Hello everyone Nimisha here from Englishfirm. Today we will be discussing about one
of the most important items of PTE which is repeat sentence. Let's go straight ahead with it.
Right.So repeat sentence is the most important item type in PTE. Out of the 20 items that we have
so we have a total of 20 different question types in PTE including 5 in speaking, 2 in writing 5 in
reading and 8 in listening, And repeat sentence is the second item in speaking but out of all the 20
items this is the most important item because this is the item that carries maximum score.
Now repeat sentence would be the second item in speaking. Speaking would be your first module in
the exam. In speaking you will be starting with your personal introduction which is not evaluated
component and the actual speaking questions are read aloud, repeat sentence, describe image,
retell lecture and answer short question. So today we'll be discussing about the most important task
which is repeat sentence. Now repeat sentence is a task where you will be listening to an audio
which is one single sentence whatever you heard you have to repeat the same now. The
scoring for this item is you will be getting 10 to 12 of these 10 to 12 different sentences.
You have to listen to them and repeat the same sentence that you heard in the audio.
It is carrying 13 points per question but remember guys this 13 points is not your score out of 90
which means if you get 10 equations and 13 points each it is 130 points which is definitely not
your score out of 90 because this 130 points gets converted to 90 and it becomes it is contributing
points to 20 points for listening and 30 points for speaking which means it is carrying a total
of 50 points even though it is under the speaking module it is not only giving points to speaking
it is contributing points to your listening as well reason because you have to listen to the
audio so the computer calculates the scoring based on whatever actions you have to do in a question
so in this particular task in repeat sentence you have to listen to an audio and then you have to
speak you have to repeat the same which is the reason why it is giving points to listening and
speaking so it gives around 20 points to listening out of 90 and 30 points to speaking out of 90
which means one third of your score in speaking is determined by this item and 20 points out of 19
listening is determined by repeat sentence which is exactly the reason why this is the
most important item in pte now even though it is the most important item unfortunately many
students find it really difficult not because the question in itself is difficult like there are
certain strategies here like not just strategies some difficulties that students face here are
first thing the audios that will be played in the exam will be all done by native english speakers
so it could be an australian accent or an american accent or a british accent so you could have any
of them in the in the exam and one of the major reasons why people struggle here is because they
are not familiar with the accent of the speaker so a solution to this this is not just one solution
to this question a one solution to the problem that you're facing regarding understanding the
accent of the speaker most people are not familiar with it which is the reason why they're finding
it difficult to understand so what you can do about this other than practicing questions in pte
do an extra homework of watching some english programs which will keep you interested as well
because if you simply keep on practicing questions question questions you will gradually get bored so
it would be better to watch something interesting like any series or movies but the main thing is
when you watch english programs or when you listen to english programs definitely do not
use your subtitles or closed captions because if you use subtitles while you watch a movie
you're actually not improving your listening skills you're actually reading what is written at
the bottom which is definitely not going to help in improving your listening skills so if you have
any difficulty understanding the speaker while you listen to the audio or if you're not able
to follow the accent of the speaker start watching english programs which will be the easiest and the
most fun exercise to do so that is one solution to this now coming back to the scoring we already
mentioned this item is carrying 13 points per question which comes to the other difficulty
that some students face here even though they understand the question they are not able to
remember it by the time they answer because after the audio there is a small gap of three seconds
before you are allowed to answer or before the computer begins the recorder so the problem is
when you listen you feel that you understood every single word but by the time the computer
starts a recorder within that three seconds you go blank or you forget a bit of the words in between
or you forget the beginning part or the last part so it's a problem with your shorter memory
so what can you do about this the solution to this is in the scoring criteria because
the 13 points which is given for your repeat sentence is evaluated based on three factors which
is your oral fluency pronunciation and content so aura fluency will be carrying 5 points out of 13
pronunciation will be carrying 5 points out of 13 and content will be carrying 3 points out of 30.
now we need to discuss about all these three in detail the first part is oral fluency this is the
most important aspect of your speaking module now what do you mean by fluency fluency simply means
you have to speak in a smooth continuous manner that means even if your answer is really good
in terms of content or the words let's say you say every word correctly but if you hesitate or if you
stammer or if you stop unnecessarily in between while you speak you will be losing your points for
your fluency because the computer will be counting the number of poses that you make which will be
the deduction from your oral fluency which is the reason why if you heard a sentence if you did not
understand some of the words or if you do not remember some of the words it is not a good idea
to stop and recollect those words it is better to replace those words with any random verse and just
keep on speaking continuously so that at least you can maintain this five points for your oral
fluency so oral fluency means speak continuously that means even if you do not know the answer to
the question just say something continuously you can at least read the instruction given on
the screen that would be even better than getting zero if you stay silent now the second factor is
pronunciation pronunciation is the part where the computer should be able to understand the
words that you're saying now as you might already know people have already taken the exam before
you will have headphones with you during the exam and those headphones will be closing your ears
so some people have a difficulty here because when your ears are closed you will feel that you're
speaking loud and clear but you may not be because you're not able to hear yourself well and also you
will not be alone in your exam center there would be close to five to ten people with you
everyone will be taking the exam at the same time so it is going to really noisy
so what you have to do whenever you practice speaking at home practice in a noisy room do
not sit in a quiet room and practice because the exam center is not going to be silent or quiet so
practice with some noise so you're already used to the situation so that won't distract you from
your listening or remembering the sentence now coming back to pronunciation the point here is
since the entire room is noisy and since everyone is speaking around you
if you speak in a really low voice or if you mumble even if you're saying the words correctly
since the noise is going around you the computer would not be able to record your voice clearly
and also some people have a tendency of mumbling they are actually saying the correct sentence
but they tend to speak inside their mouth not opening up their mouth well which would not put
put the words clearly and the computer would not be able to understand what you're saying
which is the reason why even if your answer is wrong even if you do not have the all the words
correct in your sentence just speak clearly loudly open up your mouth and enunciate the words do not
mumble do not speak in a very low voice and and i have noticed this specific issue like speaking
in a long voice among girls which is probably how we are bottom but like unfortunately this
won't work in pte so you need to speak a bit more louder and clearer than you normally do so that
the computer can understand every word that you're saying which can give you another five points for
your pronunciation so the first factor is oral fluency speak continuously in a smooth manner
without any hesitations even if your words are wrong second factor is pronunciation speak loud
and clear now the third factor is content this is the part where most people struggle with
so content is the part where you have to say every single word correctly from the question so this
content carries three points out of 13. so clearly from the scoring breakdown it so we understand
that more points are for fluency and pronunciation out of 13 10 is for fluency and pronunciation only
three points for the content part and even further breakdown of your content if you say minimum 80 of
the sentence correctly you're still getting three points out of three four content part which means
you're not going to lose any point if you miss like let's say one or two words in the sentence
you're not going to lose any points like let's say they say 10 words and you're saying only eight of
them correctly two words are wrong or two of them are missing you will still get three out of three
fifty percent means you said only half of the sentence correctly that means they said 10 words
and you say only five of them correctly remaining five are made up words still it's fine you still
get two out of three points for your content now the last 25 percent part let's say they say 10
words and you say only four of them correctly still you're getting one point which means your
content scoring is not that difficult here but the problem here is most people who are not aware of
this we because it's a natural tendency we tend to focus more on the content and because of that
we could be losing your fluency and pronunciation because what is happening is when you forget the
words we have a tendency to stop and recollect it in this case what is happening is you would
be getting full points for your content part but you could be losing a lot of points for your
pronunciation for example if you listen to an audio here
okay so this is i believe you won't be able to hear because i'm ahead i'm on my headphones but
you can see many questions at the practice websites so in this one they said computer
software has changed a lot in the last year now let's assume you forgot the word last year
or changed a lot let's say you forget some random words in between so normally anyone
who is trying to focus on the content would be giving an answer like this computer software
um has changed um a lot uh in the last year so if i answer like this
my content is 100 correct i have not missed even one word from the question
and i have said every single word correctly which means content is hundred percent i'll
be getting three out of three for the content part but the problem the with this answer is since i'm
trying to remember what i forgot i'm hesitating i'm stopping in between which will be reducing
a lot of points from my fluency not all of it i could be losing some points so maybe out of five i
could be getting let's say two or three let's say two now the problem with pronunciation is first
of all you're under exam pressure and there is people shouting behind you people noisy behind you
and then you know that you are saying something wrong or when you know that you forgot something
it's our natural human tendency to start mumbling because we are not sure about what we are saying
so your pronunciation also would be automatically getting affected so out of five in pronunciation
maybe i could be getting another two points two or three but content i have three in this case i have
maximum three for content two for pronunciation and two for fluency which means i'm getting a
total of seven points out of 13. on the other hand the strategy here if i told you forgot a word
rather than trying to recollect it if you replace it with anything random it doesn't even have to be
grammatically correct because in your speaking module your grammar is not being evaluated even
your vocabulary is not evaluated in this item as you can see the scoring is purely based on
oral fluency pronunciation and content so what you do if i told you forget some random words in
between in the beginning or at the end instead of trying to recollect them replace those words with
something you can use the word something itself you don't have to think of a sensible word
for example if the sentence is computer software has changed a lot in the last year let's assume
you forgot the word computer software and let's say you forgot the last part as well last year
so you should be saying something something has changed a lot into something something
this is way better than the previous answer because in this answer it's obvious i'm losing
a lot of points for my content part because out of let's say around eight words i remember only
maybe 50 of it which means or even let's say let's say i remember only 25 percent
still i'm getting one point for my content part but my fluency as as far as i speak continuously
even if the sentence is wrong and if i speak clearly and loudly i will still be getting
the 10 points for my fluency and pronunciation so in this case i'll be getting 11 points out of 13
even though the words are wrong but in my previous answer even though all the words are correct i'm
getting only 7 out of 13. so it's very clear which is the better method so if you forget the words
don't try to recollect them don't try to come up with meaningful sentences replace those words with
something and continue speaking so that at least these 10 points for fluency and pronunciation
will still be there okay but this doesn't mean you should change the words all the time try
to remember as much as you could try to replace like try to say the exact same words as much as
you could preferably students who are aiming for seven age or eight each definitely should try for
at least 80 percent or 75 to 80 percent because you need to remember this item is giving points
to speaking and listening so the points which are given to speaking is dependent on your fluency and
pronunciation so as long as you speak continuously speak clearly you will be getting the points for
speaking but the points which is supposed to go to listening will be dependent on your content
part so if you miss too much of your content your speaking will be fine but your listening is going
to get affected you may not be getting all this 20 points contributed this could be maybe 5 or
10 depending on the number of the words that you missed in your answer so try to remember as many
words as you could but if at all you forget some words in between just don't worry about it don't
stop or don't try to hesitate and recollect the words that you forgot replace and just continue
but gradually as you practice what i would suggest is when you start practicing
of course your priority should be on fluency and pronunciation let's say content at least 25
to 50 is all right but once you go to the strategy once you feel that you're speaking pretty smoothly
pretty clearly then you can start focusing on your content as well and try to target for at
least eighty percent even if not it's hundred it's fine at least eighty percent should be good enough
now there are certain strategies for this question which i would not say it's a
fixed set of strategies because it depends on person to person so the first strategy here is
which i have seen many students use it in right from dictation i also feel like this is better
for your right from dictation rather than your repeat sentence so the first method is
while you listen to the audio itself you not down the initials of every word in the sentence for
example if it is computer software has changed a lot in the last year so you're writing only
the first letters but the problem with this method is when you're listening to the sentence
if you try to knock down at the same time your focus has shifted from listening to noting down
which actually could make you forget more but some people are actually really good at it so you need
to try out and see which method is more suitable for you because some people if they try to do two
things at the same time both of them will not work properly so people who are good at multitasking i
would say go for this method but people who feel that if they try to write they might lose focus
i would definitely suggest the second method which is my preferable method as well
just listen to the sentence understand the meaning because some people have a tendency
of simply focusing on the words they are not even understanding what they're listening to which is
not a good method which is exactly the reason why you're forgetting what you heard as well
so when you listen to the sentence understand the meaning of the sentence so it will help you
remember better and visualize it so when like if they're saying professor smith will be late for
today's lecture imagining imagine your professor coming late to your class so that will register
the the sentence in your memory better than knotting down and trying to figure out what
this letter was representing so my preference would be on the second method especially because
after the audio you have barely three seconds gap before the recording begins so some people they
keep on writing the initials and by the time the recording has begun they won't be ready to answer
but again i'm telling you um this is not a fixed method it definitely depends on your skills
if you're capable of writing really fast and if you're able to recollect what the words
are just by looking at the initials go ahead with it but if you're not a person who are who
is good with multitasking or who's good good with listening and writing at the same time
the best method would be just to listen to the sentence understand the meaning visualize it
and repeat whatever you remember again even if you forget some words in between don't bother
say whatever you remember replace the words that you forgot with something and speak fluently
with the clear pronunciation and that's what we already mentioned before replace the words that
you forgot with something to maintain fluency and pronunciation okay and even though there are many
strategies and techniques here the best way to tackle this question is practice practice practice
because even if you know what to do if you do not get used to the method you won't be able to do it
perfectly in the exam so i would suggest doing around 20 questions of repeat sentence in a day
every day until your exam day preferably for three to four weeks all right so that's pretty much it
for today guys so i believe everyone got a clear understanding of the scoring criteria of repeat
sentence and why it is the most important question because it is carrying 50 points in total 24
listening and 34 speaking and the strategies and why it is more important to focus on your fluency
and pronunciation and content rather than content yes so i'll be coming back with other subjects as
well so you can refer to our other videos you can join our facebook page as well at english
form or you can just call me right away on offer three two two six nine eight seven four thank you