Answers and Discussion

PET Writing Part 1

Task Description

What do the candidates have to do?
The candidates have to read a complete sentence as well as a gapped sentence below it and complete the gapped sentence so that it has the same meaning as the first sentence.

How many sentences are there?
There are five sentences to be transformed, as well as an example. The sentences are all connected by a theme. Each transformation is worth 1 mark.

What is the purpose of this part?
This part tests the candidates' ability to understand and control the grammatical structures at PET level.

How many words should candidates use to complete the gap?
The instructions tell candidates that they should use no more than three words. They may only have to use one or two. Contracted forms (e.g. can't) count as two words.

Understanding the Task

To understand better how students need to approach this task, it may help you to do the activity yourself, and analyse what you had to do to choose the right answer. Look at this Writing Part 1 from the PET Handbook. Complete the task, thinking about how you are doing it.

Sample Part 1 Task (PDF)
Answers

Look at these questions about how you did the task and consider your answers.

1. How important do you think spelling is?
   
   
2. Did you think of an answer that was more than three words?
   
   
3. Did you think of more than one answer?
   
   
4. What sort of things were these sentences testing?
   
   
5. What did you have to think about when you did this part of the test?