Highlight incorrect words PTE

Highlight Incorrect Words PTE  

Let’s discuss a very interesting and fun task from the PTE test, I bet most of you would love solving this question type – it is Highlight Incorrect Words in PTE. The Listening section, as you must be well aware of, is the longest section. Although not all tasks in this section are of equal priority – some are more important than others. So, it is worth keeping in mind which questions are low priority and which ones are high priority. Highlight incorrect Words is definitely one of the high priority tasks in the Listening section.

What are you expected to do in this question type?

This is the 7^th task in the Listening section, comes right before  Write From Dictation. You will get around 2 to 3 questions of this type in the test. It contributes towards two sections, Reading and Listening. In fact, this is one of the important question types for the Reading score.

In Highlight Incorrect Words, you will get a passage for reference and an audio, with preparation time of 10 seconds. In the audio the speaker would be reading out the passage. There will be a few words in the passage that would be replaced with either similar looking words or similar sounding words. You have to listen to the audio carefully, while listening to it you would have to read along with the speaker, and as soon as you see an incorrect word, you have to click on it. As soon as you click on the word, it would be highlighted in yellow. You have to try to find out all the incorrect words from the text.

This particular question consists of negative marking, when you select a word which is not incorrect, you get negative marks (for more go through the marking criteria below).

If at any instant you feel that you have selected a “correct” word, then unselect it immediately, as you might forget to unselect it once the audio is over.

Note: Each and every word in the passage is enabled to be highlighted. However, you know that you would get negative marks for every “Correct” word you select. So do NOT choose all the words from the text.

Marking Criteria:

It contributes around 8.9 points in the Reading section and around 7.9 points in the Listening section. Overall, it contributes 16.7 points.

In this question, for selecting every incorrect word you would get 1 point. Although remember that this question can give you negative points as well. So keep the following in mind:

Incorrect word:   +1

Correct word:       -1

No Selection:          0

So that means, you have to focus on reading along with listening so that you do not select the correct word, as it can result in negative points. When in doubt do NOT select the word.

How can you nail this task?

For getting full points in this task, you have to work on your reading and listening skills together. Take a deep breath in the preparation time, no need to read anything in that time. Once the audio starts, use your mouse pointer as a guide and start reading with the speaker.

Pro Tip: Try to be one word ahead of the speaker, it helps!

Note: The speaker’s accent and speed would vary, so be ready for that!

Once you are well-versed with the way that you have to solve this question, this will definitely be one of your favourites!