Want to go abroad for higher studies? But do you know before going there you need to show your English skills? It is where the language skills test comes in role. There are several exams available for checking the English proficiency of students, one of the famous ones is the PTE (Pearson Test of English). The exam is worldwide recognized in several nations such as the UK, USA, Canada and more. In addition, it helps learners in getting admission to their selected colleges. But before giving the test, understanding the PTE exam pattern is vital. To aid learners in this, here, all the details about the exam pattern of PTE have been mentioned.
Want to know about it? Read the below article and get all your queries solved. Moving forward, let’s first take an overview of it.
Overview of PTE Exam Pattern
Want to score good marks in the PTE exam? Here is an aid for you. It is a computer-based two-hour exam done in a safe and quiet environment. The test consists of four sections. Each of them concentrates on several skills- reading, listening, writing and speaking.
Within these parts, you come across twenty different questions. The timing given for the writing and speaking section is around 54-67 minutes. In addition, the time occupied with reading sessions is between 29-30 minutes. In contrast, the timing of the listening section ranges between 30 and 34 minutes. Here are the marks you get on a scale of 10 to 90. Furthermore, knowing it is vital to score desired marks in the test.
Well, this was an overview of the PTE exam pattern. It remains the same in all the countries, whether it is the USA or India. Moving forward, let’s get an in-depth understanding of it with section-wise details.
PTE Exam Pattern- Section Wise
As stated above, the PTE test consists of four sections. In this, the writing and speaking sections are combined. In addition, the reading and listening parts are different. Moving further, let’s know more about the PTE exam pattern in detail:
Writing and Speaking
It is the longest section of the PTE exam. The time ranges between 54-67 minutes. Here, the examiner checks how well students write and speak in English. Before starting the exam first, you need to give your intro. It is a quick chit-chat between you and the test-taker. However, it does not consist of any grades. With this, it consists of seven tasks that check the language skills of the learners in several ways. Let’s know about it:
- Varies (Read Aloud): In this, you have to read a short text of around 60 words, and after 30 seconds, you have to repeat that.
- Describe Image: This task consists of 40 seconds. In this, an image is shown and based on it, within 25 seconds, you have to describe it.
- Repeat Sentence: Under this, you listen to a sentence, and within 15 seconds, you are asked to repeat it.
- Answer a Short Question: Here, you have to answer the given question in ten seconds.
- Re-Tell Lecture: In this, you asked to listen to an audio. After that, you are provided with 10 seconds of preparation time, and then you have to say it back.
- Essay: Here, in this, you have to write an essay of around 200-300 words with the mentioned details. In addition, it contains 20 minutes of time.
- Summarize Written Text: In this, you have to summarize a 300-word paragraph in one sentence with 10 minutes time.
Listening
The listening section is the second longest part of the PTE exam. The time provided for it ranges between 30-43 minutes. It focuses on determining your listening skills in English as per academics. It also includes video clips or audio, aiding you to make notes while hearing it. The listening section contains eight segments. Let’s know about it in detail.
- Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers: Here, based on the recording, you have to answer the multiple-choice questions. In addition, the timing of this task lasts between 30-40 seconds.
- Summarize Text: In this, after listening to an audio, you need to summarize it within 10 minutes in 50-70 words. In addition, also within 90-60, you have to prepare for the topic.
- Highlight Correct Summary: Select the text that matches the summary of the listened audio in one minute.
- Fill in the Blanks: After listening to the audio, fill in the asked details in 30-40 seconds.
- Highlight Incorrect Words: Pick the incorrect details that vary from the listened audio within 15-50 seconds.
- Pick Out Missing Word: Here, after listening to the audio, select the correct missing word. The time provided for it is around 20-70 seconds.
- Dictation: In this first, you listen to audio, and within 3-5 seconds, you write the heard sentence.
- Multiple Choice, Single Answer: Here, you have to answer multiple choice questions by hearing an audio in between 30-60 seconds.
Reading
The reading section of the PTE exam consists of 29-30 minutes. Through this task, the examiner gets to know about the reading skills of the students. It is a vital session as it links with other parts. Furthermore, let’s know the PTE exam pattern of the reading tasks in more detail:
- Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer: In this, you first need to read a paragraph and after that, answer the asked question. While giving answers, be cautious there might be more than one correct answer. The paragraph is of around 300 words.
- Fill in the Blanks: Here, you get a paragraph with missing details, and you have to fill it in with the given options. Furthermore, it is usually of 300 words.
- Multiple Choice, Single Answer: Here, you have to read a paragraph and answer the asked question. But in this, only one answer is correct, so be cautious while answering it.
- Re-order Texts: In this, the paragraphs are all shuffled. Here, you need to arrange them and create a meaning for them. In addition, the text consists of 150 words.
- Fill in the Blanks: This is another task of filling in the missing details. But this time, you need to write short answers. Here, the content is around 80 words.
It was all about the section-wise exam pattern of the PTE exam. In addition to scoring good marks along with patterns, you should also know about the PTE exam syllabus. It consists of all the details of English academics. Apart from that, it determines your skills based on vocabulary, grammar and more.
Conclusion
The PTE exam is one of the most famous English language tests after IELTS. It also determines the language skills of the students on all four basis. However, learners often get confused with its PTE pattern and PTE exam syllabus. Here, to help them all, the information about it has been mentioned section-wise. In addition, reading this article provided you with all the details that you were looking for. Furthermore, to ace it, with preparation, knowing its syllabus and pattern is vital.
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