PTE

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PTE overview

PTE Academic is a computer-based academic English language test aimed at non-native English speakers wanting to study abroad. It tests Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking. PTE-Academic Exam is divided into four modules – Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening. Questions often test 2 skills together, such as listening and reading or reading and speaking. While the Speaking and Writing modules are combined in one session, Listening and Reading are divided into two different sections. Ranging from MCQs to essay writing, reading out sentences to choosing the correct answer, there are twenty types of questions in all four formats. The whole test is done in a single session, lasting 3 hours and is taken sitting at a computer in a secure test environment. The speaking part of the exam is done at the computer. Your voice is recorded and sent for marking. The core advantage of this test is that you get your results very quickly; in about 5 days. The PTE test is based on real-life academic and general content. You will come across graphs, summaries, excerpts, and many more items that belong to things around you. The test also contains both native and non-native accents, much like what you hear in films, TV, and other real-life conversations from everyday life.

PTE

PTE exam pattern

Total test duration 3 hours with an optional 10 minutes break between the reading and listening parts

Speaking and Writing

77-93 min

Reading

32-40 min

Listening

45-57 min

PTE Test Format in Brief

Test Duration: 77-93 minutes

  • Personal introduction
  • Read aloud
  • Repeat sentence
  • Describe image
  • Re-tell lecture
  • Answer short question
  • Summarize written text
  • Essay (20 mins)

Test Duration: 32-40 minutes

  • Reading & writing: Fill in the blanks
  • Multiple choice, choose multiple answers.
  • Re-order paragraphs
  • Reading: Fill in the blanks
  • Multiple choice, choose single answer

Test Duration: 45-57 minutes

  • Summarize spoken text
  • Multiple choice, choose multiple answer
  • Fill in the blanks
  • Highlight correct summary
  • Multiple choice, choose single answer
  • Select missing word
  • Highlight incorrect words
  • Write from dictation

how do they score?

PTE Academic reports an overall score, communicative skills scores and enabling skills scores. The overall score is based on performance on all test items (tasks in the test consisting of instructions, questions or prompts, answer opportunities and scoring rules). Each test taker will answer between 71 and 83 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.

Note: the overall score is not an average calculation of the communicative scores. The PTE Academic item types are mentioned in the below table along with their scoring method:

Note: the overall score is not an average calculation of the communicative scores.

The PTE Academic item types are mentioned in the below table along with their scoring method:

Part 1: Speaking and Writing (approximately 77-93 minutes)

This table holds the details of PTE writing and PTE speaking score calculator

Type of Items Scoring
Read Aloud Partial credit
Repeat Sentence Partial credit
Describe image Partial credit
Re-tell lecture Partial credit
Answer Short Questions correct/incorrect
Summarize Written Text Partial credit
Writing Essay Partial credit
Part 2: Reading (approximately 32–41 minutes)

The following table indicates the details of PTE reading score calculator:

Type of Items Scoring
Multiple-choice, choose a single answer Correct/ Incorrect
Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers deducted for incorrect options chosen) Partial credit (for each correct response. Points
Re-order paragraphs pair) Partial credit (for each correctly ordered, adjacent
Reading: Fill in the blanks Partial credit (for each correctly completed blank)
Reading and writing: Fill in the blanks Partial credit (for each correctly completed blank)
Part 3: Listening (approximately 45–57 minutes)

The following table indicates the details of PTE listening score calculation process:

Type of Items Scoring
Summarize spoken text Partial credit
Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers deducted for incorrect options chosen Partial credit (for each correct response. Points
Reading: Fill in the blanks Partial credit (for each correctly completed blank)
Highlight correct summary Correct/ Incorrect
Multiple-choice, choose a single answer Correct/ Incorrect
Select missing word Correct/ Incorrect
Highlight incorrect words incorrect options chosen) Partial credit (for each word. Points deducted for
Write from dictation Partial credit (for each word spelled correctly)

Partial credit: Partial credit will be given to the correct answer. All wrong responses will be deducted from the points earned for the correct answer. No points will be given to the wrong answers.

Correct or Incorrect: For every correct answer, one point will be given. No score will be given if the answer is incorrect. Zero points will be equal to an incorrect answer.

Candidates are willing to know about PTE score vs IELTS band calculator, so we have prepared the table below to compare the scores. Check the table below for PTE score vs IELTS band calculator to compare PTE score calculator with IELTS:

PTE Score range IELTS Band
86 and above 9
83-85 8.5
79-82 8
73-78 7.5
65-72 7
59-64 6.5
51-58 6
43-50 5.5
35-42 5
30-34 4.5

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