PTE (PEARSON TEST OF ENGLISH) Academic is a computer-based test of English for studying abroad and immigration purposes.
PTE Academic is accepted by thousands of universities worldwide, including prestigious institutions such as Harvard Business School, INSEAD and Yale. PTE Academic is also accepted for visa purposes by the Australian government.
The PTE Academic test is taken at Pearson test centre. Your listening, reading, speaking and writing skills are tested in a single 3 hour test session.
During the three-hour test session there will be three main parts to the test: speaking and writing (together), listening and reading. There are twenty different question formats, ranging from multiple choice through to essay writing and interpreting information.
PTE Academic assesses real-life, academic content, so you will hear excerpts from lectures and view graphs and charts. You will hear a range of accents in the test, from British and American to non-native speakers, so you will be exposed to the type of accents you will encounter in everyday life.
TEST FORMAT:
PART 1: SPEAKING & WRITING (77 – 93 minutes)
- Personal Introduction
- Read aloud
- Repeat sentence
- Describe image
- Re-tell lecture
- Answer short question
- Summarize written text
- Essay (20mins)
PART 2: READING (32 – 41 minutes)
- Multiple-choice, choose single answer
- Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers
- Re-order paragraphs
- Reading: Fill in the blanks
- Reading and writing: Fill in the blanks
A ten minute break is optional
PART 3: LISTENING (45 – 57 minutes)
- Summarize spoken text
- Multiple choice questions
- Fill the blanks
- Highlight the correct summary
- Multiple choice questions
- Select missing word
- Highlight incorrect words
- Write from dictation
SCORING
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 does between 70 and 91 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.
SCORE VALIDITY
Test scores are valid for up to two years from the date of the test.
