test 2, speaking - prodengcom.s3.amazonaws.comprodengcom.s3.amazonaws.com/students/audio/pteacademic/docume… · student’s overall Pte academic score: 55 ... A newly created test

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PTE AcAdEmic PrAcTicE TESTS PluS

© Pearson education Limited 2013 PhotocoPiabLe

test 2, speakingread aloud1 topic: statistics

student’s overall Pte academic score: 55

237 Statistics reflect vital information about the economy, the well-being of the population and the environment. Society relies on statistics being visible, accessible and robust. And on statistically literate people making the best use of the information to determine future action. Statistical literacy, then, is the ability to accurately understand, interpret and evaluate the data that inform these issues.

examiner’s comments: Every word from the prompt has been read, but this student’s speech is slow and hesitant, with unnatural pauses within sentences. The student’s pronunciation is also often unclear; for example, ‘these’ sounds like ‘this’ and the key word ‘statistics’ is consistently mispronounced as ‘stadistics’.


238 Statistics reflect vital information about the economy, the well-being of the population and environment. Societies relies on statistics being visible, accessible and robust. And on statistically literate people m–making the best use of the information to determine future action. Statistical literacy, then, is the ability to accurately understand, interpret and evaluate the data that inform these issues.

examiner’s comments: Despite occasional hesitation, this student’s fluency is very strong, but their overall score would be reduced due to the omission of the word ‘the’ from the first sentence. In addition, the pronunciation of vowel sounds is often poor; for example, ‘these’ and ‘this’ are indistinguishable.


239 Statistics reflect vital information about the economy, the well-being of the population and the environment. Society relies on statistics being visible, accessible and robust, and on statistically literacy – er literate people making the best use of the information to determine future action. Statistical literacy then, is the ability to accurately understand, interpret and evaluate the data that inform these issues.

examiner’s comments: This response’s overall score would be slightly reduced by a hesitation and a repetition before the term ‘statistically literate people’. Otherwise, this student’s fluency is very strong, and they would be awarded a high score for pronunciation.

2 topic: housing


240 Housing fulfils the basic needs that people have for security, privacy and shelter. While the adequacy of housing is an important component of the individual well-being, housing also has great impact on the nation’s economy, with it – with its influence on investment levels, interest rates, building activity and em, and employment.

examiner’s comments: This student would receive a reduced score for fluency due to frequent hesitations in which words from the text are repeated, such as ‘with it - with its influence’ and ‘em, and employment’. The student would also receive a low score for pronunciation due to consistent non-native pronunciation throughout the reading of the text and clear mispronunciation of some basic words, such as ‘indiwidual’.


241 Housing fulfils the basic needs that people have for security, privacy and shelter. While the adequacy of housing is an important component of individual well-being, housing also has great impact on the nation’s economy, with its influence on investment levels, interest rates, pub– building activity and employment.

examiner’s comments: This student speaks quite slowly and pauses before saying ‘housing’, so their response would receive a low score for fluency. However, the student’s overall score would be raised as the response contains every word from the prompt and is read with clear pronunciation.

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242 Housing fulfils the basic needs that people have for security, privacy and shelter. While the adequacy of housing is an important component of individual well-being, housing also has a great impact on the nation’s economy, with its influence on investment levels, interest rates, building activity and employment.

examiner’s comments: This student has read every word from the prompt with clear, native-like pronunciation and fluency. Therefore the student would receive a maximum overall score.

3 topic: being physically active


243 Being physically active benefits … people’s health significantly, including reducing the risk ... of some chronic conditions, helping to control weight, an improving mental health. In recent decades, there has been a decline in physical activity be–cause more people work in office rather than in manual jobs.

examiner’s comments: This student’s speech is much too slow, with regular, long and unnatural pauses within sentences, such as between ‘benefits’ and ‘people’, and between ‘risk’ and ‘of ’. Therefore, a very low score for fluency would be given. The student’s pronunciation is adequately clear but clearly non-native.


244 Being physically active benefits people’s health significantly, including reducing the risk of some chronic conditions, helping to control weight, and improving mental health. In recent decades, there has been a decline in physical activity because more people work in offices rather than in manual jobs.

examiner’s comments: This student speaks slowly during the first half of the text, but more naturally for the second half. The student would receive an intermediate score for fluency, but a relatively high score for pronunciation, which is clear throughout.


245 Being physically active benefits people’s health significantly, including reducing the risk of some chronic conditions, helping to control weight, and improving mental health. In recent decades, there has been a decline in physical activity because more people work in offices rather than in manual jobs.

examiner’s comments: This student has read every word from the prompt with clear, native-like pronunciation and fluency. Therefore this student would receive a maximum overall score.

4 topic: Leave of absence


246 Students who wish to take a break from their studies will need to put an an applica– application form Leave of Absence. If your application is successful, you will be noticed via em– email. At the end of your Leave of Absence, you must re– re-enrol at Student Services and in the subjects you intend to study.

examiner’s comments: This student often fails to read, or mispronounces, prepositions from the text including ‘for’, ‘in’, and ‘to’. In addition, the student repeats other words. These problems would reduce the student’s overall score. This response would also receive a low score for pronunciation due to problems such as reading ‘notified’ as ‘noticed’.


247 Students who wish to take a break from their studies will need to put in an application for Leave of Absence. If your application is successful, you will be notified via email. At the end of your Leave of Absence, you must re-enrol at Student Services and in the subjects you intend to study.

examiner’s comments: This student’s pronunciation is clear, but some vowel sounds are read in a way which is clearly not native-like. The student’s fluency is good, but the response would not achieve a maximum score due to unnaturally strong emphasis on the word ‘end’ and some small hesitations at the end of the text.

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248 Students who wish to take a break from their studies, will need to put in an application for Leave of Absence. If your application is successful, you will be notified via email. At the end of your Leave of Absence, you must re-enrol at Student Services and in the subjects you intend to study.

examiner’s comments: This student has read every word from the prompt with clear, native-like pronunciation and fluency. Therefore the student would receive a maximum overall score.

5 topic: tests to know if someone is telling the truth


249 There are a number of tests available which can suggest if a person is telling the truth, but knowing … which ones are accurate is not easy. A newly created test is claimed to be the most accurate yet in lie detection. However, questions have been raised about its accuracy and ethics.

examiner’s comments: This response contains long, unnatural pauses between the words ‘knowing’ and ‘which’, and between ‘lie’ and ‘detection’, so it would receive a low score for fluency. The student would also receive a low score for pronunciation as some words, such as ‘ethics’, are incomprehensible.


250 There are a number of tests available which can suggest if a person is telling the truth, but knowing which ones are accurate is not easy. A newly created test is claimed to be the most accurate yet in lie detection. However, questions have been raised about its accuracy and ethics.

examiner’s comments: This student mispronounces some words from the text (such as ‘available’) and has very unnatural intonation, especially when saying ‘questions have been raised’. However, the response does contain every word from the text and therefore an intermediate score would be awarded.


251 There are a number of tests available which can suggest if a person is telling the truth, but knowing which ones are accurate is not easy. A newly created test is claimed to be the most accurate– accurate yet in lie detection. However, questions have been raised about this accuracy and ethics.

examiner’s comments: This student has read every word from the prompt with clear, native-like pronunciation and good fluency. An unnatural repetition of the word ‘accurate’ would prevent a maximum score for fluency, but the overall score would be very good.

6 topic: student exchange


252 A student exchange programme completes formal education, while promoting tolerance, maturity and independence – all [unclear] highly sought after qualities in today’s competitive job market. Living in the host country, not as a tourist or a guest but as a member of the community, is what makes the experience both challenging and rewarding.

examiner’s comments: This student misreads some words from the prompt, such as ‘complements’ which is read as ‘completes’. The student’s pronunciation of other words, such as ‘sought’, is completely incomprehensible, and therefore the response would receive a low overall score.


253 A student exchange programme complements formal education, while promoting tolerance, maturity and independence – all highly sought after qualities in today’s competitive job market. Living in the host country, not as a tourist or guest but as a member of the community, is what makes the experience both challenging and rewarding.

examiner’s comments: This student’s pronunciation is clearly non-native, but almost all words are read in a clear and understandable way, with the exception of ‘job’. As the student’s fluency is also relatively good and all words from the text are read, they would achieve a good overall score.

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254 A student exchange programme complements formal education, while promoting tolerance, maturity and independence – all highly sought after qualities in today’s competitive job market. Living in the host country, not as a tourist or guest, but as a member of the community, is what makes the experience both challenging and rewarding.

examiner’s comments: This student has read every word from the prompt with clear native-like pronunciation and fluency. The student would therefore receive a maximum overall score.

test 2, speakingrepeat sentence1 topic: applying for an extension


255 Students who wish to apply for a exp– extension …

examiner’s comments: This student only repeats the first half of the sentence and mispronounces ‘extension’, so they would be given a low overall score.


256 Students who wish to apply for an extension should approach their teachers.

examiner’s comments: This student says ‘teachers’ rather than ‘tutors’ and speaks with many hesitations. Therefore, the response would not achieve a maximum score.


257 Students wishing to apply for extension should approach their tutors.

examiner’s comments: This student’s fluency is good, yet their response would lose points because they say ‘wishing’ rather than ‘who wish’ and they mispronounce ‘should’ as ‘shoe’.

2 topic: the research


258 The research … [unclear] to community gardens.

examiner’s comments: This response contains less than 50 percent of the text and the student’s speech is hesitant and unclear.


259 The research looks at some cooperative schemes, such as gard– schemes garden.

examiner’s comments: This student repeats more than 50 percent of the text, and therefore would receive an average score for content, but their speech is hesitant and words like ‘schemes’ and ‘research’ are very poorly pronounced.


260 The research look er local communities cooperative er scheme, such as community gardens.

examiner’s comments: This student repeats almost all of the text with good fluency and pronunciation, but the overall score would be reduced because the student says ‘local communities’ rather than ‘neighbourhood’.

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3 topic: Visual aids


261 Visual [unclear] makes er presentation more clear and interesting.

examiner’s comments: This student does not repeat the words ‘can’ or ‘clearer’ accurately and the pronunciation of ‘aids’ is very poor.


262 Visualise can make presentations clearer and more visualised.

examiner’s comments: This student repeats most of the prompt accurately until the end, when the speech becomes incomprehensible. The student’s pronunciation of ‘aids’ is also very unclear.


263 Visual aids can make presentations clearer and more interesting.

examiner’s comments: This student would achieve a maximum score for repeating every word accurately, with native-like pronunciation and fluency.

4 topic: economy of scale


264 Economy scale [long pause] more goods are produced.

examiner’s comments: This student reads less than 50 percent of the prompt and there is a very long pause within the response, so the overall score would be low.


265 Economies of scale is the increased efficiency that occurs when more goods are produced.

examiner’s comments: This student’s fluency is very good but their response would lose points for saying ‘economies’ rather than ‘economy’ and for omitting the word ‘in’.


266 Economy of scale is an increase in efficiency … when more products are produced.

examiner’s comments: This student would achieve a good score for repeating almost every word accurately, with native-like pronunciation and fluency. However, the response would lose points because the student does not say ‘that occurs’.

5 topic: environmentally sustainable


267 The university is working to be more environmental and sustaintable.

examiner’s comments: This student’s fluency is reasonably good, but their overall score would be reduced because the student mispronounces ‘sustainable’ and says ‘to be’ rather than ‘towards being’, and ‘environmental’ rather than ‘environmentally’.


268 The university is working towards being more environmentally friendly.

examiner’s comments: This student mispronounces ‘the’ as ‘day’, and says ‘friendly’ rather than ‘sustainable’. Therefore, despite good fluency, the overall score for this response would be low.

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269 The university is working towards being more environmentally sustainable.


6 topic: art


270 Unlike arts and final arts …

examiner’s comments: This student repeats less than 50 percent of the prompt and speaks with poor pronunciation and fluency.


271 Unlike applied arts, fine arts do not surge– do not serve a …

examiner’s comments: This student’s speech is slow and hesitant, and therefore there is not enough time to repeat the whole prompt.


272 Unlike applied arts, fine arts do not serve a practical function.


7 topic: modern poetry


273 Modern poetry shows the …

examiner’s comments: This student only repeats two words, ‘modern’ and ‘poetry’, accurately and pronunciation and fluency are very poor.


274 Modern poetry often test the convention of language and rhythm.

examiner’s comments: This student would almost achieve a maximum overall score, but they would lose points for repeating ‘tests’ as ‘test’ and ‘conventions’ as ‘convention’.


275 Modern poetry often tests the conventions of language and rhythm.


8 topic: the Law Library


276 Er the library is closed on days and I don’t know.

examiner’s comments: This student repeats less than 50 percent of the prompt, and the overall score would be further reduced because the student says ‘I don’t know’.

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277 The Law Library is close on Sundays and public holidays.

examiner’s comments: This student repeats the prompt well with sufficient fluency, but they would lose points for pronunciation as they say ‘close’ rather than ‘closed’.


278 The Law Library is closed on Sundays and public holidays.


9 topic: the morning tutorial


279 There is no places left in the morning tutorial.

examiner’s comments: This student repeats almost all the words accurately, but would lose points for saying ‘is’ rather than ‘are’ and for poor fluency.


280 There are no places left in the morning tutorials.

examiner’s comments: This student would achieve a high score for repeating almost every word accurately, with clear pronunciation and good fluency. The response’s score would be reduced because the student says ‘tutorials’ rather than ‘tutorial’.


281 There are no places left in the morning tutorial.


10 topic: the conference


282 The conference predicted the great number than last year.

examiner’s comments: This student does not repeat the words ‘is’, ‘to’ or ‘draw’, and they mispronounce ‘greater’. Therefore the response would receive a low score.


283 The conference is predicted to join greater numbers last– than last year.

examiner’s comments: This student says ‘join’ rather than ‘draw’ and hesitates before ‘than last year’. Despite these problems, the fluency score would be relatively good.


284 The conference is expected to draw bigger audience than last year.

examiner’s comments: This student would achieve a good score for repeating almost every word accurately, with native-like pronunciation and fluency. Points would be lost because the student says ‘expected’ and ‘bigger audience’ rather than ‘predicted’ and ‘greater numbers’.

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test 2, speakingdescribe image1 topic: student apartment plan


285 So there’s er the plant er illustrates the– shows the student apartment. Mm the left can be seed the bedroom with two windows and exactly the right um have a living– living area. It’s the– the … huge part of the apartment and below in the left kitchen and bath.

examiner’s comments: This student’s speech is very slow and hesitant. It also contains many errors; for example, the student says ‘can be seed’ rather than ‘can be seen’. The student reads the labels from the image, but does not describe any other key features, such as the objects in each area of the apartment and their size. For this reason, the student’s score would be low in all skill areas.


286 The image describes a student apartment. As soon as you um go through the entrance there is the living area which is both on the right and the left hand side. When you walk further down there is the bedroom on the right hand side, and in the middle there is a kitchen and on the left there is the bathroom. [long pause] There are two windows in the bedroom and one window in the living area.

examiner’s comments: This student describes some main features of the image with good fluency and clear, but non-native, pronunciation. However, the description is limited to the different areas of the apartment and does not include the objects in each area. In addition, the student does not mention any implications of the apartment’s appearance, such as the lack of a television or computer.


287 This floor– floor plan shows the layout of a student apartment. We can see a bathroom at the bottom– at the left hand side at the bottom and then the next to it is the kitchen and then the er bathroom with the two windows and there is a study area on the right hand side on the top. And there is some– I think maybe it’s a communal living area um with an entrance on the right hand side.

examiner’s comments: This student would achieve a high score for describing the key features of the image, with reasonably clear pronunciation and good fluency. However, in order to achieve maximum points, the student would need to describe the objects in each area of the apartment and suggest some implications of the apartment’s design.

2 topic: climate in the Great Lakes area


288 This climate graph er shows the Great Lakes area in United States and show the rainfall and temperatures. Um the highest point is the same in July for rainfall and temperature and the lowest point is er in February um in November to rainfall and January– December and January for er temperatures.

examiner’s comments: This student mispronounces key words such as ‘climate’, which makes the description of the image’s features quite unclear. The response does include key facts such as which months have highest and lowest rainfall and temperature, but the student does not mention the actual measurements. In other words, the student could achieve a higher score for mentioning millimetres of rain and temperature in Celsius for each month. The student’s speech is also too slow and hesitant for a high score.

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289 This graph shows the climate– a climate er of the Great Lakes area in the United States and it shows both the rainfall and temperatures. We can see that temperature and rainfall increases during the months of summer, in er especially in June, July and August, and it goes down in winter from October to March and also er April.

examiner’s comments: This student describes most key features of the image, but fails to give precise measurements for rainfall and temperature which would reduce the overall score. However, they would receive an intermediate score because they mention ‘summer’ and ‘winter’ rather than just reading the names of months from the image. The student’s speech is clear and their fluency is adequate, but neither are native-like, and therefore the response would not achieve a maximum score.


290 This graphic shows the climate in the Great Lakes area in the USA. Er we can see the figures about rainfall and temperature starting from January to December and there– there– there seems to be a relation er of rainfall and temperature. So in the summertime, around June and July, the temperature reaches a peak when– that is also when there is the greatest amount of rainfall and the– in winter, temperature drops and there is also a reduced amount of rainfall as well.

examiner’s comments: The response is a little hesitant at first, but its fluency improves during the description. The student’s pronunciation is very good, and the description covers most main points of the image. In order to achieve a higher score, the student would need to develop the answer beyond description and suggest reasons for the temperature and rainfall levels.

3 topic: energy consumption 2007


291 So the energy consumption in North America in 2007 er was um most um is er by oil with um 41 percent er percent and South America with er 45 percent oil as well. Um the other similarity is natural gas, er with North America with 25 and South America with 21.

examiner’s comments: The student’s response does not include nuclear, coal, or hydroelectric power. In addition, the student fails to mention the respective percentages for each of the types of energy consumption. Although similarities between North America and South America are described, the student fails to contrast the differences between the two territories. The student’s pronunciation is adequately clear, but this response’s score for fluency would be low.


292 This graphs shows the energy consumption in 2007 er by showing er the percentage of the consumption of different er um resources. In comparing North America and South America we can see that oil is by far the most used energy, er more than 40 percent. Er but compare in South America, we can see that hydroelectrics are used more than in North America and South America with 28 percent compared to the five percent in North America. However, coal is more used in North America, with 20 percent compared to the five [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student describes all the key features of the image by mentioning both the main similarities and the main differences between North American and South American energy consumption. The student’s description benefits from the inclusion of percentages of oil and hydroelectric consumption. In order to achieve a higher score, this student should also mention nuclear, coal, and natural gas in some way. The student’s fluency and pronunciation are both good, but clearly non-native.


293 This graphic shows er the energy consumption 2007 er comparing er North– the use of energy in North America, in South America, so we can see that in both area the consumption of oil is the greatest er part, reaching about 41 percent and 45 percent and er it’s understandable that er in South America people do not use as much nuclear energy as North America but what is surprising is the use of hydroelectric and then [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student gives a good overview of some main points with clear pronunciation which is almost native-like. The description includes both the key differences and similarities. In addition, the student would receive points for saying that the differences are ‘surprising’, which shows an understanding of the image’s implications. However, the fluency of the description is relatively poor and the student is unable to finish the sentence within the time limit.

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4 topic: Language college timetable


294 Er [unclear] – the timetable er of um week one showing er er how the time splitted between um 9 a.m. till noon and 1 p.m. till 4 p.m. And you can see er they, two to four they will have English class from the morning session and they will have some social activities and er a little bit English class in the afternoon for four days. And the weekends will be staying in the ho– with the families and they will– in day five there will be some um activities like [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student’s description misrepresents the image because it does not mention that this is a ‘Language college’ timetable. In addition, the student fails to describe the activities on Day 5 or that the college students stay with homestay families. This student’s speech is slow and hesitant and the student’s pronunciation of certain words like ‘split’ is poor.


295 This table shows the er timetable of the language college for the first week, and we can see during the first four days in the morning, except for day one where is a tour of the college and a welcome by the head of the college. There are English Language er classes during the morning and in the afternoon there are– are most of the time social activities. Fridays is a full day of activities with tennis, films, games and surfing. And day six and seven are weekend with home stay families.

examiner’s comments: This student describes all the key features of the image but would not achieve a maximum score due to only reading the information as shown in the image and failing to draw implications or conclusions, such as ‘there is a wide variety of activities’. The student’s fluency is quite good but the pronunciation is clearly non-native.


296 This table er shows er the language college timetable for week one. So we see er in day one there will be a tour of college and there will be er welcome er er talks by head of college and morning tea, and then the English lecture starts er in the afternoon. And then through day two to day four student will have English language class every day in the morning and maybe some social events in the afternoon and um day three there will be excursion to local attraction, and starting from day five, the full day activities including maybe like a tennis or a film or a game [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student describes some key features, but fails to mention the weekend activities. The fluency of the response is very good and the student’s pronunciation is clear. In order to achieve a higher score, the description would need to mention Days 6 and 7 and to include some suggestions about the image’s implications.

5 topic: overseas-born people in australia


297 This graph illustrates the proportion of overseas-born people in Australia. Er in the same m– month June through the 2010, 2005 and 2000 er by country of birth. So the … the majority is in the UK in 2000. This is the … the highest point. In– in stark contrast the lowest is Malaysia er in 2000 as well.

examiner’s comments: This student describes some main features of the image, such as the years 2000, 2005, and 2010, and the fact that it describes the ‘proportion of overseas-born people in Australia’. However, the student misrepresents a key point by saying ‘the majority is in the UK’ rather than the majority of people are ‘from the UK’. The response is hesitant and the student’s pronunciation of words such as ‘stark’ is very poor.


298 This graph shows the proportion of overseas-born people in Australia during the period of 2000 and 2010 er by country of birth and we can see that er the first country by far is the UK, where er it er five percent of at the birth um a UK birth are um ac–actually both in June 2010, June 2005 and June 2000 have more than five percent. Er after UK we can see New Zealand er [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student’s pronunciation of key words such as ‘Australia’ is poor and clearly non-native, but the response’s fluency is very good. The student’s description contains some main features of the image, such as the fact most overseas-born people are from the UK, but the student fails to mention changes between the years 2000, 2005 and 2010. The student also fails to mention other countries such as India, China and Germany.

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299 The graph shows the proportion of overseas-born people in Australia from 2000 till 2010 um by country of birth. The biggest proportion of overseas-born people in Australia come from the UK. In, what is it, June 2000 that was about– oh yeah, in June 2000 it was about six percent and that decreased till about five in 2010. The proportion of people from New Zealand is a lot smaller than you would expect, um and all the other countries like South Africa and Malaysia, Germany etc. are also under–represented really.

examiner’s comments: This student describes the key features with appropriate, native-like fluency and pronunciation. The description would achieve a very high score because it includes comparisons of both different countries of origin and the differences between the years. In order to achieve a maximum score, the student would also need to mention some implications of the data, such as reasons why certain countries are more represented than others.

6 topic: Painted Lady butterfly life cycle


300 This [unclear] chart demonstrates the lifecir– circle– circle of a butterfly. So the butterfly put the egg and the egg er growth and turn into larva and the next step er sees the … the pupa, that um, stay for er short time then [cut]

examiner’s comments: This response contains mispronunciation of many key words, which makes the student’s description of key features difficult to understand; for example, the student says ‘circle’ rather than ‘cycle’. In addition, the student’s fluency is very poor and, due to the slow speed of speech, the student does not describe all the basic features of the graph, such as the emergence of the butterfly.


301 The picture shows the birth of the l … a lady butterfly lifecycle. Basically the adult butterfly lays the eggs, which is um the size of a pinhead and the eggs then transform into um al … a larva, which is also called um a caterpillar. ... And which is then– which then forms into a shell and after that it emerges to be um a butterfly again.

examiner’s comments: This student describes all the key features of the image from the adult butterfly laying the egg to the emergence of the butterfly from the pupa. The student does not comment on any implications, such as the complexity of the life cycle, and their score would be also reduced by the slowness and hesitancy of the student’s speech. Although the student’s pronunciation is clear, it is not native-like.


302 The graph shows the life cycle of the painted lady butterfly. It starts off as an egg, which is about the size of a pinhead, then turns into a larva, or caterpillar in this case, and just eats and grows – it’s kind of black-purple with yellow-green stripes. The larva forms shells, which become reddish brown, and that turns into a pupa, or a chrysalis in this case. Finally it emerges and becomes an adult, which is a butterfly, and then the cycle begins again as the adult lays eggs.

examiner’s comments: This student’s description covers all the key features of the image, and includes many extra details such as the size of the egg and the colour of the larva. The student’s fluency is very good, with suitable intonation, stress and speed. In addition, all the words are pronounced accurately in a native-like way.

test 2, speakingre-tell lecture1 topic: the purpose of museums


303 Er the purpose of the museums um this er time basically focus– must focus on education, to engage people to [unclear] in and try to … help to a social change and to explain things in a interesting way for them. So they show focusing [unclear] to bring people to the museum.

examiner’s comments: This student describes some but not all of the main points from the lecture. The student fails to mention that the amount of information available online has contributed to a change in the purpose of museums. In addition, although the response mentions ‘education’ and ‘social change’, the student fails to contrast these purposes with the traditional exhibition of untouchable items. The response is very slow and hesitant and the student’s pronunciation becomes completely incomprehensible at the end of the description.

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304 The lecture is about the purpose of museums, basically why we have them and why we need them, because in the modern age um most of the um information is accessible online, so um we need to know what we– what people expect and what is also relevant when it comes to having museums. Museum professionals needs to– need to work more towards the um purpose of education and the need to think about the need of their visitors and the instrument for um the visitors.

examiner’s comments: This student presents a good overview of all key points in the lecture. The student contrasts the past purposes of museums and those of today, and the response mentions the causes of change. In order to achieve a higher score, the student would need to develop the answer beyond re-telling what the lecturer says and to mention implications and conclusions. In addition, the student would not achieve a maximum score due to poor fluency and occasional pronunciation problems with words such as ‘instrument’.


305 The lecture um is about the purpose of museums in the modern area because with online access um it seems that museums have become quite obsolete. So what makes a museum relevant nowadays? Um it shouldn’t be a warehouse of old objects that you can just look at and not touch. It should actually inspire and educate people um with hand-on exhibits. By creating community links, it can be an agent for social change um and they also need knowledge of their visitors and the visitors they want to have in future.

examiner’s comments: This student successfully describes all of the key points from the lecture and discusses the lecture’s implications when mentioning that museums seem to be ‘becoming obsolete’. The fluency of the response is strong and native-like, and the student’s pronunciation is very good. However, the response would lose points for occasional mispronunciation; for example, the student seems to say ‘modern area’ rather than ‘modern era’.

2 Topic: Graffiti


306 The speaker was talking about er graffiti– graffiti as um art, which becomes very popular nowadays, which used to use in ancient er or Rome time, and people er do their art in the– in the building, in the– in the shop, even in subway train display um they show their skill, how they can be very good at in artisting, in becoming very popular nowadays, um especially in New York.

examiner’s comments: This student’s description does include some main points, such as the ancient tradition of graffiti, but it fails to mention reasons why people use graffiti today. For example, the description should have mentioned that people use graffiti to ‘express their disillusionment’. The student’s speech is hesitant and their words are pronounced in a way that is not native-like.


307 The lecture is about um graffiti as a form of art and it is um noticed that nowadays it’s becoming more and more um common, whereas tags has no aesthetic appeal. And graffitis have been around for a long time and it was also found in ancient Egypt. And it um started in New York in the late 1950s and it um the subway trains were also used as a medium … as a new medium to um promote graffitis.

examiner’s comments: This student’s description covers most key points from the lecture, such as graffiti being found in ancient Egypt and its becoming popular in the 1970s in New York. However, the student fails to mention the purposes of graffiti, such ‘people leaving their mark’ and ‘to express their disillusionment’. The student’s fluency is good but not native-like, and the pronunciation is usually clear but contains some mispronunciations, such as the word ‘aesthetic’.


308 The lecture speaks about our perception of graffiti, um whether or not graffiti is an art or a nuisance. Um it starts off with talking about tags, which have no aesthetic appeals ’cos they just look like scribbles, and they tend to destroy properties, or devalue them. Graffiti has actually been around for a very long time. Um markings on caves, for instance, um markings in Romes or in Egypt were also mentioned. But a graffiti we’re most um familiar with is the New York-style graffiti um and that came about in the late 1960s because of spray cans.

examiner’s comments: This student successfully describes all the key points of the lecture, from the origins of graffiti to its role in modern life, and also mentions some of the lecture’s implications, such as people’s familiarity with the graffiti style of 1970s New York. The student’s speech is clear and native-like both in terms of fluency and pronunciation.

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3 topic: biomimicry


309 Er technology nowadays er have a little bit of nature in the insides. Er if any people doesn’t think this but for example the screens in the cellphones have something er related with butterflies that make brightness with er pure energy and this is called the biomimocry, so bio is– means life, er mimicry is like [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student’s hesitant description misrepresents some of the lecture’s main points. The student says that technology has nature inside and that mobile screens have something related to butterflies inside. In fact, the lecture talks about the influence of nature on technological design and research, but the student fails to mention this. In addition, the student’s pronunciation of consonant sounds is often incomprehensible; for example, the difference between ‘v’ and ‘b’ sounds is usually unclear.


310 The lecture is about how technology, invention and research are based on nature. It … it is mainly based on the useful concept that it can be– it can take from nature and how closely we learned from nature. For example um the brightness of a mobile er is … has been um derived from um butterflies’ wings and nowadays there– this is what we call biomimicry, that is um copying nature.

examiner’s comments: This student’s description contains some long, unnatural pauses, for example before ‘it is mainly’. The student mentions some main points, but fails to cover all the key information from the lecture due to slowness of speech. However, the student’s pronunciation is clear and at times almost native-like, so a good score would be awarded for this.


311 The lecture speaks about biomimicry. Um which basically means mimicking nature. Technology is often seen as more sophisticated than nature. However a lot of tech– our technology nowadays is taking cues from nature. Um the brightness of screens, for instance, was taken from butterflies’ wings and um moths’ eyes. Also um glow worms, they look at how they can glow without using hardly any energy and they’ve also looked at the strength of spiders’ webs for instance.

examiner’s comments: This student’s excellent description covers all the key points of the lecture. Appropriately, the student begins re-telling the lecture by stating its topic, ‘biomimicry’. The student then provides supporting details to illustrate nature’s importance to technology. The response would also receive a very high score for the student’s native-like fluency and pronunciation.

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test 2, Writingsummarize written text1 topic: sea creatures and sound


In the sea the majority of animals react by sound – some of than respond to sound whilst many others produce it, also the sea is becoming more noisy from human development – like military activity. For many sea creatures like dolphins, fishs, sharks, etc, the sound is a tool to hunt, send messages, transmit warnings and many others things that help this animal to related each other and survive.

examiner’s comments: This summary’s overall score would be low because the student has written more than one sentence and has not presented one of the passage’s main points. In order to achieve a higher score, this student would need to include the impact of noise from ship’s engines. In addition, there are grammatical errors and poor choices of vocabulary, such as ‘noisy from human development’, which would reduce the student’s score.


Sea creatures respond to sounds and use it for different purposes, for example, send messages, sense danger among many others and with research carried out, scientists have found out that due to a change in the environment compared to 50 years ago, the effect on sea life is alarming.

examiner’s comments: This summary contains all of the key points from the passage. However, the summary has many grammatical problems which would prevent it achieving a high score. For example, the sentence has two subjects, ‘sea creatures’ and ‘scientists’. The student should have written ‘use them for different purposes’ because ‘it’ cannot refer to ‘sounds’, and ‘sending messages’ and ‘sensing dangers’ would have been more grammatically appropriate examples of the ‘different purposes’.


Many sea creatures respond to sound and even produce it for survival; however, the undersea noise pollution created by human beings has severely interfered the daily lives of marine animals.

examiner’s comments: This response contains all the key points from the lecture and the student has used a semi-colon effectively to lengthen this summary. The summary contains appropriately chosen vocabulary and would receive a good score for this. However, the student should have written ‘has severely interfered with the daily lives of marine animals’, and the omission of ‘with’ between ‘interfered’ and ‘the’ would reduce the grammar score. ‘Interfere’ is an intransitive verb.

2 topic: chillies


Understand how the taste of chillie works have been studied by scientists for long time and now they know a little bit about it. One of the discovers that researchers find out is that the hottest part of in chillie is what they coined ‘placenta’ – the white flesh that houses the seeds. It is believed by this scientists that …

examiner’s comments: Inappropriately, this student has used more than one sentence. In addition, this summary is incomplete, so the overall score would be low. The summary would also lose points for spelling mistakes (‘chillie’) and for many grammatical mistakes, such as ‘One of the discovers’ and ‘Understand how the taste of chillie works have been studied …’.


The evolution of chillies over the past decades has been massive; scientists have discovered the reason behind a chilly being hot which is in fact the white flesh rather than the seeds, although some US scientists claim that it is because of a certain harmful fungus, thus helping chillies del with harmful parasites and hungry animals.

examiner’s comments: This summary has misrepresented a main point of the passage by describing the white flesh as ‘the reason behind’ chillies being hot. In fact, the white flesh is the hottest part of the chilli, and it is inappropriate to contrast this with protecting chillies from fungi. This summary would also lose points for spelling errors (‘del’ and ‘chilly’). The grammatical structure and vocabulary choices within the summary are adequate, but the student’s score would be slightly reduced by the inappropriate collocation of ‘massive’ and ‘evolution’.

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Scientists belive that chillies have evolved to be hot, to deter not only mammals, but also microbes and fungi.

examiner’s comments: This student has provided a short and simple summary of the passage’s key points. The sentence is grammatically correct and the student has used appropriate vocabulary. However, the misspelling of ‘belive’ would prevent this summary from achieving a maximum score.

test 2, WritingWrite essay1 topic: in school until the age of eighteen


Education is one of the important necessary need for our life. Every citizen have right to receive this eliment. Expert says “Edication is proseper of our life”

Home is the first place to start learning for every body. They get all the basic education in the home and the next step is to go to school to start getting more knowledge to develop our understanding of life. In the school we learn about all necessary areas relating to our real life to lead our life for better in future, to build our confident to face any problem and be able to solve them.

Over ther world, different country follow different education system. For example, In the developed countries like United Kingdom has got certain level of education a student must have to attend and after it becomes optional to the person whether they want to study further or not and the level a student must have to attend is GCSE which a student can finish in their 15/16. In other countries it may be different.

On the other hand, Some developing or poorer countries migh not have mendetory education system due to short of Government funding. It is an optional for them to go to school, some countries provide free primary education only. There is one noticable things that those country who can not bear the expense of free education to higher level get help from different charity organisation who help those student to get their basic education and can lead their life better.

In conclusion, it is not actually important to go to school till age of eighteen as long as any one can achieve thire basic education in the school level unless it is a legislation for a student to attend untill age of eighteen.

examiner’s comments: This essay is very poor. Although the student has tried to divide the argument into five separate parts, it is unclear how some of these parts are connected to the question. The student’s second paragraph is about the home, not school, and it is unclear until the conclusion why the student has used the example of the UK in the third paragraph. The essay contains many poor choices of vocabulary which prevent the student from effectively communicating ideas: for example, it is unsuitable to call education an ‘eliment’. The misspelling of this word and many others would also reduce the student’s score.


The following statement ‘students should be required to stay in school until the age of eighteen’ is an argumentative one. Below are the reasons as to why I agree or disagree with the statement.

I do agree with the statement because I strongly believe that an individual should have a minimum level of education, especially in the modern world that we are living in. Therefore having students to stay in school until they are eighteen is a good thing. Students are quite mature at the age of eighteen. Also, at the age of eighteen, students are in a better position to know what they want when compared with someone who is sixteen.

However I can also disagree with the statement and the reasons are stipulated below. First of all, there are some students who are not very bright and for those students, they would be better if they were directed towards the vocational side of studies. For students who want to choose the vocational side, it is a disadvantage as they will have to stay in school until they are eighteen and then move to vocational. If they were not required to stay in school until they are eighteen, they could have started on the vocational side at a much early age and would have been at an advanced stage when they turn eighteen.

As a conclusion, I would like to say that students who do not want to stay in school until they are eighteen and want to go towards the vocational programmes, should be allowed to do so. For who want to leave school just for the sake of leaving school, should on the other hand be kept in school until they turn eighteen.

examiner’s comments: This essay’s introduction is very problematic. It is unnecessary to provide such a long quote from the prompt, and it is inappropriate to call this statement ‘argumentative’. In addition, the student’s opinion should have been stated in this introduction, but the use of ‘or’ rather than ‘and’ makes the student’s opinion unclear. While most points are clear, spelling is accurate, and the length is satisfactory, the overall score would be relatively low due to many grammatical errors and poor choices of vocabulary, such as ‘the reasons are stipulated’.

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I fully agree that students should be required to stay in school until the age of eighteen as 16 was a rather archaic rule.

The school leaving age of 16 came about due to the shorter life spans of the general population; most people didn’t make it past 30, so at 16 you were really “over the hill” in the past. Tennage marriages for instance used to be much more comon, as was child labour.

At 16, the brain has not fully developed yet, and a teenager is just starting to grasp complex adult conventions and behavioural patterns. The extra 2 years would greatly aid in their development as they are generally not quite independent or mature enough at 16.

Raising the age to 18 will also have a positive effect on the outlook of teenagers; many of them dread finishing secondary school and having to go further afield to continue their education. It might also reduce teenage pregnancies as they will (hopefully) spend their evenings and weekends studying and doing other teenage things, rather than the more adult pastimes.

Lastly, I believe that finishing school should be a rite to maturity; just as passing your driving test is, or taking out a loan. 16 is simply too young in my opinion!

examiner’s comments: At 212 words, the length of this essay is appropriate. The student has also clearly divided the essay using paragraphs. The ideas contained within all paragraphs are clear; however, the student would lose points by saying that ‘most people didn’t make it past 30 … in the past’ because this statement is too inaccurate and vague to effectively support their idea. The essay contains appropriate grammatical structures but points would be lost for inappropriate vocabulary choices, such as ‘a rite to maturity’, and frequent spelling mistakes.

2 topic: environmental problems


Technological development brings us more blessing and make our lives more easier and comfortable. At the same time it has got some negative impect as well. Natural desester in one of the leading cause of technology development.

World is changing due to technology changing every moment and we can see some advantage and disadvantage in the same time. Firstly, due to massive industrial development we are receiving benefits and other side we are causing damage to the nature leading environmental problem like flood, earth quick, tsunami, weather change etc. Destroying forest is one of the great example which cause the global warming and reasulting to meting ice and leading to rising water level in the sea which causing flood even some areas never happen before. Secondly,The weather changing very often which interupting our normal days. Thirdly, destroying the natural balance by excavating hills, filling lake, making taller building cause the imbalance of nature.

People are suffering from environmental problems and they want to reduce them by taking actions. To do that both individual and Government need to take steps and work together to protect us from natural desester and preventing them to happen. Every individual need to be careful about their every action and try to be eco friendly. In the mean time Government can try to reduce them by stoping damaging the nature and by making legislation to protect nature so that we can be protected from desester.

Finally, It is our duties as a individual to help government to protect nature and save ourselves and It is also government duty to prevent human being to destry nature by making laws and trying to save the nature. Because every individual combindlt make a Government.

examiner’s comments: This essay contains many grammatical, spelling and vocabulary mistakes. In addition, its introduction and second paragraph are not clearly connected to the question. The student does not refer to the responsibilities of the government and individuals, and points such as ‘Natural desester in one of the leading cause of technology development’ are wrong and irrelevant. At the end of the essay, the student’s opinion is clear; however, the first half of the essay has been wasted. In order to improve the essay score, the student should address the question more clearly and quickly.

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Individuals can play an important role in managing enviromental problems as long as we all act together. Reducing carbon emissions for example is not only a duty of big corporations and governments but it is everyone’s responsibility. We can all contribute in our way, such as reducing our travel, using alternative energy options, being conciuous about garbage and recycling, etc.

Having said that, governments play a vital part regarding enviromental problems. This is mainly due to the fact that governments can implement meassures and enact new legislation that can affect and be applicable to individuals or companies of any size. Moreover, governments are able to invest in new technology and development that can change today’s negative environmental patterns. As more efficient and environmentaly friendly products and systems are discovered, governments should implement them in various ways. For example, alternative energies to oil such as electric cars or solar pannels could be encouraged to used by both the public and the private sectors through compensation schemes. This can only be managed by governments.

In conclusion, although individuals can contribute in improving the environmental situation, given the huge problems that we currently face, it is at government level where a real difference can be made when dealing with them.

examiner’s comments: This student’s opinion becomes clear in the conclusion. However, the essay has not been appropriately developed within the earlier paragraphs. The question asks to what extent the student agrees or disagrees that ‘environmental problems are too great to be managed by individuals so real change can only be achieved at government level’. The student’s description of actions that individuals can take seems inappropriate, because the essay does not begin with the student’s opinion. The student would receive a good score for grammar, but frequent spelling errors and some poor vocabulary choices, such as ‘contribute in’, would reduce the overall score.


Environmental problems should be dealt with by individuals firstly, and governments secondly. The government can only do so much, but the real change needs to come from the individual.

I remember seeing adverts on tv as a child, asking for donations to WWF for instance. They didn’t affect me much at the time (and they still don’t). What really made me think about my actions, was actually a video by Jamiroquai called ‘too young to die’. The images of seals getting clubbed to death, volcanoes erupting, flash floods and other distasters, and the hook of the song really brought the message home better than the government infomercials. Also the fact that an individual felt so strongly, and called for action really appealed to me.

There are also other ways for individuals to get invlolved: wearing a sweater indoors, rather than switching the heating on, vegetarianism, recycling and conserving the usage of water are all examples of small actions which cumulatively can make a huge difference. The savings we have made by using energy effiecient light bulbs for instance, is a good example of how individuals and governments can work in tandem.

Change has usually been a social phenomenon, steered by one or more visionaries. Sometimes these visionaries hold positions in government, but more often they are just regular citizens.

examiner’s comments: This essay would receive a high score because it effectively addresses the question and the student’s ideas are supported by clear explanations and interesting examples. The student’s use of grammar and vocabulary are mostly very strong; however, occasional errors would prevent this essay achieving a maximum score in these areas. For example, the student says ‘The government can only do so much, but the real change needs to come from the individual.’ ‘Only’ and ‘but’ should not be used together in this way, and it is necessary for a student to show a full mastery of language for a maximum score.

test 2, Listeningsummarize spoken text1 topic: Proofreading


The speaker talk about proof reading: the importance and how do it. He said that this activity is impportant to solve problems. Some people, when try to proof reading, look for problems with ponctuation, however, it is relevant look at your own work and be aware of what kind areas look for: grammar, speeling, etc. The main idea of proof reading is try to have a pic picture, check if the text is going in a logical way, if each paragraph have all information necessary and if is flow, withou forget to check the references.

examiner’s comments: Although some of the short lecture’s main points are mentioned, others, such as the fact that it is easier to proofread other people’s work, are omitted. In addition, the student’s use of language is very poor. Linking words such as ‘however’ are misused and there are frequent grammatical and spelling mistakes. Finally, at 95 words, this summary is also too long.

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The lecture is about the final assignments of the autumn term. The lecturer is giving advice on how to proof read our own piece of work which tend to be difficult, compared to when reading someone else’s. He suggested considering errors of the past so as to eliminate them. Also to make it two days’ process as it would be easier to spot the mistakes.

examiner’s comments: This summary contains all of the lecture’s main points. However, the student’s score could be improved by mentioning some examples of writing errors, such as problems with referencing. Most grammatical structures and vocabulary choices are appropriate, but the final sentence contains errors which would reduce the overall score.


This lecturer explains how to proofread your own work effectively. You should not only look for grammar, punctuation, or spelling errors but also try to look at a bigger picture such as identifying key ideas in each paragraph, checking citations and references, and reading aloud to make sure it flows. In addition, allow for enough time to proofread your work before the deadline.

examiner’s comments: This summary contains the lecture’s main points and a large number of supporting examples. The student has used grammatical structures appropriately and all vocabulary choices within the summary are correct. With 63 words, the summary is of a suitable length, and there are no spelling errors.

2 topic: Local government


The woman talk about three main issues for a city. The fist one, and more important, is about responsibility services, facilities and law for citizens. Shortly after, she said that the second main subject is about how create public services for citizens. Finally, the third and last issue is related to national government versus local government versus citizens, and how to work between all this three properly.

examiner’s comments: This student’s first sentence misrepresents the lecture’s topic, which is three main concerns for the government of cities. Inappropriate vocabulary choices, such as ‘responsibility services’ and grammatical errors within the summary would make the overall score low. In addition, the student would lose points for incorrectly spelling first as ‘fist’ and these as ‘this’.


A research carried out a study on local government by talking to stakeholders and the community. There are three main areas of concern. The first one is allowing ordinary people to be more involved by allowing them to take more responsibility. Second is to create public service more towards customer service. Last is to solve the problem of mistrust between national and local governments which make citizens bear the very high cost.

examiner’s comments: This summary is quite strong, and contains all of the lecture’s points. However, the student’s description of the second concern of local government is not completely clear. The student should have said ‘to create public service which is more customer directed’. Grammatical structures have been used appropriately and there are no spelling mistakes, but the summary would lose points for being too long (72 words).


The research team identified three main areas that the government and local communities need to work on. First of all, the citizens will have to take more responsibilities and get more involved. Secondly, the public service will need to be more down-to-earth and customer-directed to support citizens. Thirdly, the relationship between the central government, the local government, and the citizens will need to be better balanced.

examiner’s comments: This summary would receive a very high score. The student has used appropriate grammatical structures and correct vocabulary choices to effectively summarise all three of the lecture’s main points about central government. The summary shows strong listening skills as the student has used much of the same terminology as the lecturer, such as ‘down-to-earth’ and ‘customer-directed’. At 66 words, the summary is an appropriate length.

Documents

test 2, speaking - prodengcom.s3.amazonaws.comprodengcom.s3.amazonaws.com/students/audio/pteacademic/docume… · student’s overall Pte academic score: 55 ... A newly created test