5 task types · 35 items per sitting

PTE Speaking: all five task types, with timings and scoring

PTE Speaking is 35 short items rather than one long conversation, and every one of them is scored by algorithm. Entirely machine-scored, which cuts both ways. Results come back in a day or two, and the scoring rewards clear, evenly-paced speech over interesting speech.

30–40s to prepare · 35s to answer · 6 per sitting

Read Aloud

Six texts of up to 60 words, read aloud from the screen. The easiest task to sound fine on and still score badly.

No preparation time · 15s to answer · 10 per sitting

Repeat Sentence

Ten sentences, heard once, repeated exactly. Scored on what you reproduce, not on whether you understood it.

25s to prepare · 40s to answer · 6 per sitting

Describe Image

A chart, map, graph or process diagram, described from scratch. The task where a rehearsed structure genuinely helps.

10s to prepare · 40s to answer · 3 per sitting

Re-tell Lecture

A lecture of up to 90 seconds, retold in your own words after ten seconds of preparation. The task that punishes note-taking systems.

No preparation time · 10s to answer · 10 per sitting

Answer Short Question

A short general-knowledge question, answered in a word or two. The only Speaking task scored on listening comprehension alone.

What changes when a machine is marking

Nobody is listening for whether you are interesting. Content is credited on the words you actually produce against what the prompt asked for, which is why a plain, complete answer beats a clever, half-finished one.
Silence is the most expensive thing you can do. Recordings stop after about three seconds of it, and long gaps read as disfluency even when the words either side are perfect.
Accent is not penalised; intelligibility is. The scoring is calibrated against a broad range of English accents, and the thing that costs marks is a word a general listener could not identify.
Items overlap skills. Read Aloud feeds Reading, Repeat Sentence and Re-tell Lecture feed Listening — so the Speaking section moves scores you may think you are not being tested on.

Compare PTE with IELTS, TOEFL and the Duolingo English Test

Common questions

How many Speaking task types are there in PTE Academic?

Five: Read Aloud, Repeat Sentence, Describe Image, Re-tell Lecture and Answer Short Question. They total 35 items in a sitting, so the section is many short recordings rather than one long conversation.

Is PTE Speaking marked by a human?

No. PTE Academic is entirely machine-scored, which is why results usually come back within 48 hours and why the marking rewards clear, evenly-paced speech over interesting speech.

Does an accent lower your PTE Speaking score?

Accent itself is not penalised — the scoring is calibrated against a broad range of English accents. What costs marks is a word a general English listener could not identify, which is intelligibility rather than accent.

Which PTE Speaking task is worth practising first?

Read Aloud. It produces more of your recorded audio than any other single task, the correct answer is printed in front of you so content errors are avoidable, and it feeds your Reading score as well as your Speaking score.

What happens if you go silent during a PTE Speaking response?

Recordings stop after about three seconds of silence, so a long pause can end your answer early. Long gaps also read as disfluency even when the words on either side are correct.

Sit the whole section

Our PTE mock runs all 5 task types on Pearson's published timings and marks each recording word by word against the prompt, with a report on the 10–90 scale. The first session is free.

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This guide is written from the PTE Academic test format published by Pearson, in our own words. For the official wording, see Pearson's Speaking & Writing format page. MockLive AI is an independent practice tool and is not affiliated with Pearson.