PTE Writing: Practice Questions - 4 | Practice Tests for PTE PDF Download

Summarize Written Text

You need to summarize the passage given below. In the exam, you will have 10 minutes to complete this task. Your response will be assessed on how well you capture the essential points of the passage and the clarity of your writing.
You can draft your answer on paper, and then check your response by clicking the "View Answer" button.

Q1: If your recruiting efforts attract job applicants with too much experience-a near certainty in this weak labor market-you should consider a response that runs counter to most hiring managers' MO: Don't reject those applicants out of hand. Instead, take a closer look New research shows that overqualified workers tend to perform better than other employees, and they don't quit any sooner. Furthermore, simple managerial tactic empowerment can mitigate any dissatisfaction they may feel. The prejudice against too-good employees is pervasive. Companies tend to prefer an applicant who is a "perfect fit" over someone who brings more intelligence, education, or experience than needed. On the surface, this bias makes sense: Studies have consistently shown that employees who consider themselves overqualified exhibit higher levels of discontent. For example, overqualification correlated well with job dissatisfaction in a 2008 study of 156 call-center reps by Israeli researchers Saul Fine and Baruch Nevo. And unlike discrimination based on age or gender, declining to hire overqualified workers is perfectly legal. But even before the economic downturn, a surplus of overqualified candidates was a global problem, particularly in developing economies, where rising education levels are giving workers more skills than are needed to supply the growing service sectors. If managers can get beyond conventional wisdom, the growing pool of too-good applicants is a great opportunity. Berrin Erdogan and Talya N. Bauer of Portland State University in Oregon found that overqualified workers' feelings of dissatisfaction can be dissipated by giving them autonomy in decision making. At stores where employees didn't feel empowered, "overeducated" workers expressed greater dissatisfaction than their colleagues did and were more likely to state an intention to quit. But that difference vanished where self-reported autonomy was high.

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Q2: Autism is a disorder characterized by impairments in communication, social interaction, and repetitive behaviors. Over the past 40 years, the measured prevalence of autism has multiplied roughly 10-fold. While progress has been made in understanding some of the factors associated with increased risk and rising prevalence, no one knows with certainty what causes autism or what caused autism prevalence to rise so precipitously. There is, however, growing awareness among scholars that focusing solely on individual risk factors such as exposure toxicants, prenatal complications, or parental education is insufficient to explain why autism prevalence rates have increased so stunningly. Social and institutional processes likely play an important role. For example, changes in diagnostic criteria and an influx of resources dedicated to autism diagnosis may be critical to understanding why prevalence rates have risen. Increased awareness and social influence have been implicated in the rise of autism and a variety of comparable disorders, where social processes mimic the effects of contagion. Studies have examined the contribution of changes in diagnostic criteria and diagnostic substitution to rising autism prevalence rates, but the importance of institutional factors, resources for diagnosis, and greater awareness have not been systematically assessed. The sociological literature on health and inequality, however, provides substantial motivation for exploring how individual- and community-level effects operate to shape the likelihood of an autism diagnosis.

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Write Essay

You will have 20 minutes to plan, write and revise an essay about the topic below. Carefully read the statement below and write an essay in response. A sample essay is available for you to review by clicking on the "View Answer" button.
Your essay will be evaluated based on how effectively you develop your position, organize your ideas, provide supporting details, and adhere to the conventions of standard written English. Aim for a word count between 200-300 words.

Q1: Some people are always in a hurry to get somewhere and get things done. Others prefer to take their time and live a slow-paced life. Will you prefer the slow-paced life and why?
Support your point of view with reasons and / or examples from your own experience.

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