PTE Listening:

• Note: The highest scoring of the 8 Tasks in the Listening part of this test are: Highlight Incorrect Word, Fill in the Blanks, Write from Dictation, and Summarize Spoken Text. Try to practice and familiarize yourself with these the most.
• Remember: in the listening part of the PTE exam (and the Reading part) you can ‘push time’ or click and go on to the next task immediately when you have finished that particular task. In this way, you save time for the end of the listening part (and Reading) if you need to. For example, if you finish Summarize Spoken Text in less than 10 minutes; as you surely will if you follow the procedure below, you will have more time to complete the remaining tasks to complete the Listening part of the exam.

 

1. Summarize Spoken Text

 

The most important thing to do for this part of the exam (as with Retell Lecture) is to create a procedure with transitive verbs to answer the prompt. Transitive Verbs simply need a direct object to make sense of what is being said. Most English instructors of weight know this technique when doing listening exercises with their students.

If a person says to another person, ‘I jog’.  This should make sense to the person because it is a complete thought; it is, therefore, an independent clause, and can grammatically, as we say, ‘stand-alone’.

However, if a person says to another person:

I mentioned … (Direct Object?)

I said ……….. (Direct Object?)

I described …. (Direct Object?)

I discussed …. (Direct Object?)

Not one of these subjects and transitive verbs together create a complete thought. They all need a direct object to complete the meaning of the sentence.

This is a possible procedure for Summarize Spoken Text (and Retell Lecture):

PROCEDURE 1:

The speaker was talking about (state the topic of the conversation here)

He/ She mentioned _____________________ .

He/ She described __________________________ .

He/ She said ______________________________ .

He/ She stated _______________________________ .

Finally, he/she talked about ______________________ .

To form sentences in the PROCEDURE for Summarize Spoken Text above you can use keywords or a Noun Clause. However, because you need to write between 50 and 70 seventy words, it is recommended that you use Noun clauses to complete this task in the most effective way. DO NOT FORGET TO WRITE IT IN PARAGRAPH FORM.

A NOUN CLAUSE – is a dependent clause

The type of noun clause that you use throughout the PTE exam is created by placing subordinate conjunction immediately following a transitive verb. For example:

He mentioned that [people don’t always do the right thing].

Here, ‘that’ is the subordinate conjunction and the clause is between the brackets [people…thing].

By using noun clauses this way, it can easily extend your word count to or past 50 words.

Common subordinate conjunctions include: that, how, why, who, where, when, and what. The subordinate conjunction ‘that’ is most common; ‘how’ helps example ‘the way in which something was done’; why suggests of a reason; ‘who’ a person; where a place; when a time; what a thing. The ‘wh’ or information questions words help to specify particular information given in the recording.

How Summarize Spoken Text works

You will have 10 minutes to summarize a 60 to 90-second talk or discussion between two people. You will have 2 or 3 of these on the PTE exam. Finally, you must write it as a paragraph that has between 50 to 70 words. The easiest and best way to achieve this word limit is by way of NOUN CLAUSES.

The Talk

To validate their talks or discussions Pearson Education uses ‘authentic talks’ or live recordings of real people giving speeches in public. Likewise, they argue that because the talks are ‘public’ they level the playing field for all candidates; thus, in Pearson’s opinion, they are reliable and valid. Therefore, Ted Talks has been chosen to help you listen and take notes because it answers the dynamic of English speakers’ characteristics of voice, the varying speeds at which people speak, and, at times, different microphone placements – recorded from the crowd or the studio, for example.

In the following examples, I will use the procedure developed above and underline the useful information from the text that will be used in the noun clauses. Similarly, I will make ‘bold’ the topic and the noun clauses in the procedure.

[Note: the text is underlined where keywords or possible notes can be chosen from.

Example Text (You will listen to and take notes)

1. With all this new data, what does it mean to be a woman? This is something that I’ve been thinking about almost my entire life. When people learn that I’m a woman who happens to be transgender, they always ask, “How do you know you’re a woman?” As a scientist, I’m searching for a biological basis of gender. I want to understand what makes me. New discoveries at the front edge of science are shedding light on the biomarkers that define gender. My colleagues and I in genetics, neuroscience, physiology, and psychology we’re trying to figure out exactly how gender works. These vastly different fields share a common connection — epigenetics. In epigenetics, we’re studying how DNA activity can actually radically and permanently change, even though the sequence stays the same (sic).

Sanbonmatsu, K. (2019, January). The biology of gender, from DNA to the brain. Retrieved January 14, 2019, from https://www.ted.com/talks/karissa_sanbonmatsu_the_biology_of_gender_from_dna_to_the_brain

 

Possible Answer:

The speaker was talking about how to be a woman. She mentioned that she is a transgender person. She described how she is looking for a biological basis for gender. She said that she and her colleagues are trying to figure out how gender works. She stated that the common connection is epigenetics. Finally, she talked about how DNA can change. (61 words)

Notice that not all the information is mentioned. To score 90, you need to be grammatically accurate and have at least a keyword in each noun clause.