PTE Prediction Files Are BS. Here’s Why.

Let’s clear something up.

PTE prediction files are not really predictions.  They are basically unofficial question banks.

After taking the PTE, students remember questions they saw (to the best of their knowledge!) and report them to teachers, apps, Facebook groups, Telegram groups and PTE companies.

Those companies collect the questions and put them into a file called:  “PTE Predictions.”  That sounds much more marketable than:  “Here are some questions other students have seen in the PTE.”

But people really DO get the same questions

Yes.

This is the bit that makes prediction files so convincing. PTE questions DO repeat.

So you might practise an essay question, Summarize Written Text passage or Write From Dictation sentence and then see exactly the same thing in your test.

This is nice. But nobody “predicted” your exam. A question from the bank simply came around again.

Imagine I give you a a Spotify list of 500 classic rock songs that I have heard on a Classic Rock radio station. Tomorrow, you hear one of those songs on that radio station. Did I predict the station’s playlist? No.  I just gave you a list of songs that were already in its rotation. 

Same idea with PTE questions. They are typical academic English questions that PTE keeps in rotation.

So are the questions fake?

Not necessarily.

Some of the reported questions are completely genuine - to the extent that the test-takers can remember them correctly! The BS is the word “prediction”. Nobody can tell you exactly which questions you will get.

And there’s another little trick going on. You study 300 “predicted” questions. Two appear in your exam. You think: OMG! The prediction file worked! You probably don’t think:  Interesting. The other 298 didn’t appear.

Why I don’t recommend studying this way

You have limited study time.

I would rather you spend it learning how to answer a question you have never seen before. Because that is what you actually need in the exam.

If your essay falls apart whenever you get an unfamiliar topic, memorising predicted essays does not solve the problem. If you cannot identify the important information in an unfamiliar SWT passage, memorising SWT passages does not solve the problem.

You need a method, not a lucky match.

What do I recommend instead?

Prepare for the kinds of questions you might get - not the exact questions.

For essays, I give students sample essay questions and an Essay Ideas Bank covering common PTE topic areas. The goal is to build up ideas you can adapt to lots of different questions - not memorise an answer and hope that exact question appears.

For Summarize Written Text, I recommend practising with lots of different passages you haven’t seen before. Different topics. Different structures. Different arguments.

You are training yourself to deal with whatever passage appears - not hoping you recognise it.

btw - I'm including a free SWT Practice Bank with my new SWT strategy video. Check it out - it's in the description & pinned comment.

And if you want my full suggestions for PTE Writing preparation, check out PTE Writing Made Clear or get the bundle - PTE Speaking & Writing Made Clear.

The short version

Repeated questions are real.  Banks of repeated questions are useful.

“Prediction files” are marketing tags for banks of repeated questions.

So use “prediction files” for practice, if you want.  Any quality question bank is useful for practice. But don’t gamble on specific questions showing up in your test.  

Prediction files prepare you for questions you’ve seen before.

Good strategy & good practice prepares you for ANY question.