About PTE

What is PTE Academic?

The Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic) is the world’s leading computer-based English language test trusted by universities, colleges and governments around the world. It offers candidates the fastest, fairest and most flexible way of proving their English language proficiency for study/work abroad or immigration purposes.

PTE Speaking Module

The Part 1 of the test (Speaking & Writing) tests your writing skills in PTE Academic.

The speaking module of PTE also assesses your speaking, listening, and Writing skills; this means you need to pay great attention in Reading, Listening, and Writing.

Your speaking skills will be judged by getting you the questions that ask you to repeat the sentences spoken in an audio clip, respond to the questions asked, and summarize the passages on academic topics.

The PTE Speaking section begins with the Personal Introduction, where you are expected to introduce yourself. This section comes with items for which you need to listen to each of them very carefully to answer into the microphone.

Alert : You must be done with your response before the ‘progress bar’ reaches to the end. Please note that when you don’t utter a word for longer than three seconds, the recording will automatically stop and you will lose points.

Personal Introduction:

This section gives you a chance to let the selected institutes know something about you. Note that this item has no score .

When to begin?

There will be a countdown until microphone starts working and recording. You have 25 seconds to prepare the content. After you hear a beep sound, you should start speaking about you.

Alert:

Do not start speaking before the microphone gets ‘on’ or else, your response will not be recorded. You will be able to record the voice only once. The recording will be sent to the institutes selected by you.

Do it this way:

Speak calmly but clearly. You don’t need to be in hurry for this. You have half a minute to record the response. You should be done with your introduction before the progress bar reaches the end. There, the word ‘Recording’ changes to ‘Completed’.

1. Read aloud:

As the heading suggests, you need to read aloud the text displayed on your screen.

When to begin?

The countdown is displayed on the recording status box. The countdown ranges from 30 to 40 seconds to prepare the content. You’ll then hear a short tone after which you should promptly start speaking.

Alert:

Don't speak before the microphone starts because your voice won’t be recorded. Speak clearly, and don’t make any hurry. You’ll be able to record your response only once. You should be done with your speaking before the progress bar reaches the end. The word ‘Recording’ will then turn into ‘Completed’.

Scoring: Partial credit

How are you judged? Reading, speaking, oral fluency, pronunciation and content

2. Repeat sentence:

What is it?

You need to repeat the sentence verbatim. This means you need to speak the sentence exactly what you hear in the audio clip.

When to begin?

The audio clip starts getting played automatically within a few seconds. When the clip is over, the microphone gets ‘on’ and the recording begins.

Do it this way:

You need to speak clearly. Don’t be in hurry. Finish speaking before the progress bar reaches to the end. The word ‘Recording’ will turn into ‘Completed’.

Alert:

Speak into the microphone immediately because unlike other items, you will NOT hear any short tone/beep.

Scoring: Partial credit

How are you judged? Listening, speaking, oral fluency, pronunciation and content

3. Describe image:

What is it?

You need to describe an image that will be displayed on your screen.

When to begin?

You have 25 seconds to study the image and prepare yourself with content. Once the given time (25 seconds) are over, you’ll hear a short tone/beep. Start speaking immediately.

Alert:

Don’t start speaking before you hear the tone/beep or else, your voice won’t get recorded. Speak clearly. No need to be in hurry. Finish speaking before the progress bar reaches the end. The word ‘Recording’ will turn into ‘Completed’.

Scoring: Partial credit

How are you judged? Speaking, oral fluency, pronunciation and content

Do it this way:

Don’t hesitate. Avoid having ‘hhmm’ or ‘a….’ in your speech. Fluency should be maintained and is more important than describing everything that you see. If the image has too much data to cover in your speech, highlight only that are important.

4. Re-tell lecture:

What is it?

As the label says, you need to re-tell the lecture in your own words. You’ll hear an academic lecture that you need to repeat once the audio clip is over.

When to begin?

The lecture will start automatically. At times, the lecture is accompanied by an image for better understanding. Once the audio clip is over, you’ll have 10 seconds to prepare yourself. After 10 seconds, you’ll hear a short tone or beep. Start speaking immediately after it.

Alert:

Don’t speak before you hear the sound/beep or else your voice won’t be recorded. Speak clearly and there is no need to rush to finish the lecture.

Scoring: Partial credit

How are you judged? Listening, speaking, oral fluency, pronunciation and content

Do it this way:

It is better to write down the keywords or phrases in the notepad given to you. These keywords will help you recalling the lecture.

5. Answer short question:

What is it?

In this item, you will have to answer the question in one or a few words. The question will be quite general related to our day-to-day life.

When to begin?

The audio clip will begin to play automatically. At times, this item also has an image. Once the clip if over, the microphone will start recording your voice. The status box will show ‘Recording’ and once you are finished with it, it’ll turn into ‘Completed’

Alert:

There is no short tone/beep. Also, you need to answer it in one word or a few. You shouldn’t stretch the answer explaining the stuff.

Scoring: Either correct or incorrect

How are you judged? Listening, speaking and vocabulary

PTE Writing Module

The Writing is the second section of the Speaking module. In other words, it does not have any separate section or time. Once you are done with the Speaking module , clicking on the next button will ask you to take the Writing test.

The writing test assesses your writing skills in terms of how good you are in grammar, formatting sentences, and sticking to the topic given. You will be judged on the quality of your writing.

1. Summarize written text:

What is it?

You need to write a summary of the given paragraphs on a particular topic. You have 10 minutes to finish the summary.

Alert:

You will have to write the summary in only ONE sentence. This means, only one full stop (a period) is allowed. Nevertheless, you may use commas and semicolons for more than once.

Tip:

You’ll have the ‘word count’ at the bottom of the text box. You must include the main points from the given paragraphs to make your summary rich and precise. You also have a choice to cut, copy, or paste the text.

Cut:

Select the text you want to delete and left-click ‘cut’

Copy:

Select the text you want to copy and left-click ‘copy’

Paste:

Take the cursor to the place where you want to paste the copied or cut text. Then, left-click ‘paste’.

Scoring: Partial credit

How are you judged? Reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, content and style

2. Write essay:

What is it?

You will have to write an essay on a given topic. The topic will be mentioned in a line or two. You need to write the essay between 200 and 300 words.

You have 20 minutes to finish this task. Your writing will be judged on grammar, coherence, vocabulary, and written discourse.

Tip:

You’ll have the ‘word count’ at the bottom of the text box. Make sure that you don’t write under 200 words. Nor should you exceed 300 words or else it’ll attract penalty and you’ll score less. Try to remain neutral in writing on any topic. You should avoid repeating the words or sentences.

You also have a choice to cut, copy, or paste the text. This is useful when you don’t want to take any chance to spell a difficult word in your content. Say: an essay where you need to type the word ‘homeostasis’ more than once.

Cut:

Select the text you want to delete and left-click ‘cut’

Copy:

Select the text you want to copy and left-click ‘copy’

Paste:

Take the cursor to the place where you want to paste the copied or cut text. Then, left-click ‘paste’.

Scoring: Partial credit

How are you judged? Writing, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, written discourse, How your content is judged? Coherence, style, structure, linguistic level, content

PTE Reading Module

What is it? This section of the PTE exam contains passages and questions based on your reading skills. It contains a single timed section. For each question, you’ll have to read the instructions carefully before answering it.

Alert: The section allots you 32-41 minutes. Please check the timer on the screen. It depends on you to manage all the sections within the time limit. In other word, the items are not ‘time bound’ but the entire section is.

1. Multiple-choice question, single answer:

What is it?

You will be presented with a passage. You need to go through the text carefully. Down to the text is a question with multiple options. You need to select (by clicking) only one which you think is the right answer.

What is the prompt length?

The text could be up to 110 words

How are you judged?

Your reading skills

Tip:

Read the question first so that you know what you should focus on. After having a glance at the question and the options, start reading the text. Choose only one option which you think is right.

Alert:

On an average, you should not be spending more than 2 minutes on each question.

2. Multiple -choice, multiple answers:

What is it?

You will be presented with a passage. You need to go through the text carefully. Down to the text is a question with multiple options. You need to select (by clicking) more than one option that you think are the right answers.

What is the prompt length?

The text could be up to 300 words

How are you judged?

Your reading skills

Tip:

Read the question first so that you know what you should focus on. After having a glance at the question and the options, start reading the text. Choose more than one option which you think are right.

Alert:

On an average, you should not be spending more than 2 minutes on each question

3. Re-order paragraphs:

What is it?

You will be presented with several paragraphs in a random order on the left hand side with a blank space on the right hand side. You need to drag the paragraphs from the left side and put them in order into the blank space on the right hand side.

What is the prompt length?

The text could be up to 150 words

How are you judged?

Your reading skills

Tip:

Carefully read all the paragraphs. Generally, paragraphs with connectors and adverbs don’t come as a first paragraph. If you have ‘years’ mentioned in your paragraphs, the chronological order may help set you the paragraphs in the right order.

4. Reading-fill in the blanks:

What is it?

On your screen will be a passage or a paragraph(s) with several blanks. Just below the text, you’ll have several words. You need to drag and drop a proper word in a proper blank. You will get point for each correctly placed word.

What is the prompt length?

The text could be up to 80 words

How are you judged?

Your reading skills

Tip:

Try to understand the entire sentence that has a blank. Check whether the blank requires a noun, verb, or an adjective. Pick the words accordingly.

5. Reading and writing -fill in the blanks:

What is it?

On your screen will be a passage or a paragraph(s) with several blanks. Each blank will have a dropdown option filled with several words. You need to select the word that you think is the right one.

What is the prompt length?

The text could be up to 300 words

How are you judged?

Your reading and writing skills

Tip:

You should have good practice of reading as it makes the task easier. This item also requires good vocabulary because many times, the words are synonyms and you require intense knowledge of which word goes better for the blank.

PTE Listening Module

Your listening skills are tested in this section. In addition to that, you will also have some integrated speaking and listening questions in another part.

What is it?

The main section of listening requires you to listen to the audio or video clips that begin automatically. The volume can be increased by moving the bar to the right side. Adjust the volume to your level of comfort. The audio clips are played ONLY ONCE.

1. Summarize spoken text:

What is it?

You will hear a recording of some text. You need to type the summary for the same in 50-70 words.

How much time do you get?

60-90 seconds

How are you judged?

Your listening and writing skills

Tip:

Writing down the keywords or phrases quickly help you summarize the text. You have cut, copy, and paste option in case you want to use.

2. Multiple choice, choose multiple answers:

What is it?

You will hear an audio clip. You need to select multiple answers that are relevant to the text spoken.

How much time do you get?

40-90 seconds

How are you judged?

Your listening skills

Tip:

Scan through all the options as quickly as possible. It will be then easy for you to select the relevant options.

3. Fill in the blanks:

What is it? You have a transcript on your screen with several blanks to be filled. You will hear an audio clip for the same transcript. You need to type in the missing word as you hear the recording.

How much time do you get?

30-60 seconds

How are you judged?

Your listening and writing skills

Tip:

If you have good typing speed, you may type the word as you listen to the audio clip. In other case, you may write down the missing word on your notepad and then once the clip is over and you are done with your writing, type all the words in the blanks.

Alert:

You will need to move your cursor to the blank space and click on it so that you can type a word. Many forget this action and find that whatever they typed was never written on the screen. It is recommended to check the word and its spelling before clicking the ‘next’ button.

4. Highlight correct summary:

What is it?

You will have an audio clip playing some lecture. After listening to the lecture, you will need to select the summary paragraph that best matches the lecture.

How much time do you get?

30-90 seconds

How are you judged?

Your listening and reading skills

5. Multiple choice, choose single answer:

What is it?

You will have a recording being played. After listening to it carefully, you need to choose any one of the text or sentences given. The selected sentence or text should answer the question based on the audio you just heard.

How much time do you get?

30-60 seconds

How are you judged?

Your listening skills

6. Select missing word:

What is it?

You will listen to an audio clip that will have a ‘beep’. You will need to select the most appropriate option that fits the ‘beep’.

How much time do you get?

20-70 seconds

How are you judged?

Your listening skills

Tip:

The beep, for almost all the times, comes in the last. And, knowing this fact, many students become alert only when the audio is reaching the end. The tip is you should carefully listen to the sentence right from the beginning. This is because many times, the ‘beep’ could be a conclusion of the entire sentence.

7. Highlight incorrect words:

What is it?

You have a transcript already written on your screen. You will hear an audio clip for the same transcript. You need to identify and select the words (by left-clicking on them) that are different from the words in the lecture from the audio clip.

How much time do you get?

15-50 seconds

How are you judged?

Your listening and reading skills

Tip:

Move mouse cursor as the audio clip is played. Be alert and immediately click the word that differs from the recording. Even if you wrongly clicked one word, do not go back and deselect it immediately or else the speaker will finish several more words that you will completely miss. At the end, remember those that you clicked incorrectly; you then deselect them all by again left-clicking on them.

8. Write from dictation:

What is it?

You will have to listen carefully to the sentence spoken in an audio clip played automatically. You need to type the sentence with exact words spoken.

How much time do you get?

3-5 seconds

How are you judged?

Your listening and writing skills

Tip:

Some prefer taking down the note as the sentence is spoken. Writing initials of the words spoken may help. Others with good memory power simply concentrate on the sentence and recall it while writing it.

Alert:

Spare some time to check and proofread your own content. Grammar, spelling, style, and discourse matter here.