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What is PTE Core?
PTE Core is a computer-based English test that assesses your general speaking, writing, reading and listening skills in a single test. You take the test in a small, friendly test center environment in just two hours.
Who is PTE Core for?
Choose PTE Core if you are applying for a migration or work visa to Canada. You can also choose PTE Core if you are applying for Canadian citizenship.
In the updated PTE Academic (August 2025), the Speaking & Writing module remains mostly the same but now includes two new tasks: Respond to Situation and Summarize Group Discussion. Each of these tasks contributes 8–12% to your overall score and tests both speaking and listening skills. The module still has the classic tasks: Read Aloud, Repeat Sentence, Describe Image, Re-tell Lecture, Answer Short Question, Summarize Written Text, and Essay, but with slightly fewer questions, making the test shorter without affecting the scoring.
In Respond to Situation, you respond to a real-life scenario in 30–40 seconds, showing fluency, clear pronunciation, and relevance. Summarize Group Discussion asks you to listen to a discussion between two or three people and write a 50–70 word summary of the main points, opinions, and conclusions. These tasks focus on real-world communication and understanding. Overall, the module emphasizes high-scoring tasks like Read Aloud, Repeat Sentence, and Write from Dictation, while the new tasks ensure you are tested on practical speaking and listening skills.
1. Scoring information will be more transparent.
2. Enabling skills (like grammar, oral fluency, etc.) will no longer appear separately.
3. Test Name will be clearly shown as “PTE Academic Online”.
4. A new Skills Profile Report will be provided, offering feedback + suggestions to help learners improve.
To achieve a high score (79+), students must focus more on high-scoring tasks:
All items in PTE Academic are machine - scored using PTE Academics automated scoring system. There are two skills - Enabling Skills and Communication Skills - that are assessed and scored depending upon specific question types. For example, in Speaking, even listening skill is assessed while in Reading, the writing skill is also evaluated. In Listening, writing is also evaluated. There are questions where grammar, content, spellings, fluency, pronunciation, form (word limit), cohesion, sentence structure are tested and awarded scores.
Correct or Incorrect : A score of 1 score point will be given for correct responses and no score points are awarded for incorrect responses.
Partial Credit : There are item types where partial credit is given considering the requirement of that particular type. If responses to these items are correct, the maximum score points available for each item type will be awarded, but if these are partly correct, some score points will be given, that will be less than the maximum available for the item type. If responses are incorrect, no score points will be awarded.
The PTE scales are as follows :
| Speaking and Writing time: 54-67 Minutes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ITEM TYPE | TIME ALLOWED | NUMBER OF ITEMS | SCORING | COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS, ENABLING SKILLS AND OTHER TRAITS SCORED |
| Read aloud | 24-37 minutes | 06 | Partial credit | Reading and speaking Oral fluency, pronunciation Content |
| Repeat sentence | 24-37 minutes | 05-06 | Partial credit | Listening and speaking Oral fluency, pronunciation Content |
| Describe image | 24-37 minutes | 03 | Partial credit | Speaking Oral fluency, pronunciation Content |
| Re-tell lecture | 24-37 minutes | 01-02 | Partial credit | Listening and speaking Oral fluency, pronunciation Content |
| Answer short question | 24-37 minutes | 05 | Correct/incorrect | Listening and speaking Vocabulary |
| Summarize written text | 10 minutes | 01 | Partial credit | Reading and writing Grammar, vocabulary Content, form |
| Speaking and Writing time: 54-67 Minutes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ITEM TYPE | TIME ALLOWED | NUMBER OF ITEMS | SCORING | COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS, ENABLING SKILLS AND OTHER TRAITS SCORED |
| Write essay | 20 minutes | 01 | Partial credit | Writing Grammar, vocabulary, spelling, written discourse Content; development, structure and coherence form, general linguistic range |
| Reading (29-30 Minutes) | ||||
| Reading and writing: Fill in the blanks | 29-30 minutes | 03 | Partial credit (for each correctly completed blank) | Reading and writing |
| Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers | 29-30 minutes | 02 | Partial credit (for each correct response. Points deducted for incorrect options chosen) | Reading |
| Re-order paragraphs | 29-30 minutes | 02 | Partial credit (for each correctly ordered, adjacent pair) | Reading |
| Reading: Fill in the blanks | 29-30 minutes | 03 | Partial credit (for each correctly completed blank) | Reading |
| Multiple-choice, choose single answer | 29-30 minutes | 02 | Correct/incorrect | Reading |
| Listening (30-34 Minutes) | ||||
| Speaking and Writing time: 54-67 Minutes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ITEM TYPE | TIME ALLOWED | NUMBER OF ITEMS | SCORING | COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS, ENABLING SKILLS AND OTHER TRAITS SCORED |
| Summarize spoken text | 10 minutes | 01 | Partial credit | Listening and writing Grammar, vocabulary, spelling Content, form |
| Multiple–choice, choose multiple answers | 20-33 minutes | 02 | Partial credit (for each correct response. Points deducted for incorrect options chosen) | Listening |
| Fill in the blanks | 20-33 minutes | 02 | Partial credit (each correct word spelled correctly) | Listening and writing |
| Highlight correct summary | 20-33 minutes | 02 | Correct / incorrect | Listening and reading |
| Multiple-choice, choose single answer | 20-33 minutes | 01 | Correct/incorrect | Listening |
| Select missing word | 20-33 minutes | 02 | Correct / incorrect | Listening |
| Highlight incorrect words | 20-33 minutes | 02 | Partial credit (for each word. Points deducted for incorrect options chosen) | Listening and reading |
| Write from dictation | 20-33 minutes | 03 | Partial credit (for each word spelled correctly) | Listening and writing |