Few tips to those who are unable to get the required score (and for new test takers) - 

1) In speaking section, I think what matters the most is pronunciation and fluency. Accent definitely doesn't matter as I spoke in Indian accent throughout the test and never tried speaking in british/american accent. In fact, without realizing at first, I spoke on mute for two of the questions in repeat sentence section and mostly spoke off topic for one of the "re-tell lecture" questions (because I didn't understand anything from the lecture - but of course I did note down important words and used them while "re-telling" the lecture). I definitely wasn't expecting anything above 75 but I scored a full 90! Make sure you read the sentences the way British/American people do - there should be a clear difference in your tone (high/low pitch, tempo) when you are reading a question verses when you are reading a sentence which ends with a full stop. Tip - Relax and keep calm. While speaking, I closed my eyes and imagined that I am speaking to a friend and not a computer. This helped me with my fluency.

2) In reading section, allot 10-11 minutes only for re-order paragraph section. This is where people lose marks. Even though a certain order looks correct, it may not be. Try different orders and see if any of them makes sense. Don't forget to keep a watch on the remaining time and number of questions left in the upper right hand side corner of your screen. I wasn't watching the time and ended spending about 12-14 mintues on re-order paragraph section alone. I only had like a minute to complete the last two fill in the blanks sections. I am really lucky that I chose the right answers.

3) Listening and Writing sections are pretty straight forward. However, in "summarize spoken text" under listening section and "write essay" under writing section, allot at least 5 mintues only to review what you just wrote. Do not spend too much time thinking what to write or how to arrange your sentences and paragraphs. Believe me, you will run out of time! Take just a minute or two to think and then start writing whatever comes to your head. In the last 6-7 minutes, arrange/correct your sentences, form paragraphs, review your answer for spelling, grammer and punctuation.

I have taken IELTS before and trust me, PTE-A test format is quite difficult when compared to IELTS. Since I had taken IELTS before, I was a little over confident. When I saw the PTE-A test format three days before the test, I was in a shock!! Its way too different from IELTS. To add to my dis-belief, I performed horribly in two of the sample tests I found online. I had to take off from work for two days to prepare for this.If you have never appeared for any english test before, you will definitely need at least a week's time to prepare for PTE-A. But the good thing about PTE-A is that they aren't as strict as IELTS when it comes to awarding marks. On the other hand, in IELTS, preparation takes less time as the format is quite simple but scoring 8 or above is difficult. Also, there's a lot of waiting time for IELTS. If you are only applying for Australia PR (unlike me - I am applying for Canada as well), I recommend PTE-A. With good preparation, you can easily score more than 79 in each band, giving you 20 points straight towards your EOI application.

Since I now have 20 EOI points just from my PTE-A test score, my overall EOI score is 75.

Originally Posted by vish1989 Just got my results, and I passed with flying colours. okay, I will try to give a quick summary of What I thought about the exam straight after the exam and my perception after I got my results.

Firstly, I was super lucky enough to get a date within 5 days, and the issue with that is I got literally no time for preparation since I had work during the week days. I hardly managed to look at the PTE Academic Test Builder book, just to make sure that I am familiar with the topics, and what was to be expected from me. Now I will try to breakdown section, and explain how It went during the test.

Speaking: I personally felt it was the worst. I fumbled once or twice, had some awkward hiatus in between, my graph description were absolutely basic. I guess half the time, I ended up literally reading

the contents and making obvious conclusions from what I saw in the graph, Once or twice I even ended up saying the wrong type of graph lol. And then there was a section wherein, you hear a question and you have to answer it. I was almost spot on with all the questions except one, where I ended up embarrassing myself. It was a simple math question, where I heard the question properly, but I gave the wrong answer. It was that bad that I had to do a facepalm on my greatly endeavoured attempt. Also one or 2 places, I completely the pronunciation of a word which I know how to pronounce lol.My expectations: 65-70Results: 90 :S.. (HOW ??? I mean seriously, I don't deserve it!!) lol

Writing: I think my writing was pretty darn good. There were a few passages, which I had to summarise. I reckon I was able to do a decent job here, apart from one where I exceeded over 90 words. My essay was of good quality as well, I managed to finish it 10 mins, so I got enough time to check, and use my extensive list of vocabulary. For that, I had personally made a word list with some

2-300 different words that can fortify my lexical repertoire   (you see what I did there :P ?). So I personally felt I did a good job in this section.My expectations: 75-80Results: 82

Reading: This was one of my weak links and I was very nervous about this section, since I got bad marks in my practice test. But what I did before the exams, was that I went through all the guidelines in PTE academic testbuilder book. I reckon it greatly helped, because I believe there is a very certain pattern that you need to follow. Most of the words that needs to be chosen in "fill in the blanks" is already given in a sentence above or below it. There is a similar pattern in the "rearrange the order" as well. I was a bit dubious in some parts, and some others were excellent. And to top it all, time was a major factor that made my life a living hell, mainly since I didn't practice too much. Expectations: 70-80Results: 85 (MUCH WOW!)

Listening: Please make sure you take the 10 min break, as this will basically help to ease out the pressure. Wash your face, and go to toilet so that you feel fresh and use all the 10 mins. before beginning the listening section. okay so listening was very challenging. Personally speaking I was a bit over-confident since I never have problems in understanding my UK or Aussie mates. So I didn't even bother to even look at the format prior to the exam. I was a bit shocked, as the options (multiple choices) had a good usage of synonyms to the words being spoken there, and also some were multiple selections. I kinda gobbled the first one, and that's one when I got a bit of understanding on how to do it. So then on, I made sure that I listen to the whole sentence properly, and also skim through the question prior to the recording. Think it went ok from there on, and I probably felt like I did my best in this section.Expectations: 85Results: 90 (My fluke guess was right on the money :P)

After the exams, I was so disappointed with myself, because I felt like I could have done better. I genuinely felt like I had to give my exams again in order to achieve the 20 point requirement for the Ausi PR. I was completely out of confidence, and I was just trying to look for the earliest available booking. At times, I even felt like I may miss the 7 band equivalent requirement (65+) in the speaking section. 

Genuinely, after the results I was shocked. I have got no clue how I got these kind of marks, and well I genuinely don't deserve a 90 in speaking (not that I am going to complain about this). Well, I am only mentioning this because it could help some people to analyse the marking patterns in the PTE. 

Vocab: 90pronunciation: 90Oral fluency: 90Grammar: 82Spelling: 67 (embarrassing)Written Discourse : 55 (I don't know what it is, and I don't care).

Feel free to send my any messages, if you need some help. I will try to make a new post giving some more details how to prepare every section (based on my experience).

PS: I loaned the hard-copy of the book so, I cannot send it to you.