test 3, speaking - prodengcom.s3.amazonaws.comprodengcom.s3.amazonaws.com/students/audio/pteacademic/docume… · TEST 3 student ansWers PTE ACADEMIC PRACTICE TESTS PLUS © Pearson

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PTE AcAdEmic PrAcTicE TESTS PluS

© Pearson education Limited 2013 PhotocoPiabLe

test 3, speakingread aloud1 topic: tidal energy

student’s overall Pte academic score: 45

312 Tidal energy, also know as tidal power, is a [unclear] renewable source of energy in the form of hydropower used to generate electricity from the energy of the tides. Though not currently widely u– utilised, due– due to hide costs and limited availability. It can be called the energy resource of the future given the current rate of the deplation of energy resources.

examiner’s comments: This student hesitates for a long time before the word ‘renewable’ and, throughout the response their speech is slow and broken. Pronunciation is also very poor, particularly for the words ‘hydro’ and ‘utilised’.


313 Tidal energy, also known as tidal power, is a renewable source of energy and a form of hydropower used to generate electricity from the energy of the tides. Though not currently widely utilise, due to the high cost and limited availability, it can be called the energy resources of the future given the current rate of depletion of the energy resources.

examiner’s comments: This response contains all of the words from the prompt, read with good fluency. However, the student’s mispronunciation of ‘hydropower’ and ‘renewable’ would reduce the pronunciation score.


314 Tidal energy, also known as tidal power, is a renewable source of energy in the form of hydropower used to generate electricity from the energy of the tides. Though not currently widely uter– utilised, due to high cost and limited availability, it can be called the energy resource of the future given the current rate of depletion of energy resources.

examiner’s comments: This student reads the whole prompt with native-like fluency. However, the response would not receive the maximum score due to small pronunciation problems with ‘costs’ and ‘utilised’.

2 topic: types of methodology


315 Certain types of methodology are more suitable for some research projects, than others. For example, the use of questionnaires and surveys is more suitable for quantitative research, whereas interviews and focus group are more often used for qualitative research purpose.

examiner’s comments: This student frequently mispronounces words, such as ‘suitable’ and ‘purposes’. They also speak in a broken, hesitant way, and so the response would receive a low score.


316 Certain types of methodology are more suitable for some research projects than others. For example, the use of questionnaires and surveys is more suitable for quantitative research whereas interviews and focus groups are more often used for qualitative research purposes.

examiner’s comments: This student speaks with good fluency but mispronounces certain sounds, particularly vowels, e.g. in ‘others’.


317 Certain types of methodology are more suitable for some research projects than others. For example, the use of questionnaire and surveys is more suitable for a quantitative research, whereas interviews and focus groups … are more often used for a qualitative research purposes.

examiner’s comments: This response is spoken with native-like fluency and the student’s pronunciation is very strong. However, the maximum score would not be awarded for pronunciation due to omission of the ‘s’ sound at the end of ‘questionnaires’.

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3 topic: Labour migration


318 Most countries are affected by labour migration. In many rural– rural places, the traditional extended family has been undermine by the need for family members to migrate to towns as an economic necessity. Migration, therefore, present a major challenge everywhere to social and economic policy.

examiner’s comments: This response would receive a low score due to the student’s frequent mispronunciation of key words (e.g. ‘migration’ and ‘rural’) and the student’s poor fluency.


319 Most countries are affected by labour migration. In many rural places, the traditional extended family has been undermined by the need for family members to migrate to towns as an economic necessity. Migration, therefore, presents a major challenge everywhere to social and economic policy.

examiner’s comments: This student’s pronunciation is very clear and every word from the prompt has been read, but the response would not receive the maximum overall score due to some unnatural stress on words like ‘everywhere’ and ‘migration’, which would reduce the score for fluency.


320 Most countries are affected by labour migration. In many rural places, the traditional extended family has been undermined by the need for family members to migrate to towns as an economic necessity. Migration, therefore, presents a major challenge everywhere to social and economic policy.

examiner’s comments: This student has read every word from the prompt with native-like fluency and good pronunciation, despite a slight problem with the word ‘migrate’.

4 topic: Future home design


321 One of the majors factors influencing future home design will be the probable change in climate, with hotter summers, colder winters, and the possibility of floods. Consequently, houses will be built with better insulation and will also need ways to keep cool and hot weather. Whether that’s air conditioning or more shading of windows.

examiner’s comments: Although the response contains every word from the prompt, the student speaks with frequent hesitations and mispronounces words such as ‘floods’, ‘design’ and ‘insulation’, in an incomprehensible way.


322 One of the major factors influencing future home design will be the probable change in climate, with hotter summers, colder winters, and the possibility of floods. Consequently, houses will be built with better insulation and will also need ways of keeping cool and hot water, whether that’s air conditioning or more shading of windows.

examiner’s comments: This response would receive a good fluency score, but the student’s mispronunciation of ‘insulation’, and the replacement of ‘in hot weather’ with ‘and hot water’ would reduce their score.


323 One of the major factors influencing future home design will be the pro–bable change in climate, with hotter summers, colder winters, and the possibility of floods. Consequently houses will be built with better insulation, and will also need ways of keeping cool in hot weather, whether that’s air conditioning or more shading of windows.

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

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5 topic: the origin of birds


324 Until fairly recent times, the origin of birds was one of the evolution great mysteries. This is no longer the case. Fossil evidence from China now consequently proves that there is an evolutionary link between the birds and the several type of extinct, er, prehistoric reptiles where lives million of years ago, or in other words, dinosaurs.

examiner’s comments: This student speaks with poor fluency and frequently mispronounces vowel sounds, e.g. ‘birds’ sounds like ‘bards’. The response would also receive a low score because the word ‘which’ is replaced by ‘where’.


325 Until fairly recent times, the origins of birds was one of the evolutionary’s great mysteries. This is no longer the case. Fossil evidence from China now conclusively proves that there is an evolutionary link between birds and several type of extincts prehistoric reptiles, which lived millions of years ago, or in other words, dinosaurs.

examiner’s comments: This student mispronounces vowel sounds (e.g. in ‘reptiles’ and ‘dinosaurs’) and replaces ‘evolution’s great mysteries’ with ‘evolutionary’s great mysteries’, so the response would receive an intermediate score.


326 Until fairly recent times, the origin of birds was one of evolution’s great mysteries. This is no longer the case. Fossil evidence from China now conclusively proves that there is an evolutionary link between birds and several types of extinct prehistoric reptiles … which lived million of years ago, or in other words, dinosaurs.

examiner’s comments: This student’s fluency is good and every word from the prompt is read. However, the maximum score would not be awarded due to poor word stress on words such as ‘China’, and ‘extinct’. The student’s pronunciation is good but the maximum score would not be awarded due to the omission of the ‘s’ sound at the end of ‘millions’.

6 topic: Group work


327 Group work is valuable because of the opportunities it provided for students to develop collaboration and communication skills. As an assessment task, it has the potential to pose difficulties in relation to appropriate acknowledgement of authorship of individual group members. These difficulties can be minimised by ensuring that the task is well designed, with the roles of individuals effective identified.

examiner’s comments: This student mispronounces some words, such as ‘develop’ and ‘roles’, and speaks slowly in a hesitant way, so the response would receive a low score.


328 Group work is valuable because of the opportunities it provides for er– for students to develop collaboration and communication skills. As an assessment task it has the potential to pose difficulties in relation to appropriate acknowledgement of authorship of individual group members. These difficulties can be minimised by ensuring that the task is well designed, with the roles of individuals effectively identified.

examiner’s comments: This response contains all of the words from the prompt spoken in a relatively fluent way, but the student’s score would be reduced due to poor pronunciation of certain words, such as ‘opportunities’ and ‘valuable’.


329 Group work is valuable because of the opportunities it provides for students to develop collaboration and communication skills. As an assessment task, it has the potential to pose difficulties in relation to appropriate acknowledgement of authorship of individual group members. These difficulties can be minimised by ensuring that the task is well designed with the roles of individuals effectively identified.

examiner’s comments: This response would receive the maximum score because all of the words are read with native-like fluency and pronunciation.

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test 3, speakingrepeat sentence1 topic: this module


330 This [unclear] develop the understanding of…

examiner’s comments: This response contains less than 50 percent of the prompt and the student’s pronunciation is mostly incomprehensible.


331 This module develops our theory on understanding behind advertising campaigns.

examiner’s comments: This student has good fluency and clear pronunciation, but the response has reordered some words from the original prompt, so the score would be reduced.


332 This module develops our undes– understanding of the theory behind advertising campaigns.

examiner’s comments: This response would receive a high score, because all of the words are read with native-like pronunciation. However a small hesitation before the word ‘understanding’ would prevent the student from achieving the maximum score.

2 topic: computer software


333 Computer software has changed a lot last year.

examiner’s comments: This student omits the words ‘in’ and ‘the’, and speaks with poor fluency, so the response would receive a low score.


334 Computer software had changed lot in the last years.

examiner’s comments: This student speaks with good fluency and clear pronunciation but the response’s score would be reduced because the student omits the word ‘a’. The pronunciation score would be reduced by slight mispronunciations of ‘has’ and ‘year’.


335 Computer software has changed a lot in the last year.


3 topic: exam results


336 The exams results will be available in the office.

examiner’s comments: This student’s hesitant response would receive a low score because the student omits the words ‘next week from’ and adds words like ‘in’.

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337 Exam results will be available, er– in the– in the– in the– close office.

examiner’s comments: This student’s pronunciation of words like ‘available’ and ‘course’ is incomprehensible. The response does not contain the words ‘next’, ‘week’ or ‘from’, so the student would not receive a very high score.


338 Exam results will be available next week from the course office.


4 topic: agricultural equipment


339 The most mord– modern eq– equipment is now ec– extremely expensive.

examiner’s comments: This student omits the word ‘agricultural’ and hesitates frequently, so their response would receive a low score.


340 The most modern agricultural system is more expensive.

examiner’s comments: This student’s fluency and pronunciation are adequate, but their response would lose points because the words ‘equipment’ and ‘extremely’ have been replaced by ‘system’ and ‘more’.


341 The most modern agricultural equipment is now extremely expensive.


5 topic: number of students


342 The number of students regirst in the postgraduation research is increasing.

examiner’s comments: The words ‘registering’ and ‘postgraduate’ are mispronounced and the student would also lose points for replacing ‘risen’ with ‘increasing’.


343 The number of students registering for gr– postgraduate has in– creased.

examiner’s comments: This student would lose points for omitting the word ‘research’ and replacing ‘risen’ with ‘increased’. Their response also has poor fluency.


344 The number of students registering for postgraduate research has risen.


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6 topic: this semester


345 This semester, we’ll specialise in … psychology.

examiner’s comments: This student would lose points for poor fluency and for omitting the words ‘plan’ and ‘educational’.


346 This semester we have a specialisation in er specialise psychology.

examiner’s comments: This student hesitates, adds the word ‘specialisation’ and omits the words ‘plan’ and ‘educational’. Therefore, their response would not receive a high score.


347 This semester we plan to specialise in educational psychology.


7 topic: the new drug


348 The new druger will be tested in North America.

examiner’s comments: This student successfully repeats every word from the prompt but the response’s score would be reduced due to mispronunciation of the words ‘drug’ and ‘North’.


349 The new drug will be tested in South America.

examiner’s comments: This student speaks with good fluency but the response would receive a low score because they replace ‘North’ with ‘South’ and they mispronounce ‘will’.


350 The new drug will be tested in North America.


8 topic: overdue books


351 Er books, er will be overdue will incur a daily fine.

examiner’s comments: This student’s pronunciation is good, but their response’s score would be low due to a hesitation at the beginning, and the replacement of ‘which are’ with ‘will be’.


352 Books that are overdue will … incur a daily fine.

examiner’s comments: This student replaces the word ‘which’ with ‘that’ and they hesitate for a long time before the word ‘incur’. The response would receive a relatively low score despite adequately good pronunciation.

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353 Books which are overdue will incur a daily fine.


9 topic: distance learning


354 Distance learning … have been came more, far more popular in those days.

examiner’s comments: This student speaks unnaturally slowly and fails to repeat ‘has’, ‘become’ or ‘these’, so the response would receive a low score.


355 Distance learning is becoming far more popular these days.

examiner’s comments: This student mispronounces ‘distance’ and replaces ‘has become’ with ‘is becoming’. Despite a good score for fluency, the response would receive a relatively low score.


356 Distance learning has become far more popular these days.


10 topic: Proposal for your research


357 You need to write a proposal of your– for your research.

examiner’s comments: This student repeats every word from the prompt but also says ‘of’ before ‘your research’, and would lose points for this error.


358 You need to write a proposal for your research.

examiner’s comments: This student’s mispronunciation of the word ‘you’ would reduce their score, but the response would receive a good score for fluency.


359 You need to write a proposal for your research.


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test 3, speakingdescribe image1 topic: Population age groups in australia


360 The population is age groups in Australia and are– for female and male are basically er, with the biggest figures, between 20 and 35 years, with er– almost 50 percent for both, um. The lowest er are, of course er– in 80 and over years old, with one percent.

examiner’s comments: This student mentions some basic features of the image, but fails to show a real understanding of the topic by mentioning any implications or conclusions. The response misrepresents one key feature of the image by saying ‘almost 50 percent’ of people are aged between 20 and 39, because the real figure is less than 30 percent. In addition, the score would be very low due to frequent hesitations and poor pronunciation.


361 The graph shows the population age groups in Australia between male and female. It can be seen that from the age of zero to 19, the male age group is um, higher by 0.7 percent. From 20 to 39 age group it’s um– actually lower by 0.2 percent. From the age of 40 to 59, it’s um the male population is higher by 0.2 percent. From 60 to 79 years of age it’s actually lower by 0.5 percent compared to the female, and for 80 plus it’s actually lower by 0.8 percent.

examiner’s comments: This student would receive a low score due to misrepresenting a key aspect of the image. Although they compare the male and female age groups (e.g. by saying that ‘the male age group is higher by 0.7 percent’) they do not mention key features of the image, such as the actual percentages of males and females within each age group. The student also fails to mention any implications of this data. However, their score would be helped by relatively good pronunciation and fluency.


362 The graphic shows the population age groups of male and female in Australia. We can see it’s quite a young country. Er, in the age group of 0 to 19, both gender, has about 13 to 14 percent. And in the age group of 20 to 39, er both male and female takes about er– 14 percent or 15 percent. And then the– in the age group of 40 to 59, again is somewhere about 13 percent each. And when it turns older, um then there’s about 6.5 percent for male and seven perc– [cut]

examiner’s comments: This response would receive a high score because, as well as mentioning the key features of the image, the student also states that ‘we can see that Australia is quite a young country’. This is an implication of the data, and show’s the student’s ability to develop an answer beyond just reading from the image. The student also speaks with appropriate fluency and native-like pronunciation for most words.

2 topic: recycling cans


363 The recycling process for cans, er starts when … you buy the, the can. And then you recycle. After this, the, the council pick up the cans, er and they, er, put it flat, throw it to the fire, to melt the– the material, to build er, a new can again, to put it in the supermarket.

examiner’s comments: This student mentions all the main features of the image, but fails to develop the response and does not mention any implications of the image. The student’s fluency is very poor, with frequent hesitations before parts of sentences. The score would also be reduced due to the student’s pronunciation problems – for example, ‘this’ and ‘they’ are pronounced ‘dis’ and ‘day’.

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364 Er this picture shows, er, the life or, of, a recycling can. Er since it is throw away and is collected by the truck and– and converted into garbage. Then it’s actually burned and converted again into a can which is, er, resold in the supermarket.

examiner’s comments: This response includes all the main features of the image, but fails to develop the response and does not mention any implications of the image. The student’s fluency is very good, but their score would be reduced due to poor pronunciation – e.g. ‘garbage’, which sounds like ‘carbage’.


365 This graph shows er the life cycle of recycling cans. So first of all you buy a can from a supermarket, and then th– after you’ve finished it, you will recycle it, maybe put it into a recycling box. And then the lorry will come to collect all the recyclable items. And then, in the waste centre, maybe those can will be processed and er burned, and then using all the material from recycling cans, er, the new cans can be er manufacture. And then, again, you will find those cans in the shops.

examiner’s comments: This response includes all the key features of the graph and lots of information about supporting details. The student would receive a high score for describing the process from the perspective of people involved, and for concluding the description in a natural way. In addition, the student speaks with native-like fluency and good pronunciation.

3 topic: energy consumption of the united states and china


366 The energy consumption er, of the United States and China in 2010 er, are the following. Basically United States are consume more energy than China. According to oil, natural gas and nuclear energy. But er China have bigger numbers in coal, with er, 70 percent and United States with a little over 20 percent. Er, according oil, United States have [cut]

examiner’s comments: This response misrepresents some key aspects of the image due to poor word choice, e.g. the student says ‘according to oil’ when it would be more appropriate to say ‘for oil’. The student’s speech is very slow and hesitant and certain words are mispronounced. Due to the poor fluency, the student’s response is incomplete.


367 The graph shows that energy consumption for different types of fuel, in the United States and in China in 2010. For example, um the US has been consuming more oil than um China. With er about 40 percent um, for– in the US and nearly 20 percent in China. Er as far as natural gas is concerned, the US has consume about 30 percent and China has consume only five percent. In terms of coal, China has consume 70 percent, whereas the US has consume about 22 percent. In terms of nuclear energy, um US has consumed about 10– [cut]

examiner’s comments: This response describes some main points, but fails to mention hydro and non-hydro renewable energy due to the slow speed of the student’s speech. Also, due to poor fluency, the student does not finish the description of nuclear energy consumption. In order to achieve a higher score, the student should first select and describe the key points (such as differences between the US and China in oil and coal consumption) and then move on to less important points.


368 This graphic shows the energy consumption of the United States and China in 2010. We can see that China mainly relies on the er coal as the energy source. It takes about seventy percent of their energy consumption, while United States seem to have er more widespread of various kinds of er natural resources. Er oil is the other main source er of energy for United States but they also use er hydro or nuclear power, or natural gas [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student successfully describes the key points from the image, which are the major differences between China and the US in terms of energy consumption. However, the score would be reduced slightly because the student seems to say that the US uses more hydro energy than coal. However, the student’s fluency and pronunciation are both very strong.

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4 Topic:Whalesandfish


369 This graphs shows er … differences and similarities erm … between whales and fish. There’s difference that er, fish, er get oxygen from water and whales er breath air. Fish er, lay eggs and breath er give birth to– to live young. And the similarities is that both er live in the water, and can swim. Another difference is that fish er … [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student adequately describes some main features of the image, but fails to mention that fish have vertical tail fins and whales have horizontal tail fins. The student has taken an effective approach to describing the image, by selecting main differences and similarities and describing them first. However, the student’s poor fluency prevents them describing everything necessary. In addition, their score would be reduced due to poor pronunciation of words like ‘breathe’.


370 The image shows a Venn diagram, um of the characteristics of whales and fish. As you can see, the only two er, similar, er characteristics is that fish and whales can live in water, and they can swim. And on the other hand fish lay eggs, they get oxygen from water, and they have a vertical tail fin– tail fins, whereas, whales give birth to live young, breathe air and have horizontal tail fins.

examiner’s comments: This student describes all the main features but does not develop the response beyond simply reading from the image. In order to achieve a higher score, the student would need to mention some implications of the differences and similarities between fish and whales. The student’s scores for fluency and pronunciation would both be low due to slow speech and mispronunciation of words like ‘live’, which is pronounced as a verb rather than being appropriately pronounced as an adjective.


371 A Venn diagram is used to show the differences and similarities between whales and fish. Whales for instance give birth to live young, breathe air and have a horizontal tail fins, whereas fish lay eggs, get oxygen from the water, and have vertical tail fins. The similarities between the two are that they both live in water, and they both can swim.

examiner’s comments: This student describes all the key features of the image. In order to achieve the maximum score, the student would need to develop the response beyond simply reading from the image. However, the score would be very high because the student describes the image with native-like fluency and pronunciation.

5 topic: World internet users


372 The pie chart shows the percentage of internet user over the world. And as you can see, er, Asia is got the biggest internet user as er they are the biggest er, part of the world. And the second position is Europe, and third is North American, just around 18 percent and um Middle East, Africa and Australia, they are very less er very much less internet user, as they are smaller size in the world. But compared to Asia and Africa er [cut]

examiner’s comments: The student describes some key features of the image, but misrepresents others by saying that Asia has the biggest percentage of internet users because it is the biggest area. The student fails to give exact figures for the percentages of internet users, and their response’s score would be further reduced due to poor pronunciation of words like ‘percentage’ and poor fluency.


373 Er this pie chart, shows the proportion of er world internet users by region. And we can see that by far er, Asia is er at the– the– the most er prominent er u–user with 38.7 percent of the internet users living in Asia. Er between Europe and Asia they make up of for er more than the 60 percent of internet users. And some other regions, like Africa, Middle East or Oceania, er make up f– almost five percent of internet users only.

examiner’s comments: This response includes most key features of the graph. The student successfully describes which territories have most internet users and states the percentage of internet users in each. However, the student’s score would be reduced because of frequent mispronunciation – for example the words ‘world’ and ‘Oceania’ are incomprehensible. The student’s fluency is also relatively poor.

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374 Er this graphic shows, er the percentage of– er different area for internet use. We can see that Asia takes about 38.7 percent of the world internet user, which is the largest group. And then Europe is the, in the second position, er it’s er, 26.4 percent. And then– then in North America it’s about 18 percent. And it’s not surprising that er, it’s er, Latin America, Africa and Middle East, and Ocea– er, O– [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student mentions all the key features of the image, and effectively compares different territories in terms of the relative percentages of internet users. The student also develops the response by saying that ‘it is not surprising’ that Latin America and Africa have fewer internet users. The score would also be high due to the student’s good, though not native-like, pronunciation, yet their failure to finish the response within the time limit reduces the fluency score.

6 topic: how solar panels generate electricity


375 This picture er, demonstrates how solar panels generate electricity. And the electricity is generated by er, er, some wide [unclear] solar panel, that er that is necessary. Er, another tool that inverter, that dragged a current er, through alternating current and then er, could be used in light and fuse box.

examiner’s comments: This student’s fluency is very poor and many words are mispronounced – for example, the words ‘sunlight’ and ‘panel’ are incomprehensible. In addition, the student misrepresents the relationship between the fuse box and the lights. Therefore, although the student does mention some key features of the image, the response would receive a low score.


376 This er picture shows how solar panels generate electricity. Er, solar panels gets ede– energy from the– from the sun. Er but that direct current, er is inverted into er, an alternative current. Er and a fuse box convert that a current er into the e– energy for the lights a– and appliances and TVs and so on.

examiner’s comments: This student describes all the key features of the image, in the appropriate order. However, the response’s score would be intermediate because the student fails to develop the answer and does not mention any implications of the image. In addition, although the student’s pronunciation is clear, it is not native-like, and the student’s speech is very hesitant.


377 The diagram shows how solar panels generate electricity. Um, light energy from the sun, hits a solar panel, and gets directed to an inverter which converts direct to alternating current. The current then flows through a fuse box, and from the fuse box flows through different appliances, like TVs and also lamps.

examiner’s comments: This student speaks with native-like pronunciation and fluency. The response contains all the key features of the image and is presented in the appropriate order. However, the student would not achieve maximum points because the response does not mention any implications of the image, such the possibility that homes could replace traditional energy sources with solar power.

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test 3, speakingre-tell lecture1 topic: homework


378 Er nowadays, er homeworks er, are a issue of discussion between students, teachers and parents. Basically because some people think the homework er, doesn’t help students. But er for some of them, the homeworks are very useful because they are going improve and became better. But at the same times, for parents is difficult to helped them.

examiner’s comments: This student misrepresents the main point of the lecture when saying ‘homeworks are very useful because’ students ‘are going’ to ‘improve’. In fact, the lecturer states the opposite point. This slow, hesitant response does not mention the latest research, and it would also receive a low score due to the student’s mispronunciation of key words such as ‘homework’ and ‘parents’.


379 The lecture is about homework and um, it’s as– it has been said um, homework, um are given to um all age groups and more people are now convinced that homework does not really um, make any good to, um kids. And on the other hand um teachers are obliged to give homeworks because er, although homework have very little impact on people, and homework puts more stress on parents and now senior educators, um are more towards encouraging the fact that er people should read book of any kind, ra– rather than being given homework.

examiner’s comments: This student successfully summarizes some main points from the lecture by mentioning the facts that homework has little impact and that senior educators are now recommending that school children read books ‘of any kind’. However, the student does not mention the latest research. In addition, their response’s score would be reduced due to fluency and pronunciation which are not native-like, for example, ‘senior’ and ‘impact’ are very poorly pronounced.


380 The lecture discusses whether or not teachers should give their students homework. So, why do teachers give homework? Erm, simply because they have to. Even though most of them don’t believe it has any real value. They also believe it has little impact on learning, and it puts an unnecessary strain on parents, who cannot always be there to help their children. An alternative is proposed, and that is, having children read rather than making them do homework.

examiner’s comments: This student describes most of the key points from the lecture with native-like fluency and pronunciation. The response includes description of much supporting details, but does not refer to the impact of research on educators’ opinions. In order to achieve the maximum score, the student would need to cover this point and to develop the answer to mention implications of not giving homework to students.

2 Topic:Conflicttheory


381 For some academics er, they think that for study of conflict theory is better when you have, er different disciplines involved to try to figure it out. But for other kind of academics, they prefer to use the traditional way to solving it out. But, er nowadays, there are two positions about this.

examiner’s comments: This response includes two of the main points from the lecture, but misrepresents another key point. The student mentions that some academics felt that conflict should be considered from different perspectives and that other academics disagreed. However, the student fails to describe the current situation accurately by concluding that now ‘there are two positions about this’. The lecture’s conclusive point is that despite opposition, conflict theory ‘now has the same prestige as other areas of research’. In addition, the score would be low due to poor pronunciation and fluency.

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382 The lecture is about er, the theory of the conflict theory. And, as it was said, the … um conflict theory has many characteristics. And the approach um, there has been an approach from different research groups, and over the year, there has been um papers that was published on er, the conflict theory. And there has also been practical as well as analytic– analytical approach. And nowar– erm nowadays, the conflict theory has the same pre– prestige as any other theory. Although it had attracted um criticism in the early age.

examiner’s comments: This response contains many mispronunciations, such as the words ‘theory’, ‘approach’ and ‘analytical’. In addition, the student’s speech contains many hesitations. However, the response does include all the main points from the lecture, which would lead to a relatively good score.


383 Um many academics started to er study the necessity of conflict, as a phenomenon, and they started from area such as er international politics, er industries, community or even domestic settings. Er those academics believed that by studying er conflicts, it can help us to better understand the causes and then maybe help us to find solutions for it. And many academic has published paper surrounding those topics. However, not every er academic, er welcome this, er er the emergence of– [cut]

examiner’s comments: This response includes all key points from the lecture. In addition, it would score highly because the student pronounces most words in a native-like way. The student’s fluency is also strong, but the fluency score would be improved by the student pausing less at the start of the response.

3 topic: Living space


384 Urbarb– urban plans er, are becoming er, more er smaller, er the space is becoming so far smaller than er was before. And this space er researchers found and– er realise that a space affect the person. The person c– er could er change and er be more aggress aggressive and could be affect er, physical ills. So this is, er a well er established link between [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student tries to mention some main points from the lecture but due to incomprehensible pronunciation of key words like ‘urban’ the response would receive a very low score. Words like ‘space’ and ‘illness’ are also badly mispronounced and the student’s speech is slow and hesitant.


385 This peaker is concerned about the amount of space er, within a home, as er urban development. Um he– he says that th– the internal space er in the houses is becoming smaller, and a question whether this would affect the well-being of the– of the people living inside those houses. Er it– he argues that er it– it needs to er, to be consider, as smaller spaces can affect social and emotional aspects of the people living there er and so we [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student successfully mentions most of the key points from the lecture. However, the response contains frequent mispronunciations – e.g. ‘speaker’ is pronounced ‘peaker’, ‘home’ is pronounced ‘harm’. In order to achieve a higher score, the student would need to improve their pronunciation and fluency, and to develop their answer by mentioning some implications of what the lecturer says.


386 Erm the lecture concerns itsf– itself with whether living spaces are too small nowadays, and it looks at whether that’s a personal preference. To have a large living space er, and whether or not it affects, for instance your physical and mental health and your day to-day-activities. They’ve found that cramped conditions can lead to aggression, tension, and stress. Erm, and overcrowding can also lead to … a decline in social development and educational attainment for young people. Basically people need a public space [cut]

examiner’s comments: This response includes all of the key points from the lecture, and the student speaks with native-like pronunciation. The response would receive a high score, but not the maximum score due to a long hesitation before they say ‘a decline in social development’. In order to improve the score, the student should also mention some implications of what the lecturer says, such as the research findings suggesting that more urban space will be needed for larger houses.

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test 3, Writingsummarize written text1 topic: inequality


Despite the fact that social inequality is about class and location, there is a well-establish link between people’s fortunes and where they live, so people now can be benefit moving to wealthier country.

examiner’s comments: Although there are grammatical errors, such as ‘people now can be benefit moving’, this student shows a reasonable level of grammatical control. However, due to poor vocabulary choices, this summary is ineffective. The word ‘despite’ is misused, because ‘location’ and ‘where [people] live’ have similar meanings, so the contrast and the passage’s main point become unclear.


Location and class used to determine inequality but new research shows that it is where people live; however in the 21st century, this has completely changed according to analysis carried out on the gap between wealthy societies and less wealthy ones.

examiner’s comments: This summary misrepresents the passage’s main point. The student’s use of ‘however’ incorrectly suggests that ‘where people live’ does not ‘determine inequality’ in the 21st century. However, while the summary’s overall score would not be very high due to these problems with vocabulary, the student does use grammatical structures relatively well.


Nowadays the overall inequality between world citizens has grown greater and is determined preponderantly by location only whereas inequality used to be determined in equal measures by class and location.

examiner’s comments: This summary would receive a maximum score because the student has used suitable vocabulary and an appropriate grammatical structure to summarize the passage’s main points.

2 topic: the english language


Having the world’s most spoken language, European people indeed that they are reluctant to learn a second language especially because it is the oficial language in main subjects.

examiner’s comments: This summary misrepresents the passage’s main topic. The passage states that ‘native English speakers’ are reluctant to learn a second language. However, this student has mistakenly written that ‘European people’ are reluctant to do this. The summary’s score would also be low due to a spelling mistake (‘oficial’) and the student’s failure to mention the English language.


According to a survey carried out by the European Commission in 2005, it was discovered that UK and Ireland have the lowest rate of bilingualism, whereas in the Continental Europe, multilingualism is a rule and the high level of bilingualism is driven by the desire to learn English.

examiner’s comments: This student has provided a fair summary of the passage. However, in the summary, it is unclear whether ‘multilingualism is a rule’ means that multilingualism is common or that multilingualism is a legal requirement. This point is clear in the passage, because the author contrasts ‘rule’ with ‘exception’. The summary would receive a good score for grammar and vocabulary, but the student should have written ‘the’ before ‘UK’.

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As the world’s most widely spoken language, English has a dominant role across Europe and therefore the majority of native English speakers do not speak a second language whereas more than half of EU citizens are bilingual, particularly driven by a specific need to learn English.

examiner’s comments: This summary successfully presents the key points of the passage. The student has used suitable vocabulary and an appropriate grammatical structure within the sentence. There are also no spelling mistakes, so a maximum score would be awarded.

test 3, WritingWrite essay1 topic: types of employment for men and women


In many places of the world people are fighting to have equal opportunites for men and women. However, there are individuals how believe that there are some jobs related only for men and others works for women. This essay will show some examples of why ir is important to give the same opportunites to both men and woman in the working field.

Women have demostrated in last years that they are able to develop any type of jobs at any level and they have shown that the result can be the same or even better than the men outcomes. In the business world there are lot of opinions according to a company being leading by a woman, try to say that the CEO must be onle men, but every day more and more woman reach the top the important entreprises of the world. A good example is the government, some woman are becoming president or prime minister in countries like Brazil and Chile.

On the other hand, construction is probably one of the jobs that are called “man tasks” but is not true at all. Just because this work requiere a lot of force it does not mean that only can be made by men. Currently there are women with the shills to perform all type of activities and duty that requiere strengten.

Overall, employmente should be the

examiner’s comments: This essay does contain a sufficient number of words (228), but the student would lose points because the final sentence is incomplete. Unfinished sentences reduce the essay’s score for development and structure. In addition, the essay’s introduction does not effectively address the question, which is about whether certain jobs are appropriate for men and others are more suited to women; it is not about equal opportunities. Although the main body of the essay does contain sufficient examples and explanation, there are also frequent spelling mistakes, such as ‘onle’ and ‘requiere’, as well as grammatical errors which would contribute to a low score.

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The statement that ‘some types of employment are more suitable for men and other types of employment are more appropriate for women’ can be a very controvertial issue, specially when talking of equality in the modern world. However, I do agree partly to the statement. Below are my arguments.

First of all, it depends on the industry to which we are making reference to. If for example we are talking about the construction industry, it would be more appropriate for men because of the heavy work that is involved. However, having said this, you do have some women who are in the construction industry.

Nowadays, there are more and more women who are getting involved in the supposedly ‘men only’ industries. We can see that there are more firewomen, lady bus drivers, and lady cab drivers to mention a few.

There are some industries that are kind of ‘women only’ industries, for example, child minding. Other industries which used to be regarded as ‘women only’ industries have now changed and you can now see more and more men involved in such industries, for example, cooking, personal assistant, receptionist and secretary to name a few. The best chefs are men these days.

As a matter of fact, it can be concluded that there is no such thing as the ‘men only’ or ‘women only’ industry. It is just an old fashion concept that people still believe in. As we talk of equal opportunities in the recent times, there is no such place for these kind of thoughts. But there are some industries that is more appropriate for only men and others for women.

examiner’s comments: The structure of this essay is reasonably good and some good examples are given. The essay does contain a large number of poor vocabulary choices and grammatical errors, which prevent the student from achieving full scores for grammar and vocabulary. However, because these errors do not hinder communication, the student would still be able to achieve a good score. For example, the student writes ‘I do agree partly to the statement’. ‘To’ should be exchanged for ‘with’ but, as the point is clear, the student could still achieve points for use of vocabulary.


I think that all types of employment are suited for both genders because gender-roles have faded over the past century or so in Western society and because in certain situations, the preference for one or the other might vary.

Traditionally, nursing was seen as a female occupation. But when dealing with adolescent boys for instance, a male professional might actually be preferred due to issues around nudity in front of a female nurse. At the same time however, another male patient might prefer a female nurse because they feel uncomfortable about undressing in front of another man when they’ve just reached puberty.

In domestic abuse cases, the police force might send a female officer over to talk to the victim in question, believing that that’s what they prefer because the abuse was at the hands of a man. It becomes more complicated though when that victim suffered the abuse because of her partner’s (female) family members and she would actually prefer to speak to a male police officer.

Lastly, most (celebrity) chefs tend to be male, but cooking itself tends to be seen as a task for women in the household. I’m not sure if even I could tell who would be better suited!

examiner’s comments: This essay’s introduction clearly addresses the question and makes this student’s opinion clear. The student continues to develop their opinion by providing clear explanations and examples to support points, and by suitably dividing the essay into paragraphs. A wide range of vocabulary and grammar is also used effectively, so the overall score would be high. However, the essay’s score would be reduced in terms of logical development by the conclusion, which seems to contradict the opinion expressed in the introduction. Rather than saying whether men or women are better suited to cooking, in order to logically conclude the essay, the student should have said that cooking is suited equally to both men and women.

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2 topic: Young people leaving home at an early age


Working and studying in other places far from house at an early age is increasing in the society. This situation has several advantages and disadvantages that will being discuss through this essay. Young people find interesting and at the same time an adventure to go out of home to find new opportunities.

Globalization is helping people to move on easily between cities and countries for different purposess such as working and studying. As a positive aspect the labour market have plenty chooses and a range of differences that could go from languages to capabilities and behaviours. Also living home early will help people to growth in the personal side that at the end are gointo to be reflected in the working life and social skills as well.

The cultural exchange could be one of the most important issues due to the widespread kolegde that will quickly go to one place to another thanks to the relationships

examiner’s comments: With only 156 words, this essay is too short and has many other problems. It contains frequent mistakes with grammar and vocabulary which make the student’s opinion unclear. It does not address the question, which asks the student whether leaving home at an early age ‘has more advantages or disadvantages’, and the second paragraph does not seem connected to the topic at all. In addition, spelling mistakes such as ‘kolegde’ would contribute to a low essay score.


I believe that leaving home at an early age to either study or work in another city has more advantages than disadvantages. Particularly in the case of students, the fact that they are moving away from their family and group of friends is a positve step. First of all they will meet different people, they will experience a different environment and maybe a different culture. These will often open their minds, and will be an experience that will possibly enrich them personally. In my experience unfortunately I did not have the chance of moving away when I studied at university. In Spain, university students can only apply to universities from the same city. Students miss the experience of living by their own. As they have to study in the same city, they tend to work in the same city after they graduate, having the same group of friends and sometimes being very dependant on their families. Parents automatically become very protecting and influential. One of the best schemes of cross-cultural integration in Europe is the Erasmus program, where europeans move to a city in a different country. This has proved beneficial to these students, who are able not only to learn another language but to make contacts all around Europe that can be important for their future career. Moreover, they are ready and willing to migrate accross borders to pursue their careers.

In conclusion leaving in a different city will change one’s mind and will make people more open minded, experienced and flexible.

examiner’s comments: This essay has not been divided into clear paragraphs, which would reduce this student’s score for structure and cohesion. However, the student develops the essay well and successfully uses effective explanations and personal examples to make opinions clear. The student’s use of grammatical structures is also strong, but spelling mistakes (‘accross’ and ‘positve’) would reduce the student’s score. The overall score would also be reduced by some inappropriate choices of vocabulary, such as ‘living by their own’; in this case, the student should use ‘on’ rather than ‘by’.

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I believe that leaving the family home at an early age to study or work in another city, has more advantages than disadvantages.

Firstly, most patterns of behaviour are easy to learn, yet difficult to cement. An example that comes to mind is budgeting: Unless you’ve been taught how to budget at an early age, it becomes very difficult later on in life to not get tempted to take out loans and credit cards, or forego a month’s rent in order to get the newest gadget. Another example is cooking: many friends and family members of mine, do not know how to cook! The tend to eat ready meals or takeaway meals on a daily basis and they actually look forward to visiting their parents for a home-cooked meal. Cleaning is another area where it yields advantages; unless you’re used to cleaning the house and doing the laundry at regular or set intervals, without someone having to tell you to do so, you simply will not do it.

It also boosts young people’s confidence I think, as finally leaving the home once their studies are finished, will seem less daunting because they’ve done it before. Even when the first go was unsuccessful, they will still have a reference frame, and can make changes so that they do become successful.

examiner’s comments: Apart from ‘The tend to eat ready meals’, which should be ‘They tend to eat ready meals’, this response contains good use of grammatical structures and vocabulary. The student’s essay would also receive a good score for spelling as there are no mistakes. The essay’s introduction and conclusion are strong; the introduction answers the question directly and makes the student’s opinion clear, while the conclusion effectively summarizes and restates this opinion. However, in order to achieve a higher score for development, the student should more clearly link budgeting, cooking and cleaning to leaving home at an early age.

test 3, Listeningsummarize spoken text1 topic: eco-tourism


Nowadays a new way of turism is becoming more popular around the world and it is the Ecoturism. This concept is about having a friendly relation with the environment and to get aware of the ecosystem. Governments are playing and important role promoting and encouraging using marketing strategies to convey places and culture diversity. It is important to remember that the aim of the ecoturism is to learn more about nature and to take care about it.

examiner’s comments: This student has summarized some of the lecture’s main points well. However, the summary would lose points for omitting the fact that some eco-tourism actually damages environments. There are also spelling mistakes (such as ‘turism’) and errors such as ‘governments are playing and important role’, which reduce the student’s score. In addition, the summary contains some poor choices of vocabulary, such as ‘to take care about’. While these don’t prevent the student from communicating ideas, they do prevent a maximum score for vocabulary being awarded.


Ecotourism aims to protects and improve the natural environment, and both governments and the tourist industry are promoting it. However, there is not scientific evidence that some forms of ecotourism are actually a viable solution for environmental problems, and even some have threaten local populations and cultures. It appears that ecotourism falls into actual marketing. The issue for the traveller is to identify what is the right choice in enviromenta terms.

examiner’s comments: This is a good summary of some of the lecture’s main points but the sentence ‘It appears that ecotourism falls into actual marketing’ is unclear, and the student would lose points for both vocabulary and the general content of this summary. The spelling mistake (‘enviromenta’) would also reduce the overall score, but the student’s control of grammar is generally good.

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Eco-tourism is not always as environmentally friendly as the name suggests. Often, trips marketed as eco-friendly lack any scientific basis and can still end up damaging, rather than improve the environment.

There are also a multitude of names for eco-tourism in use by the industry, making it confusing for travellers to find genuine eco-friendly trips.

examiner’s comments: This summary successfully mentions all of the lecture’s main points. The student has a strong control over vocabulary and communicates meaning precisely. However, there is a small grammatical error which prevents the student receiving a maximum score for grammar: ‘a multitude of names’ is a singular noun, and the student should write ‘There is’ rather than ‘There are’. Despite this small mistake, the student’s overall score would be very high.

2 topic: climate change


The climate have been changing through years and the human activities could be the main reason for this. Since Industrial Revolution harmfull gases are spreded in the air. And since that time, not only the industry, but the temperatures are risen as well. So this issue must be adressed.

examiner’s comments: This summary includes some main points from the lecture. However, the student’s statement that ‘human activities could be the main reason for this’ misrepresents one of the lecturer’s main points which is that, despite some disagreement, there is real evidence that human activities are the cause of climate change. The summary also contains spelling mistakes such as ‘harmfull’ and ‘adressed’, which would reduce the overall score.


The lecture is about climate change as a result of human activities. Some people might not agree. However, the increse in land and sea level started about 200 years ago and coincides with the beginning of the industrial revolution in the northern hemisphere. With the evolution of time, the production of gas has increased and the industrial revolution has spread in the southern hemisphere. This issue has to be addressed in near future.

examiner’s comments: Summaries should be between 50 and 70 words. This summary is 73 words, and therefore the student’s score would be reduced. The summary also contains a spelling mistake ‘increse’. However, the student has included all of the lecture’s main points and has used grammatical structures and vocabulary appropriately. Therefore, the overall score for this summary would be high.


There seems to be strong evidence that climate change is the result of human activity. Land and sea temperatures increased about 200 years ago; this coincides with the industrial revolution in the Northern hemisphere.

Industry has not only grown in size, but has also spread to the Southern hemisphere and this is seen as sufficient proof of the fact that humans caused climate change.

examiner’s comments: This summary contains some of the lecture’s main points but misrepresents one key point. The student’s final sentence suggests that the spread of industry to the southern hemisphere is proof that humans caused climate change. In fact, the lecturer states that the spread of industry is the reason we should be very concerned and that temperatures rising alongside the spread of industry is the proof of human activities causing climate change. Despite this problem with the content of the summary, the student’s accurate use of grammatical structures would ensure a high score.

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