Pearson Test of English · Academic
PTE Academic rewards the machine, not the examiner.
Two hours at a computer, every answer scored by algorithm, and most tasks marked on two skills at once — read a sentence aloud and you are scored on reading and speaking together. There is no human on the other side of the microphone, which changes what good technique looks like.
Score scale
65 on the PTE scale is roughly IELTS band 7.0 — the number most Australian and New Zealand routes are built around.
- Score scale
- 10–90
- Length
- ~2 hours
- Delivery
- Computer, test centre
- Results
- ~48 hours
- Validity
- Normally 2 years
Who sits it
PTE Academic is the right test for some people, not everyone.
Computer-scored · results in about 48 hours
Sit this test if you are
- Australian and New Zealand student and skilled-migration visas
- UK universities, and UKVI routes where the Home Office lists it
- Anyone who needs a result in days rather than weeks
- Candidates who type quickly and prefer a machine to an interviewer
Confirm the test is accepted before you book. The university, employer or immigration authority names which ones it takes, and they are not interchangeable.
Test structure
What you sit, in order.
Timings are the published ranges for PTE Academic. Exam formats are revised periodically — confirm the current structure with your test centre when you book.
Speaking & Writing
54–67 minutes
Personal introduction, read aloud, repeat sentence, describe image, re-tell lecture, answer short question, then summarise a written text and write one essay. Speaking is recorded into a headset in an open room — everyone around you is talking at once.
Reading
29–30 minutes
Multiple choice, re-order paragraphs, and two kinds of fill in the blanks. Several tasks are scored partially, so a half-correct re-order still earns marks — guessing is never worse than leaving it.
Listening
30–43 minutes
Summarise spoken text, multiple choice, fill in the blanks, highlight correct summary, select missing word, highlight incorrect words, and write from dictation. The dictation task carries weight far beyond its size.
Score comparison
What PTE Academic is worth in IELTS bands.
Pearson publishes a concordance between the PTE 10–90 scale and IELTS bands. It is a statistical comparison across large cohorts, not a conversion you can apply to one person — and no university or immigration authority accepts a converted score in place of the test they asked for.
| PTE Academic | IELTS band |
|---|---|
| 85–90 | 8.5–9.0 |
| 79–84 | 8.0 |
| 73–78 | 7.5 |
| 65–72 | 7.0 |
| 58–64 | 6.5 |
| 50–57 | 6.0 |
| 42–49 | 5.5 |
| 36–41 | 5.0 |
Indicative comparison only. No test score converts into another, and no institution accepts a converted score in place of the test it asked for.
Task types
Every task you will meet.
The full set of question and task types used across PTE Academic. Knowing which ones cost you marks is the difference between practising and just re-sitting.
Preparing here
What carries over from IELTS practice.
We do not publish full PTE mock tests yet. What we do have — one-pass listening, timed reading, and four-criteria feedback on writing and speaking — overlaps enough that most candidates prepare here and sit PTE.
The essay is the IELTS Task 2 essay
A 200–300 word argument judged on structure, range and accuracy. Everything our writing feedback tells you about paragraphing, hedging and lexical range applies unchanged.
Listening under one-pass conditions
PTE audio plays once, like IELTS. Our listening practice runs the same way — no pausing, no replay — which is the habit most candidates are missing.
Reading at speed
Thirty minutes for the whole reading section is tighter per word than IELTS. Sectional reading drills against the clock build the same skill.
Find out where you stand first.
A full mock under exam conditions gives you a band, and the table above turns that band into a realistic PTE Academic target. The free plan includes one every month.