PET for Schools Preparation Course

The Preliminary English Test (PET) for Schools is comprised of three sections that test your reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.  This test evaluates your ability to communicate in English during real life situations.  The questions that will be encountered on this test have been configured to correlate directly with the interests and experiences of school children.  The PET for Schools covers the four forms of communication:  reading, writing, listening, and speaking. 

The first section is comprised of Reading and Writing topics.  In this portion, you will have a time limit of ninety minutes.  There first part in the Reading section evaluates your ability to read and comprehend short and long texts.  Once you read one of the texts, you will have to choose the best answer for that particular message.  The second part requires you to read given texts and match them with a description of a person that is also given.  The third part requires you to critically read a long text and then choose if the following statements about the text are true or false.  The fourth part is a multiple choice section where you are supposed to choose the best answer that describes a particular attitude or opinion given in a text.  The fifth part requires you to read a paragraph that has words missing and fill in the blanks with the appropriate word.

The first part of the Writing portion of section one requires you to fill in the blank of a given sentence with the correct word.  In the second part, you are supposed to compose a short thirty-five to forty-five word message on a specific topic to a certain individual.  In the third part, you can choose to either write a story or an informal letter, each being one-hundred words in length.  If you choose to write the informal letter, you are given a letter from a friend and you must formulate a response to that letter.  If you choose to write the short story, you are to develop the story from the given information of either a title or the first sentence of the story. 

The second section of the test is the Listening section.  In this section, you have roughly thirty-five minutes to complete four parts.  This section assesses your ability to comprehend dialogues and monologues that occur in neutral and informal, every day situations.  The first part of the Listening section requires you to listen to seven short excerpts and choose the best option that describes what was heard in the dialogues.  In the second part, you will listen to a monologue and answer multiple choice questions about what you just listened to.  The third part requires you to listen critically and answer questions about the dialogues or monologues.  In the fourth part, you are to answer true or false statements made about an informal conversation. 

The third section evaluates your ability to speak.  You have twelve minutes to complete four parts.  This section is done in pairs with another test taker and an examiner.  In the first part, you will interact with the examiner and for the second part you will interact with another test taker.  This section evaluates your ability to communicate orally at an intermediate level and talk somewhat freely about areas that interest you.  The first part evaluates your general communication skills.  In this part, you will be questioned by the examiner about yourself, your interests, dislikes and so on.  The second part involves a simulated discussion, according to topics given to you by the examiners, with another test taker.  In the third part, you will have to describe a photograph to one of the examiners.  The fourth part of this test requires you to look at a photograph, determine what the main idea of the picture is and take part in a discussion focusing on the main idea.