If you want to score high in the PTE Academics it is wise to familiarise yourself with the test format just so you know what to expect. PTE Academics is divided into two categories namely communicative skills and enabling skills. The two categories are further divided into sections. The communicative skills assess reading, listening, speaking and writing. The enabling skills, on the other hand, assess grammar, oral fluency, pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary and written discourse.

It must be noted that even though the test is divided into categories, the enabling skills is tested on the entire test,

Speaking and Writing

This two are tested together and the time allocated is 77-93 minutes. The test taker is assessed on his/her ability to speak and write in an academic manner. The questions follow this format: Personal introduction, read aloud, repeat sentence, describe an image, re-tell lecture, answer the short question, summarise written text and the essay.

• The personal introduction gives the test taker an opportunity to provide his/her personal information which will be sent together with the scorecard to the institution selected by the test taker. This section is not scored. The test taker has 25 seconds of preparation and 30 seconds to respond.

• Read aloud prompts the test taker to read up to 60 words text displayed on the screen. This area assesses speaking and reading. There is a clock countdown of 30-40 seconds and during this time the test taker has to prepare and practice answer. At the end of the timer, a soft tone will come on after which you should start recording your answer.

• Repeat the sentence assesses the listening and speaking skills. The task is to listen to an audio of 3-9 seconds and repeat the content of the audio within 15 seconds. In this case, there is no tone to alert the test taker to start speaking, therefore, you have to figure when to start speaking on your own.

• Describe image assesses speaking. The task here is to describe the image or chart displayed on the screen. There is 25 seconds preparation and when it elapses the tone will come on giving the test taker the signal to provide his/her answer.

• Re-tell lecture assesses listening and speaking skill. It can be tested by either listening to the audio or watching a video clip. The task is to retell the content of the lecture in your own words. The length of the audio/video is 90 seconds and you have 10 seconds to prepare and 30 seconds to respond.

• Answer short question assesses listening and speaking. The audio of 3-9 seconds long plays after which the test taker has to answer in just a few words in just 10 seconds.

• Summarizing written text assesses reading and writing. The task is to summarize 300 words written text displayed on the screen in 10 minutes.

• Essay assesses writing. The test taker is required to write a 200-300 words essay in 20 minutes on a given topic/subject.

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Reading

The test questions in this section follow this format: fill in the blanks, multiple choice question, re-order and paragraphs. It is allocated 32-41 minutes.

• Multiple choice questions assess reading. This task is divided into two parts. In part 1, the task is to select one answer after reading a passage of 110 words. In part two, the task is to answer questions based on a 300 words passage or written text by selecting more than one appropriate answer.

• Re-order paragraph requires a proper arrangement of written text. There are two columns opposite to each other; in one column, is written sentences placed in random order and the other column is empty. The test taker has to arrange the written sentences to make a sound paragraph by dragging the text into the empty column

• Fill in the blanks is divided into two parts. In part one, a written text with missing words is displayed on the screen and below the text are various words from which the test taker has to select a right answer by dragging it to the blank space. In part two the test taker is provided with a 300 words text that has blank spaces. The task is to select the correct answer from the dropdown menu.

Listening

Listening is allocated 45-57 minutes. In this section, the question format includes multiple choice, summarize spoken text, fill in the blanks, highlight correct summary, select missing words, highlight incorrect words and write from dictation.

• Summarize spoken text assesses listening and writing. The task is to summarize the content of the audio in 50-70 words. At the end of the audio, the test taker has 60-90 seconds to deliver their response.

• Multiple Choice questions assess listening skills. It is divided into two parts. In part 1, the test taker has to select multiple answers based on the content of the audio. This part is 40-90 seconds long. In part two, you only select one correct answer after listening to the audio.

• Fill in the blanks assesses listening and writing skills. There will be a passage with blank spaces. The task is to fill in the blanks in 30-60 seconds with appropriate words learned from the content of the audio.

• Highlight correct summary and highlight incorrect words assess listening and reading skills. In both scenarios, there will be an audio playing a lecture. In highlight correct summary, the task taker has to select a summarized paragraph that best describes the content of the audio in 30-90 seconds. In highlight incorrect words, there is written text whose content matches the content of the audio. The task is to select words different from the written text.

• Write from dictation assesses listening and writing skills. The task is to type the exact content of the audio in 3-5 seconds.