Academic Writing Difficulties: PTE Summarize Group Discussion Question with Sample Answers

Your task

You will hear a group discussion. After listening, please summarize the discussion in your own words.

“Speaker 1: One thing I found really difficult after starting university was adjusting to the academic writing style. In high school, writing essays was more about expressing ideas clearly and following a structure. But here, there are so many additional expectations—like referencing, critical thinking, and using academic sources properly. Speaker 2: I can totally relate. The first essay I submitted got an average grade even though I thought I had written it well. The feedback said I needed to engage with the literature more deeply and that my argument lacked depth. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what that meant at the time. Speaker 3: Same here. I think one of the biggest shifts is realizing that university essays aren’t just about presenting facts. It’s more about building an argument based on evidence, and positioning your view within the academic conversation. That was a completely new way of thinking for me. Speaker 1: And don’t get me started on referencing styles. MLA, APA, Harvard—every professor seems to prefer a different one. I spend more time trying to format my bibliography than writing the essay sometimes! Speaker 2: Exactly. I think universities should offer a crash course on academic writing in the first semester. Just one short course to explain how to structure arguments, use evidence, and cite sources correctly. It would save us so much confusion. Speaker 3: Actually, I found the writing center on campus really helpful. I booked a few appointments where they reviewed my drafts and helped me refine my arguments. It’s free, and they even show you how to avoid plagiarism by paraphrasing properly. Speaker 1: That’s good to know! I’ve also started reading sample essays and analyzing how they’re structured. It helps to see what a strong academic voice looks like. I’m slowly getting better, but it’s definitely a learning curve. Speaker 2: Same here. I think once you understand the expectations and practice regularly, it becomes more manageable. But initially, it’s a steep climb. Speaker 3: Yeah, but it’s a skill worth mastering. Academic writing is something we’ll need throughout university and maybe even beyond.”

30 community answers with AI feedback

SCORE 14/16

the group of three students are discussing about the difficulty in uni when it comes to academic style writing. it's so much different to what they used to do in high school. the high school was pretty basic where they talked about just what they were taught in simple terms. however, with academic style, it's so much different. it involves critical thinking and referencing to various sources. academic writing actually requires you to engage into deeper literature and needs more engagement with that and come up with your own thoughts rather than just providing basic facts. it is a way beyond above cycle and it's just not about writing what you have heard. it's also engaging with it and also thinking about what it exactly means and then giving your opinion on it. the correct way to do that is writing a brief introduction, moving with what current facts are and where it has been cited using the appropriate citations and then providing what exactly you think. referencing is also one such thing that the students discussed and they also came up with the solutions what they should do in order to improve their academic style writing. one of them suggested that they should open, they should have an academic crash goes where they can teach students appropriately how to do academic style writing. the other students said that they have sought help from the writing center and the writing center actually hit them how to avoid plagiarism and improve the academic journey. so yeah that was the all discussion all about between three students.
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AI Feedback

Content:

The response captures the main ideas and important details of the discussion, demonstrating good comprehension and paraphrasing. However, some relationships between perspectives could have been explored more thoroughly.

Oral Fluency:

The response is mostly fluent with only a few hesitations, but the overall rhythm is smooth and understandable.

Pronunciation:

The pronunciation is clear and natural, with precise articulation throughout the response.

SCORE 14/16

the topic revolves around the academic writing style expected in university essays. speaker 1 says that she found it hard and she also noticed the additional expectations that were put on the style of the essays with regards to referencing critical thinking and so many more parameters. speaker 1 says that there were so many variations in referencing that she had spent most of her time editing her bibliography. speaker 1 used sample essays to improve her structure and she believed that it was learning curve. speaker 2 agrees with speaker 1 and says that his first essay got an average grade even though he believed that he had done well. his first essay was given the feedback that it lacked depth. speaker 2 suggests that the university should conduct a crash course on academic writing style so it would become more manageable. speaker 3 says that essays aren't just about writing facts but presenting different views with evidence. speaker 3 says that writing the writing center of the university helped him and it was free. it also helped him learn how to avoid plagiarism. speaker 3 concludes the discussion by saying that academic writing was a skill worth mastering, and it would help them in university and beyond.
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AI Feedback

Content:

The response accurately captures the main ideas and important details from the discussion, demonstrating good comprehension. While it paraphrases effectively, some minor inconsistencies are present, preventing a perfect score.

Oral Fluency:

The response is mostly fluent with few hesitations, but there are some pauses that slightly affect the overall rhythm.

Pronunciation:

The pronunciation is clear and natural, with precise articulation, making it easy to understand.

SCORE 14/16

there are three speakers currently. the speaker one talks about the essay writing in the universities and expressing ideas clearly in structure, referencing the references and the critical thinking while writing the essays. the apt hardware and the different other educational systems have made the different formats accordingly. and she went on adding that she has used more of bibliography wars and there is a strong academic voice and there is a better learning curve. and the speaker too goes on starting about the average grade even when to include the literature tip. academic writing class course he admits that there is should be an academic writing class course should be implemented and evidencing and the site, site, source courses and practicing more at the level help. the speaker is recontingulating the same and the university is on towards the academic conversation and the campus bookings and the campus books have really helped to refine the arguments and paraphrasing parallely and he suggested this will be practiced more and the skill mustering will be helping maybe beyond the universities.
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AI Feedback

Content:

The response captures the main ideas of the discussion and includes some details from individual speakers. However, it contains a few inaccuracies and lacks some coherence in organization, making it slightly harder to follow.

Oral Fluency:

The response demonstrates a smooth and natural rhythm with no noticeable hesitations, indicating a high level of fluency.

Pronunciation:

Pronunciation is clear and natural with precise articulation, allowing for easy understanding.

SCORE 14/16

people conversing about the university writing structure earlier during their high school studies they used to give the essays in a very profound way but the universities are expecting more from them such as the expectations related to the essay writing should have the structure and the perfect context and also it should present the references. these people are often concerned about how to develop that reference studies and all. and in fact, they are so confused how my bibliography is going on. they are expecting that university should offer the crash courses on how to structure the argument so that they can develop the academic ss trial writing. and simply worse, they wanted to understand the expectations so that they can develop there's your writing skills.
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AI Feedback

Content:

The response captures the main ideas of the discussion and some details, but it includes inaccuracies and lacks clarity in certain areas, showing sufficient comprehension. It attempts to paraphrase but misses some important nuances and connections between speakers' views.

Oral Fluency:

The speech flows smoothly with a natural rhythm and no noticeable hesitations, demonstrating high fluency.

Pronunciation:

Pronunciation is clear and natural, with precise articulation of most words, indicating a high level of proficiency.

SCORE 14/16

speaker 1 tells one thing i found different after joining university. here, there are many different expectations, the reference styling, howard, then written essays. that's good to know. academic voice looks like. speaker 2 talks about the feedback said i need to engage in. i think universities, just one short course to save us so much confusion, practice regularly. speaker 3 tells i think the present leave facts was shown to your view. i booked a few appointments, skill worth it.
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AI Feedback

Content:

The response captures the main ideas and some details from the discussion, but includes inaccuracies and lacks coherence in connecting the points effectively. Some important details are missing or underrepresented.

Oral Fluency:

The speech has a smooth, natural rhythm with no noticeable hesitations, demonstrating high fluency.

Pronunciation:

The pronunciation is clear and natural, with precise articulation throughout the response.

SCORE 14/16

the discussion focused on the importance of academic writing. participants explained that academic writing requires a formal style, critical thinking, and clear structure to present ideas effectively. they also emphasized avoiding by paraphrasing correctly and using proper references in addition, regular practice and feedback help improve writing skills. overall mastering academic writing, sports, successful communication and stronger academic performance.
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AI Feedback

Content:

The response captures the main topic and most individual opinions, but lacks synthesis of perspectives.

Oral Fluency:

Fluency is mostly smooth but has a noticeable pause ratio affecting the overall flow.

Pronunciation:

Pronunciation is clear and precise with no significant errors.

SCORE 13/16

the topic of discussion is how the speakers are finding difficulty in adjusting to an academic style of writing at university. speaker 1 expressed how in high school writing essays was more about expression and being able to write down how you feel instead of just referencing and citing academic sources, which is what was the expectation at the university. speaker 2 agrees with speaker 1 and mentions her experience how the first essay he submitted was averagely graded. he got the remark that it lacked depth. speaker 3 agrees with both the speakers and adds to the fact that unity university essays do not need facts like high school essays. in fact, they are looking for arguments with evidence. rika one goes on to highlight how there are so many different referencing types and how each professor requires something unique, which is leading to a lot of inconsistencies. she also highlights how the maximum time that she is spending is on her bibliographies. speaker 2 highlights the fact that it is causing confusion and recommends that the university should offer a crash cost to students on academic writing, on how to use evidence and citing of sources in order to save their time. speaker 3 shares his experience of visiting the writing center at the university. he mentioned that it was free and they helped, they helped you to refine your writing and also avoid plagiarism. speaker 1 goes back and says that she has been through some sample essays to understand how to write better and she has mentioned how this has been a steep learning curve. we finally come to the conclusion that regular practice will help in enhancing the skill and also this is a skill worth master.
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AI Feedback

Content:

The response effectively captures the main topic, individual opinions, and the conclusion of the discussion.

Oral Fluency:

The speech is mostly fluent with a few hesitations, maintaining a good flow overall.

Pronunciation:

Pronunciation is mostly accurate with minor mispronunciations.

SCORE 13/16

the discussion is about how the students are facing difficulties in adjusting to the academic writing in writing style in the university, especially in the first year. the first speaker says that she thinks that the universities have a lot of traditional expectations only apart from writing. she further feels that more than the writing part it is about the difference in the writing style as every professor prefers a different style however she has started to read sample essays and she feels like it has helped a lot but it is still a learning curve and it will take a lot of time to reach there. after that the second speaker agrees with the first speaker saying that he wrote an essay and he got an average grade in the first essay where the expectation out of him was to engage with literature which he did not understand on how to do. he also felt that there should be a crash course which is offered by the university on the academic writing which helps them to use evidence in their writing and not only just normal writing. however, he feels that there is a need to understand the expectation of the professors and as it will help them get good grades, the third speaker also shares that the university is not only focused on presenting the format of the writing but also on the facts. he feels that he has improved a lot as he has found various writing centers which are free of cost which has helped him refine the arguments on his writing the activity and it also helps in avoiding plagiarism. in conclusion all the three speakers feel that it is a difficult process to adjust to the academic writing style in the university, but with some hacks they can manage to do so.
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AI Feedback

Content:

The response effectively captures the main topic, individual opinions, and provides a conclusion, though it could have better synthesized the perspectives.

Oral Fluency:

The speech is mostly fluent with a few hesitations, maintaining a good rhythm overall.

Pronunciation:

Pronunciation is mostly clear, with minor mispronunciations present.

SCORE 13/16

Three speakers were involved in the group discussion and the topic of the group discussion is academic writing style. Group discussion begin with speaker one stating that one thing I started to find very difficult in the university is that academic writing style and writing the essay sometime. She explained that that's good to know and it helps to see what is strong in your academic essay. Group discussion moves to. Speaker two said that I weren't even sure that what was need and just one short course and how to structure the argument. Speaker three mentioned that positioning your view in academic learning and I woobooed a few appointments. He also explained that, but it's a skill that mastering in there. Speaker one stating that one thing I started to find very difficult in the university is that academic writing styles and writing the essay sometime is very important. Speaker two, she explained that that's good to know and it helps to see what is strong in your academic essay. Group discussion moves to speaker two stating that I won't even sure that what was meet and just one short course and how to structure argument. Group discussion moves to speaker three mentioned that positioning your view in academic learning and I booked a few appointments. He also highlighted that, but it's a skill that mastering in the essay. Speaker one stating that one thing I started to find very difficult in the university is that academic writing style and writing the essay sometime. She also explained that that's good to know and it helps to see what is strong in your academic essay.
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AI Feedback

Content:

The response captures the main ideas of the discussion and reflects good comprehension, though it could have included more specific details from each speaker's contribution. Overall, the ideas are organized well and presented coherently.

Oral Fluency:

The speech is mostly fluent with few hesitations, demonstrating a good rhythm and flow, though there are occasional pauses.

Pronunciation:

The pronunciation is mostly accurate with minor mispronunciations that do not significantly detract from understanding.

SCORE 13/16

The given discussion is about the different types of academic writings expected from the students. The first speaker mentions that she was getting it difficult to adjust to the academic style of writing as the expectations are very high here. She mentions that there was expectations to use the correct references and citations, such as AP Harvard. And every professor had a different style of citations and referencing. She also had different styles. And then she mentioned that she was slowly getting better at this after looking at various other peer reviews. The second speaker mentions that he got a feedback saying his argument lacked depth and his research was not up to the point. He further mentions that he saw a crash course on the ACAM academic writing to explain how the site, how to site sources and do the work. He further adds that once you understand how the expectations of the professor, you do better. And this is a slow, but a first step to climb. The third speaker further mentions that university essays were everything about presenting the arguments based on the facts. He found that the website that showed how to site properly and use articles for referencing it also helped him to avoid plagiarism checks. He further adds that working and improving daily will help him to improve in this subject. The SPEE three speakers concluded by saying that they will have to practice more and get more knowledge based on the websites as well as the professors.
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AI Feedback

Content:

The response captures the main ideas of the discussion and reflects good comprehension, though it could benefit from more detail and synthesis of perspectives.

Oral Fluency:

The speech flows well with few hesitations, though there are occasional pauses that slightly affect the natural rhythm.

Pronunciation:

The pronunciation is mostly clear with minor mispronunciations that do not significantly impede understanding.

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