (May 27, 2017)

american_desi said:


> My wife's grammar score was consistently >80 but speaking score <60......i could be wrong but from what i understand grammar scores are more for the written section of the exam....
> 
> Honestly, there is no point trying to make sense of this issue, but we need to spread awareness (maybe a sticky post on the PTE-A thread) for people to move on instead of wasting time....
> 
> Soon enough PTE will notice and hopefully fix this bug...



Just for info, my husband got 73 in speaking in his first attempt whereas in the second attempt got a score 90 in each component!


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## yikes297 (Jul 21, 2016)

This is a very interesting topic. I first took IELTS and got an overall Band of 8, but I did not score 8 in all sections. Hence, I decided to attempt PTE-A after seeing many people able to score well in the exam.

My mock test result for PTE-A was miserable and it improved slightly after more practice. Anyway, I went ahead with the test and the results were miserable too. I scored 90 for writing, and the rest of the sections had dismal score - most poorly is speaking section. I took the test in September 2016 and I can't recall what my exact scores were. I know for a fact, my writing had no content except that I blasted it with a myriad of jargons (#tipforwriting). 

I am not an Indian, but I have Indian origin. I was born and raised in Malaysia. My parents are Malaysians born in Malaysia. I don't know how a score of Band 8 translates to low score PTE evaluated me. I hardly prepared anything for IELTS! 

I attempted IELTS again in March 2017, and my overall band is still 8.0 (L 8.5, R 8.5, W 7.5, S 7.5). As I didn't get 8 in all sections, I decided to sit for IELTS again this month (this time going to put more hard work). 

But the point where there could be a fault in PTE scoring system - I think it may be true. PTE needs to do score analysis across its tester demographics to determine the same. 

But my suggestion is if you have attempted PTE and do not see a justified score, TOEFL or IELTS would be a better option.


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## Deepsiva (Aug 2, 2017)

american_desi said:


> FFacs said:
> 
> 
> > I think an interesting score to understand would be those who score well on grammar but poorly on pronunciation. That would point to the software catching what was said, but not liking the "sound" of it.
> ...


I am from India and I got my PTE score today. My speaking score was just 39 and in the remaining above 65. I have scored 7 in speaking in Ielts in Jan. All its PTE issue with Indian female soft voice.


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## 53_ks (Sep 13, 2017)

There is definitely an issue with how the PTE's voice recognition picks women's voice. 
Even native speaker women are systematically achieving lower marks in this section in comparison to men. 

So many people are raising this issue now, and since Pearson refuses to address this issue, I think that everyone who are felt disadvantaged should speak up. Maybe we can start a class action against them. 

In a point-based system this is a very serious matter. A lot of money and time are wasted into these tests, not to mention how it affects the gender equality which is a very important value for Australia.


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## Zanoor (May 14, 2017)

PTE 1st attempt: L 64, R 75, S 51, W65
PTE 4th attempt: L 72, R 85, S 73, W 70

There you go, female Indian (from Hyderabad)


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## Zanoor (May 14, 2017)

shets said:


> FFacs said:
> 
> 
> > Of course I'm not a PTE designer. I'm just applying Occam's Razor. Your point on the sampling is interesting, and in particular on the exam being accent "agnostic" in principle. I've had a look around. It's very interesting reading.
> ...


Sorry forgot to quote you before answering (still new in posting here)


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## yogesh120889 (Sep 23, 2013)

Hi Guys,
These are my PTE attempts
1 - W 76 R 82 S 90 L 79
2 - W 84 R 73 S 75 L 79
3 - W 57 R 63 S 67 L 58 [Since I did not complete listening part]
4 - W 80 R 78 S 85 L 82

I am losing 1/2 marks in any of the sections.
I am aiming for 79+
Should I prefer some other exam like TOEFL where I got W 27 S 27 R 24 L 25.
Anybody?


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## siddheshsiddhi (Apr 8, 2017)

[ Female from India ]Four PTE attempts so far but no luck. I am struggling with speaking , especially Pronunciation. My scores are as below.

PTE1 - L71 R75 S56 W72
PTE2 - L60 R54 S30 W75
PTE3 - L73 R78 S62 W86
PTE4 - L63 R76 S55 W66

I am consistently getting 60-70s in Oral Fluency and 40s in Pronunciation. Whereas, I scored 70+ in speaking in mock exams evaluated by Aussies Group!


I have given these exams over the span of last 4 months. During this time I have followed lots of YouTube channel and study materials available online. But couldn't manage to improve my speaking / pronunciation score. 

I am sharing some of my recordings below. It would be great if experts in the group could give suggestions. I am planning my 5th and last PTE attempt next week. Will switch to IELTS if I don't get the desired score.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Describe Image -- https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4e...w?usp=drivesdk

Read Aloud -
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4e...ew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4e...ew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4e...ew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4e...ew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4e...ew?usp=sharing


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## zaimi2000 (May 5, 2018)

Hi, my wife is facing the same issue with PTE. She scores less than 69 in speaking whereas everything else is 85+. We had two attempts at PTE and scored 0 points.. IELTS gave us 10 points but we require 20.. so we need to attempt again but not sure whether to try IELTS or PTE


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## Abhi (May 10, 2017)

zaimi2000 said:


> Hi, my wife is facing the same issue with PTE. She scores less than 69 in speaking whereas everything else is 85+. We had two attempts at PTE and scored 0 points.. IELTS gave us 10 points but we require 20.. so we need to attempt again but not sure whether to try IELTS or PTE


What are her Oral Fluency and Pronunciation scores? does she have a strong accent?


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## zaimi2000 (May 5, 2018)

Let me share her test details:

IELTS:
L- 8.5
R- 8
W- 7
S- 7.5

PTE 1)
L- 90
R- 64
S- 68
W- 78
Grammar- 82
Oral fluency- 73
Pronunciation- 50
Spelling- 61
WD- 44
Vocabulary- 90

PTE 2)
L- 90
R- 70
S- 61
W- 85
Grammar- 90
Oral fluency- 51
Pronunciation- 50
Spelling- 65
WD- 90
Vocabulary- 90

She does not have any heavy accent. Though she does not have a very soft voice like most Indian women.


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## rushali (Dec 2, 2019)

Did you clear your PTE?


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