One sentence, and exactly one full stop.
Summarize Written Text gives you a passage and ten minutes, and asks for a summary in a single sentence of 5 to 75 words. It is really a grammar exam in miniature: because only one full stop is allowed and it goes at the very end, everything turns on how you join clauses legally in the middle of a sentence.
Why this matters. The summary is scored on four traits: content, form, grammar and vocabulary. Form is binary and unforgiving, one sentence of 5 to 75 words or the response scores zero on form, and the single full stop rule removes the easiest repair in English from your toolkit. The three legal joins below are therefore not style advice. They are the task.
Four rules, and the reason behind each.
Know these cold before you practise. Every one of them is checked mechanically, so every one of them is either full marks or none.
One sentence only
A capital letter at the start, one full stop at the very end
A second full stop means it is no longer one sentence, however good the two halves are. Everything you keep has to be attached mid-sentence, legally.
This is why the three joins in section 02 decide the task.
5 to 75 words
Outside the limits, form scores zero
The screen shows a word count while you type. Glance at it before you submit, and in practice count by hand as well, because the habit of checking is the thing being trained.
A 76-word summary of a difficult passage is a zero on form. Cut one word.
Ten minutes
The clock does not pause
Budget the ten minutes rather than spending them: read for the argument, build the sentence, sweep the commas, count the words. The budget is in section 03.
Practise with a real timer from the first attempt, not after you feel ready.
What Content wants
The argument, not the opening
Content pays for the main point of the passage, with its pivotal contrast if there is one. It does not pay for a rephrase of the first sentence, and copying chunks of the passage costs you on vocabulary.
Ask: what does this passage claim, and what does it concede?
Three ways to join clauses without a full stop.
The task allows exactly one full stop, so mid-sentence you have three legal tools. A candidate who can name all three uses all three; a candidate who can name only one uses it eight times, and the repetition shows.
Subordination
although · because · while · whereas · since
A subordinator glues a clause on without a full stop, and it states the relationship between the ideas instead of leaving the reader to infer one.
Although demand rose steadily, supply failed to keep pace.
The relative clause
which · who · whose · where
A relative clause folds a whole fact into a noun phrase, which is the most compact join available and the one that buys back words for the 75-word limit.
The scheme, which began as a small trial, has since expanded nationwide.
Comma plus coordinator
and · but · or · so · yet · for · nor
Only these seven words can sit after a comma and join two full clauses. Everything else needs a full stop or a semicolon in front of it, and here you have neither to spare.
Demand rose steadily, but supply failed to keep pace.
The trap that catches good writers
However, moreover, therefore, nevertheless, furthermore, consequently, thus and hence are adverbs, not conjunctions. They can open a sentence; they cannot join two clauses across a comma. The evidence was weak, however the claim succeeded is a comma splice, and in this task you cannot repair it with a full stop, because the full stop is already spoken for. Subordinate instead: although the evidence was weak, the claim succeeded. This error survives in advanced writers precisely because it is not a grammar gap but a punctuation convention, and several major languages genuinely permit what English forbids here.
A budget, not a countdown.
Ten minutes is comfortable if each minute has a job, and punishing if it does not. This is the budget I teach.
| Minutes | The job | What it prevents |
|---|---|---|
| 0–3 | Read for the argument, not the details | A polished summary of the opening paragraph instead of the point. |
| 3–7 | Build one main clause, then attach with the three joins | An overloaded chain of clauses that collapses under its own weight. |
| 7–9 | The splice sweep: cursor on every comma | The illegal join that silently costs the grammar trait. |
| 9–10 | Count the words, confirm the single full stop | A form zero on an otherwise good sentence. |
Two cautions. Do not lift whole phrases from the passage, the vocabulary trait pays for your own words. And hold one spelling convention throughout, British or American, either is accepted and a mixture is not. For the essay half of PTE Writing, see the Write Essay guide →
Eight to drill.
Choose the correct option for each one. Press Check answers for your score and the reason behind each. Nothing is sent anywhere.
One sentence is where control shows.
Anyone can join clauses with a rule sheet open and the clock off. The task is doing it in one sentence, in ten minutes, with the full stop already spent.
Practise under a real ten-minute clock from the first attempt, then have your summaries marked. In a lesson I mark your sentence against the four traits, show you which join failed and why, and drill the repair until it is automatic. Lessons are £20 for fifty minutes, one to one, in proper British English; the first step is a discounted trial lesson.