Test Advice - PET
Do this test if you want to know that you have an intermediate level of English. With this level of English you will enjoy holidays in English speaking countries. You should probably continue studying once you have passed the PET exam.
The test has three sections:
- Reading and Writing - 90 minutes
- Listening- 30 minutes
- Speaking -an interview, 10 minutes
Score ‘pass’, ‘pass with merit’, ‘narrow fail’, or ‘fail’
Take the test at a test centre.
The test can only be taken 6 times a year.
Expect to pay around €80 Euros.
Speaking Test Advice
There are 25 points for this part of the test. In someways it is the most difficult, but it is over in about ten to twelve minutes.Normally you do this part of the test as one of two people being examined.(Sometimes if it is the end of the day, and there are three of you left, youwill be examined as a group of three. Occasionally you may be examined alone.)There are also two examiners - the assessor and the interlocutor. Theinterlocutor will speak to you, but the assessor is the one who decides whatyour mark will be.
Part 1. Opening Questions.
In this part the examiner will talk to you in a generalway. He (or she) might ask you to introduce yourself to the other person beingexamined, or if you know each other, he might ask you to introduce him to theother person. He may ask you to spell something, to check your pronunciation ofEnglish spelling. He will be checking how you give answers and ask questions.You are not expected to be very fluent at the PET level, but your answers shouldbe more than "yes" and "no".
Remember - you are not competing with the other persondoing the test. The examiner will make sure that he hears as much as he needsfrom both of you.
Part 2. Task.
Here you have to arrange something with your partner, orask him a number of questions.
Sometimes the examiner might ask you to arrange a partyfor a friend, or to check and find out what the other person likes about theirfavourite book/film/person. You will usually get a picture or a few words on apiece of paper to give you an idea of what you are going to do.
Part 3. Complete the table.
In the third part you look at two photographs.
These photographs will have something that is the same -for example they might be people on holiday, but one group on a beach, and theother group in the mountains. You will have to tell the examiner what you see,and also compare the two pictures. The examiner may ask you questions about thepictures to help your fluency. You don't have to be very fluent, but you dohave to be able to describe what you see, and what the people in the picturesare doing.
Part 4. Likes and dislikes.
The interviewer might now ask you some questions abouthow you feel about what you have seen in the pictures, or he might ask youabout something that was discussed earlier in the test. At this point he istrying to get you to make more general statements about what you like, how youfeel about certain things, and what interests you..
General comments.
The speaking is the part of the test that can be arrangeddifferently, depending on the circumstances, the examiner, and the student. Inthe example, you will see that there is only one person being examined and thatone part of the test is done out of order because the examiner thought theconversation better would go better at that point. Don't worry if the test isnot as you expected it. Just remember that you will be marked on these points
Enough vocabulary to do the parts of the test, and enoughgrammar to be understood.
You can speak in an organised way, and it is not veryhard work to understand what you want to say.
Your pronunciation is not so bad that the examiner can'tunderstand you.
You can find out what someone else wants and explain whatyou want.
When you don't understand, you ask the right questions tomake things more clear.
Reading Test Advice
There are 30 points altogether for this part of the test,but after marking, this goes down to 25. In the exam (but not with this disk)you have to put your answers on an OCR sheet, which is marked by computer.
Part 1. Signs, notices, etc.
There are five questions in this part. The answers aremulti-choice (A,B, C, or D).
In this part you see notices. These are like the signsyou would see when you are walking down the street, or on clothes, bottles orsimiliar things. You are tested on how well you have understood the meaning ofthe notice. You will also get a short note or an e-mail and must show that youhave understood the meaning.
It is important that you understand what the notice issaying, even if you cannot understand all the words. It helps if you try tothink where you might see the notice. When you think you know what the noticemeans, read the choices and choose the one that it nearest your opinion.
Try not to read the choices before you have decided what the answer is - youcould get confused.
Part 2. Matching Profiles.
This part needs five answers, and you have eight possibleanswers to choose from.
You are always given five descriptions - generally ofpeople, but not always. You then have to match them with something from theeight choices that suits their description - for example what present to buyeach one for Christmas. In the exam the test is on two pages on the test sheet.Here, you use arrows to move from one choice to the next.
Remember to read all the choices before you start to answer the questions.
Part 3. Extensive reading (scanning).
This part has ten questions. The questions are statementsthat you must decide are true or false. (Or sometimes you can choose"doesn't say").
Here you should know what answers you want before youread the text, and you are looking in the text for only these answers. Forexample you might see a description about a funfair, such as Luna Park. Youwill know what questions you want to answer (How to get there, how much itcosts, when it closes in the evening etc,) before you start to look at thetext.
It is important to read the questions very carefully BEFORE you start thereading.
Part 4. Reading with interpretation.
There are five multiple choice questions for this part.(A,B, C, or D)
You need to read the text to find not just facts, butalso opinions. If, for example, you are reading a magazine review of a new car,you will be asked questions like: Who is this new car for? (a. People who livein the country, b. Housewives c. Businessmen d. Big families.) You may be askedif the reviewer likes the car, and finally shown four pictures and asked whichone is the car that the review talks about.
In this part of the test you may not find the exact words you need. Moreoften you will have to understand the questions from the tone of wholeparagraphs.
Part 5. Gap fill.
There are ten multiple choice (A,B, C or D). You have toread a text and then choose the right word to put into a gap in the text.
In this part, you are tested not just on your readingcomprehension, but also on parts of your grammar. The text is usually likesomething you might find in a magazine, and it can be on any subject. This isprobably the longest and most difficult part of the test, so make sure that youleave plenty of time for it.
It is not a good idea to read your alternatives before you have decided whatthe missing word should be. Multiple choice questions give you the chance touse wrong answers that you would not have thought of by yourself.
Listening Test Advice
There are 25 points altogether for this part of the test,and you complete it in 30 minutes. In the exam (but not with this disk) youhave to put your answers on an OCR sheet, which is marked by computer. In theexam you get extra time to copy your answers frpm the exam paper onto the OCRsheet. There are four parts to the test. In the exam you hear each part twice.(On the disk, because you are practising you can listen as many times as youwant by clicking on the microphone. You can make the test harder by setting theclock.)
Part 1. Short listening.
There are seven questions in this part. The answers aremulti-choice (A,B, C, or D.)
In this part you will hear one or two people speaking oneor two sentences. Then you have to look at a picture, and see which picture hasthe answer to the question.
On the disk, the material is arranged so that you see thequestion and the pictures before you click on the microphone to listen. Inthe exam try to look and the pictures and the question before you hear thesentences.
Remember - you may hear one or more pictures described,but only one answer is correct.
Part 2. Extensive listening.
There are six questions in this part. The answers aremulti-choice (A,B, C, or D.)
In this part you hear someone giving a talk. In this talkyou have to listen for certain facts, and then decide what you have heard. Youwill hear the sort of thing that a tour guide might tell you, or maybe theheadmaster welcoming you to a language school. Try to read the questions beforeyou listen to the test, because then you will know when you have to payattention. Mostly (but not always!) the questions come in the same order as theanswers appear in the talk.
If you find a question is giving you trouble, leave it for the second time.Don't spend so long trying to answer a difficult question that you miss theanswer to an easier one.
Part 3. Complete the table.
This part has six questions. It is not multiple choice.Instead you get a table or a form which is mostly completed, and you have toadd the missing information from what you hear in the talk.
Often you have to fill in details you would need to knowif you were listening to the speaker. For instance if it is the headmasterdescribing a school trip, the questions would be about practical matters likewhen the trip starts, where everyone has to meet, how much it costs, when itfinishes, and so on. Your answer is usually one or two words or maybe somenumbers. Don't worry too much about your spelling as long as it is easy tounderstand which word you mean - and don't waste time getting the spellingcompletely right if it means you miss the next question.
Part 4. Listening with interpretation.
There are six questions, and you must answer"true" or "false" (or "yes" or "no").The questions are normally from a conversation between two people. (On the diskwe have done two part 4s as six very short dialogues to give you practice withas many different types of conversation as possible. The other tests are morelike the part 4s you will find in the exam.
In this part, you do not need to listen just for facts,but also for inference. Sometimes the people will show disapproval, sarcasm oranger. They might make polite requests or demands. You will be asked to giveyour opinion about relationships and moods, as well as about facts.
In this part of the test you may not hear the exact words you need. Moreoften you will have to understand the questions from the tone of the wholeconversation.
Writing Test Advice
You do the writing test at the same time as the readingtest. First you do the reading, and then you go straight on to the writing. Thetime of both tests together is 90 minutes. You can decide how long youwant to spend on each test. The listening and reading together make up half thepoints in the exam (50 points - 25 points for each test). The writing is inthree parts.
Part 1. Grammar.
In this part there are five sentences.
The usual form for this exercise is that underneath eachof the five sentences another sentence has been started. You have to finish thesentence so that it means the same as the sentence above it. This is to checkif you understand things like passives, changes in tense, or differentconstructions with the same meaning.
Usually the sentences are all about the same subject. (Aperson, a restaurant, a holiday, etc.) There are sometimes two or three correctanswers to each question. On this practice disk we have given the best answers,but some others are possible. If you are not sure, check with a teacher.
Part 2. Task note.
Here you are given some information that you have to passto someone in a short note. Often there are several parts to the note - forexample you might have to ask someone when you are meeting them, ask fordirections to the place, and apologise for not meeting them on a previousoccasion. Sometimes you are asked to write this as an e-mail, but you don'tneed the technical parts of the e-mail!
Part 3. Essay.
This is about 100 words. You lose marks if you write lessthan about 85 words. Usually you get two choices of what you can write ( eitherpart 7 or part 8).
Usually you will have to describe something (like anexciting day), discuss something (for example why exercise is important),explain something, or arrange something.
If the examiner can't read what you have written you will not get anypoints.
