Know All About PTE Summarise Written Text to Score High in Your PTE Exam

The Pearson Test of English (PTE) is one of the language efficiency tests conducted to assess the candidate’s English grammar and vocabulary skills. Globally, PTE is accepted for university admissions. However, in countries like New Zealand and Australia, PTE is also accepted for work and migration visas.

Exam Type	English Proficiency Exam
Mode of examination	Online, Computer Based
Sections	Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking
Duration of exam	Two hours
Conducting body	Pearson PLC Group
Official website	https://www.pearsonpte.com

Summarise Written Text in the PTE Exam

The first part in the writing module of the PTE is the summarise written text section. In this section, candidates will be given 1 to 3 passages to summarise with a time limit of 10 minutes for each passage. The sentence length in the passage can vary from 5 to 70 words, depending on how well the candidate can summarise the passages.

Also Read: Last-Minute PTE Test Tips

Summarise Written Text PTE- Three Types of Ideas

During this section of the PTE exam, depending on the type of text, candidates can express their response in the following structures:

• Same Idea,
• Opposite Idea &
• Cause & Effect Idea

In order to give the candidates an idea of what kind of passages to expect, below is an example taken from the PTE website itself to help the candidates understand what they can expect in the summarise written text section.

Based on the type of text, the candidates can adopt one of the three structures to write their responses. The above-noted structures are discussed with an example for each below:

Same Idea

While attending the passage in the PTE exam, the candidates can use this structure to summarize the written text. In this approach, the response would reflect a similar idea as given in the passage. Below is an example from the official website of the PTE of how the passage will appear in the PTE exam and how candidates could approach a response under the same idea structure:

Passage

During the time of the Aztecs, cocoa was mainly used as a beverage. Wines and drinks were made from white pulp around the seeds of the cocoa pod. The beans themselves were used to make hot or cold chocolate drinks. Both the Maya and the Aztec secular drinks used roasted cocoa beans, a foaming agent (sugar), toasted corn and water. Vanilla and/or chilli were also used as an ingredient in the drinks. Cocoa beans were also used as a currency and as a tribute (tax) from peoples ruled by Aztecs. The oily layer floating in the chocolate drink (cocoa butter was used to protect the skin against the sun. For the Aztecs cocoa had a religious significance. Cocoa was believed to be of divine origin: the cocoa tree was a bridge between earth and heaven. Human sacrifices to propitiate God or the sun were first sanctified by giving him chocolate. Cocoa beans were given to priest’s assistants at children’s coming-of-age ceremonies. During marriage ceremonies, the couple drank a symbolic cup of chocolate and exchanged cocoa beans. Aztecs believed that drinking chocolate gave mortals some of Quetzalcoatl’s (God of earning and of the wind) wisdom.

Answer:

The Aztec people used cocoa in different ways such as a drink, a form of money for tax collection, a sun-protective lotion, a religious commodity and a symbol of bringing wisdom to the receiver.

The Opposite Idea

Under this structure, candidates will be required to provide a summary opposite to the idea reflected in the PTE exam. Below is another example from the official website of the PTE of how the passage will appear in the exam and how candidates could respond:

Passage

Males do the singing while females do the listening. This has been established, even a cherished view of the courtship of birds, but some ornithologists are now changing the tune. Laszlo Garamszegi, from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and colleagues studied the literature on 233 European songbird species. Of the 109 for which information on females was available, they found evidence for singing in 101 species. In only eight species could the team conclude that females did not sing. Females that sing have been overlooked, the team say because either their songs are quiet, they are mistaken for males from their similar plumage or they live in less well-studied areas such as the tropics (Behavioral Ecology, DOI: 10.1093/arlo47). Garamszegi blames Charles Darwin for the oversight. “He emphasized the importance of male sexual display, and this is what everyone has been looking at.” The findings go beyond modern species. After carefully tracing back an evolutionary family tree for their songbirds, Garamszegi’s team discovered that, in at least two bird families, singing evolved in females first. They suggest these ancient females may have been using their songs to deter other females from their territories, to coordinate breeding activities with males, or possibly to attract mates. 

Answer:

Despite the misconception that was initially put forth by Charles Darwin that highlighted the importance of singing in male birds for courtship purposes, a team of researchers from the University of Antwerp discovered that most of the females in family trees for songbirds actually sang songs possibly to attract mates or defend their territories.

Cause & Effect Idea

In this section, candidates have to describe a relationship between the actions and events. The official PTE website provides the below example of the passage and the response:

Passage

Take a Nap and Protect your Heart. people who took naps at least three times a week for an average of at least 30 minutes were 37% less likely to die of heart disease than people who did not take regular naps Large Greek Study Suggests Midday Siestas Cut Heart Deaths Naps aren’t generally included in the litany of good-for-your-heart lifestyle choices recommended for lowering cardiovascular risk, but they may soon be. New research suggests a midday siesta may reduce a person’s risk of death from heart disease possibly by lowering stress levels. The findings must be confirmed, but Dimitrios Trichopoulos, MD, a study author, tells WebMD there is little downside to taking naps and there could be big health benefits. The siesta is a victim of progress. Most of us aren’t in the position to take a daily nap, he says. But our research suggests that the practice could help protect the heart, and we need further studies to find out if this really is the case.” Part of the Culture: Trichopoulos says the research stemmed from the observation that heart disease death rates are lower in Mediterranean and Latin American countries where midday siestas are part of the culture. His own earlier research in a Greek population provided weak evidence in favour of the nap hypothesis, but another, larger study, conducted in Costa Rica failed to show an association. The newly published Greek study by Trichopoulos and colleagues from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and Greece’s University of Athens Medical School is the largest ever to examine the issue in a previously healthy population. A total of 23,681 residents of Greece with no history of heart disease, stroke, or cancer at enrollment were followed by an average of 6.3 years.

Answer:

A new study done by a Greek research group on a total number of 23,681 participants has found that regular naps in the afternoon, weekly three times can positively reduce the risk of heart disease by 37%, possibly due to the fact that it can reduce stress levels.

FAQs

The above blog has covered different structures and approaches candidates can take for the summarise written text section. Candidates can use and implement these or their own methods to help them gain an advantage over the competition. 

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