The PTE test (the Pearson Test of English) is a test of English that can often be taken instead of the IELTS test. There are two formats of the test – PTE Academic and PTE General.
Availability
PTE Academic is much more common than the General test. In fact, the PTE General test is only available 5 months of the year (May, June, August, November, December), whereas the PTE Academic test can be taken nearly every day of the year.
Sections of the test
The PTE will assess your skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking. Many of the questions will actually test more than one skill at a time (e.g. writing and reading).
Test format
The PTE test is taken at a Pearson test centre – you are given a computer and a headset, and the test takes three hours. The Academic PTE tests your ability to understand real-world academic situations, so you can expect to hear and read information from lectures, graphs and charts. There are a lot of different questions, which you can practice on this site, and you will also hear a number of different accents.
To complete a PTE Academic test, you will need to attend a secure Pearson test center. You will use a computer and headset to listen to, read and respond to questions. The test takes 3 hours in total (although you can take an optional 10 minute break).
The test is delivered in this order: Part 1 Speaking and writing (together) > Part 2 reading > Part 3 listening
Sections of the test
Sections of the PTE test part 1: speaking and writing
This section of the test takes between 77 and 93 minutes. During this part of the test, you will need to give a personal introduction, you will need to read aloud, repeat sentences, describe an image, re-tell a lecture, answer a short question, summarise a written text and write a short essay (this takes about 20 minutes).
Sections of the PTE test part 2: reading
This section of the test takes between 32 and 40 minutes. During this part of the test, you will need to fill in the blanks, choose multiple choice answers, select multiple answers, re-order paragraphs and fill in the blanks.
Sections of the PTE test part 3: listening
This section of the test takes between 45 and 57 minutes. During this part of the test, you will be required to summarize a spoken text, answer multiple choice questions, choose multiple answers, fill in the blanks, highlight the correct summary, select missing words, highlight incorrect words and transcribe what you hear (dictation).
Registration test results and scores
The PTE test results are available within 5 working days. Scores are from 10 to 90. Test results are valid for 2 years after talking the test.
We hope these facts about the PTE test helped! Take a look at all our resources for the PTE test here: https://www.examenglishforfree.com/free-pte-preparation-resources/