How to understand and improve the PTE score

Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic)
It is an international computer-based English language test. It provides a measure of a test taker’s language ability in English language.
PTE Academic reports an overall score, communicative skills scores and enabling skills scores.
Overall score
The overall score is based on performance on all test items (individual test questions). Each test taker does between 70 and 91 items in any given test and there are 20 different item types. For each item, the score given contributes to the overall score. The score range is 10–90 points.
Communicative skills scores
The communicative skills measured are listening, reading, speaking and writing. Items testing these communicative skills also test specific subskills. For integrated skills items (that is, those assessing reading and speaking, listening and speaking, reading and writing, listening and writing, or listening and reading) the item score contributes to the score for the communicative skills that the item assesses. The score range for each skill is 10–90 points.

Communicative Skills	Enabling Skills
Speaking	Oral fluency, Pronunciation, Vocabulary, Grammar
Writing	Written discourse, Spelling, Grammar,  Vocabulary
Reading	Vocabulary, Grammar
Listening	Spelling, Vocabulary, Grammar

With this one may understand the importance of vocabulary and grammar. So the test taker must learn new vocabularies for each question types.
And also, before memorizing the dictionary, one must improve spelling then get into learning vocabulary and grammar.
Mark mapping among various sections

Communicative Skill Sections	Score receiving Sections
Speaking	Reading, Speaking, Listening
Writing	Reading, Writing
Reading	Reading, Writing
Listening	Reading, Listening, Writing

With this one may understand the importance of Speaking. Since only speaking gives mark to Speaking section.

Enabling skills scores
The enabling skills are used to rate performance in the productive skills of speaking and writing. The enabling skills measured are grammar, oral fluency, pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary, and written discourse. The scores for enabling skills are based on performance on only those items that assess these skills specifically. The score range for each skill is 10–90 points.

The enabling skills reported are described as follows:
Grammar
Correct use of language with respect to word form and word order at the sentence level.
Oral fluency
Smooth, effortless and natural-paced delivery of speech
Pronunciation
Production of speech sounds in a way that is easily understandable to most regular speakers of the language. Regional or national varieties of
English pronunciation are considered correct.
Spelling
Writing of words according to the spelling rules of the language. All
national variations are considered correct.
Vocabulary
Appropriate choice of words used to express meaning.
Written discourse
Correct and communicatively efficient production of written language. Written discourse skills are represented in the structure of a written text, its logical development and the range of linguistic resources used to express meaning precisely.

Note:
Scores for enabling skills are not awarded when responses are inappropriate for the items in either content (general meaning) or form (length of response).
For example, for an environment based essay if the test taker wrote about the topic of fashion or sport, no score points will be given.
Similarly in relation to form, for a one-sentence written text summary task, the response consists of a list of words, no score points will be given.

There are two types of scoring:
Correct or incorrect
Some item types are scored as either correct or incorrect. If responses are correct, a score of 1 score point will be given, but if they are incorrect, no score points are awarded.
Partial credit
Other item types are scored as correct, partially correct or incorrect. If responses to these items are correct, the maximum score points available for each item type will be received, but if they are partly correct, some score points will be given, but less than the maximum available for the item type. If responses are incorrect, no score points will be received.
Academic are scored. They also show timings, the number of items in any given test, the communicative skills, enabling skills and other elements scored.

Part 1 Speaking and Writing (approx. 77–93 minutes)
Item type	Time allowed	Number of items	Scoring	Communicative skills	enabling skills	other traits scored
Read aloud	30-35 minutes	6-7	Partial credit	Reading and speaking	Oral fluency, pronunciation	Content
Repeat sentence		10-12	Partial credit	Listening and speaking	Oral fluency, pronunciation	Content
Describe image		6-7	Partial credit	Speaking	Oral fluency, pronunciation	Content
Re-tell lecture		3-4	Partial credit	Listening and speaking	Oral fluency, pronunciation	Content
Answer short question		10-12	Correct/ incorrect	Listening and speaking	Vocabulary
Summarize written text	20-30 minutes	2-3	Partial credit	Reading and writing	Grammar, vocabulary	Content, form
Write essay	20-40 minutes	1-2	Partial credit	Writing	Grammar, vocabulary, spelling, written discourse	Content; development, structure and coherence; form, general linguistic range

Part 2 Reading (approximately 32–41 minutes)
Item type	Time allowed	Number of items	Scoring	Communicative skills	enabling skills	other traits scored
Multiple-choice, choose single answer	32-41 minutes	2-3	Correct/ incorrect	Reading
Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers		2-3	Partial credit (for each correct response. Points deducted for incorrect options chosen)	Reading
Re-order paragraphs		2-3	Partial credit (for each correctly ordered, adjacent pair)	Reading
Reading: Fill in the blanks		4-5	Partial credit (for each correctly completed blank)	Reading
Reading and writing: Fill in the blanks		5-6	Partial credit (for each correctly completed blank)	Reading and writing

Part 3 Listening (approx. 45–57 minutes)
Item type	Time allowed	Number of items	Scoring	Communicative skills	enabling skills	other traits scored
Summarize spoken text	20-30 minutes	2-3	Partial credit	Listening and writing	Grammar, vocabulary, spelling	Content, form
Multiple–choice, choose multiple answers	23-28 minutes	2-3	Partial credit (for each correct response. Points deducted for incorrect options chosen)	Listening
Fill in the blanks		2-3	Partial credit (each correct word spelled correctly)	Listening and writing
Highlight correct summary		2-3	Correct/ incorrect	Listening and reading
Multiple-choice, choose single answer		2-3	Correct/ incorrect	Listening
Select missing word		2-3	Correct/ Incorrect	Listening
Highlight incorrect words		2-3	Partial credit (for each word. Points deducted for incorrect options chosen)	Listening and reading
Write from dictation		3-4	Partial credit (for each word spelled correctly)	Listening and writing

Please note: The minimum and maximum timings indicated for the sections of each part of the test do not add up to the total timings stated. This is because different versions of the test are balanced for total length. No test taker will get the maximum or minimum times indicated.

Scoring criteria: Pronunciation and Oral fluency

The following scoring criteria apply to the speaking item types that are scored on pronunciation and oral fluency in PTE Academic.

Pronunciation
5 Native-like	All vowels and consonants are produced in a manner that is easily understood by regular speakers of the language. The speaker uses assimilation and deletions appropriate to continuous speech. Stress is placed correctly in all words and sentence-level stress is fully appropriate
4 Advanced	Vowels and consonants are pronounced clearly and unambiguously. A few minor consonant, vowel or stress distortions do not affect intelligibility. All words are easily understandable. A few consonants or consonant sequences may be distorted. Stress is placed correctly on all common words, and sentence level stress is reasonable
3 Good	Most vowels and consonants are pronounced correctly. Some consistent errors might make a few words unclear. A few consonants in certain contexts may be regularly distorted, omitted or mispronounced. Stressdependent vowel reduction may occur on a few words
2 Intermediate	Some consonants and vowels are consistently mispronounced in a nonnative like manner. At least 2/3 of speech is intelligible, but listeners might need to adjust to the accent. Some consonants are regularly omitted, and consonant sequences may be simplified. Stress may be placed incorrectly on some words or be unclear
1 Intrusive	Many consonants and vowels are mispronounced, resulting in a strong intrusive foreign accent. Listeners may have difficulty understanding about 1/3 of the words. Many consonants may be distorted or omitted. Consonant sequences may be non-English. Stress is placed in a non-English manner; unstressed words may be reduced or omitted and a few syllables added or missed
0 Non-English	Pronunciation seems completely characteristic of another language. Many consonants and vowels are mispronounced, misordered or omitted. Listeners may find more than 1/2 of the speech unintelligible. Stressed and unstressed syllables are realized in a non-English manner. Several words may have the wrong number of syllables
Oral fluency
5 Native–like	Speech shows smooth rhythm and phrasing. There are no hesitations, repetitions, false starts or non-native phonological simplifications
4 Advanced	Speech has an acceptable rhythm with appropriate phrasing and word emphasis. There is no more than one hesitation, one repetition or a false start. There are no significant non-native phonological simplifications
3 Good	Speech is at an acceptable speed but may be uneven. There may be more than one hesitation, but most words are spoken in continuous phrases. There are few repetitions or false starts. There are no long pauses and speech does not sound staccato
2 Intermediate	Speech may be uneven or staccato. Speech (if >= 6 words) has at least one smooth three-word run, and no more than two or three hesitations, repetitions or false starts. There may be one long pause, but not two or more
1 Limited	Speech has irregular phrasing or sentence rhythm. Poor phrasing, staccato or syllabic timing, and/or multiple hesitations, repetitions, and/or false starts make spoken performance notably uneven or discontinuous. Long utterances may have one or two long pauses and inappropriate sentencelevel word emphasis
0 Disfluent	Speech is slow and labored with little discernable phrase grouping, multiple hesitations, pauses, false starts, and/or major phonological simplifications. Most words are isolated, and there may be more than one long pause