Item Task Skills assessed Prompt length

Personal The introduction is an opportunity Speaking 25 seconds to

Introduction for the students to give their prepare to respond
selected institutions some
information about themselves
Read Aloud A text appears on the screen. Read Reading and Text up to 60 words
the text aloud. Speaking

30-40 seconds to
prepare
Repeat sentence After listening to a recording of a Listening and 3-9 seconds
sentence, repeat the sentence Speaking

Describe Image An image appears on the screen. Speaking N/A

Describe the image in detail.

Re-tell Lecture After listening to or watching a Listening and up to 90 seconds

lecture, re-tell the lecture in your Speaking
own words.
Answer short After listening to a question, Listening and 3-9 seconds
question answer with a single word or a few Speaking
words.
Summarize written After reading a text, write a one- Reading and text up to 300
text sentence summary of the passage. Writing words

Write essay Write a 200– 300-word essay on a Writing 2-3 sentences

given topic.

Note- Candidates should note that apart from the Listening and Speaking sections, there is also a summary section (given in th

PTE Academic Exam Pattern 2018 - Part 2: Reading

The Reading section evaluates candidates’ reading skills. Test takers encounter a set of instructions to follow, after which they c

PTE Academic Exam pattern 2018: Reading Section (32 – 41 minutes)

Item Task Skills assessed Prompt length

Multiple-Choice, After reading a text, answer a Reading text up to 110
choose Single multiple-choice question on the words
Answer content or tone of the text by
selecting one response
Multiple-Choice, After reading a text, answer a Reading text up to 300
choose Multiple multiple-choice question on the words
Answers content or tone of the text by
selecting more than one response
Re-order Several text boxes appear on the Reading text up to 150
Paragraphs screen in a random order. Put the words
text boxes in the correct order
Reading: Fill in the A text appears on screen with Reading text up to 80 words
blanks several gaps. Drag words from the
box below to fill the gaps
Reading and A text appears on screen with Reading and text up to 80 words
Writing: Fill in the several gaps. For this item type, Writing
blanks candidates need to select the most
appropriate words from a drop-
down list to restore the text.

PTE Academic Exam Pattern 2018 - Part 3: Listening

The listening section consists of questions based on several audio clips. Part 3 comprises of questions that are completely base

PTE Academic Exam pattern 2018: Listening Section (45 – 57 Minutes)

Item Task Skills assessed Prompt length

Summarize spoken After listening to a recording, write Listening and 60-90 seconds
text a 50-70 word summary Writing
Multiple Choice, After listening to a recording, Listening 40-90 seconds
choose multiple answer a multiple-choice question
answers on the content or tone of the
recording by selecting more than
one response

Fill in the blanks A transcript of a recording appears Listening and 30-60 seconds
on screen with several gaps. After Writing
listening to the recording, type the
missing word in each gap

Highlight correct After listening to a recording, select Listening and 30-90 seconds
summary the paragraph that best Reading
summarizes the recording
Multiple Choice, After listening to a recording, Listening 30-60 seconds
choose single answer a multiple-choice question
answer on the content or tone of the
recording by selecting one
response

Select missing word After listening to a recording, select Listening 20-70 seconds
the missing word that completes
the recording from a list of options

Highlight incorrect The transcript of a recording Listening and 15-50 seconds

words appears o the screen. While Reading
listening to the recording, identify
the words in the transcript that
differ from what is said
Write from dictation After listening to a recording of a Listening and 5-Mar
sentence, type the sentence Writing
 Time to answer
30 seconds to record

varies by item,
depending on the
length of text

15 seconds

40 seconds

40 seconds

10 seconds

10 minutes

20 minutes

re is also a summary section (given in the table) where candidates are allotted 10 minutes, in which they have to read a paragraph and ans

f instructions to follow, after which they can answer accordingly.

es of questions that are completely based on audio or video clips. Candidates get to hear each audio or video clip only ONCE and are allow
to read a paragraph and answer the questions. Students have to type the answers, though there are options to cut, copy or paste, in case t
clip only ONCE and are allowed to take notes to refer to.
ns to cut, copy or paste, in case they think it is necessary/worthwhile to do so. Candidates also have to write an essay in this section to get e
e an essay in this section to get examined for their writing ability (mentioned in the table).
 Item Type Time

Part-1: Speaking and Writing

Read Loud

Repeat Sentence
30-35 min
Describe Image

Retell Lecture

Write Essay
20-40 min
Short answer question

Summarize written text 20-30 min

Part-2: Reading

Multiple-choice, choose single answer

Multiple-choice,choose multiple answers

Re-order paragraphs 32-40min

Reading: Fill in the blanks

Reading and writing: Fill in the blanks

Part-3: Listening

Summarize spoken text 20-30 min

Multiple-choice,choose multipleanswers

Fill in the blanks

Highlight correct summary

Multiple-choice,choose single answer 23-28 min

Select missing word

Highlight incorrect words

Write from dictation

 No.of items Scoring Skills

'6-7 Partial credit

'10-12 Partial credit

'6-7 Partial credit

'3-4 Partial credit

'1-2 Partial credit

'10-12

'2-3 Partial credit

Partial credit
'2-3

Partial credit
'2-3

Partial credit
'2-3

Partial credit
'4-5

Partial credit
'5-6

'2-3

'2-3

'2-3

'2-3

'2-3

'2-3

'2-3

'3-4
Describe image words

Verbs Represents, shows, depicts, illustrates

From 1197 to 2015

Preposition Between 1997 and 2015
in 2008
on May 7th
Conjunctions Whereas, While

Highest- lowest
Language of comparison Largest - smallest
the most - the least
maximum - minimum

Years
1745 17 45 - Seventeen forty five
1981 19 81 - Nineteen eighty one
2011 20 11 - Twenty eleven
2015 20 15 - Twenty fifteen
2005 Two thousand and five

This bar graph measures

The least number of X occurred in X and were X. The highest number of X

was in X, and these were female British home students. In 2012, British
male home students and female international students represented the
highest number of students in this period of study.