PTE Examination Pattern 2020

The Pearson Test of English (PTE Academic) evaluates all the basic skills students need in order to understand the global language e.g. written and spoken skills to make sure that he/she can adapt the international studying environment, with a firm grip over the English language. Scoring well in this exam can convince the admission committee and the visa officers that the student can understand the English language while pursuing his / her higher education in an international B-School.

A decent score in the PTE exam pattern 2020 also confirms that students should be able to illustrate their thoughts and suggestions, do presentations, work to acquire global outlook, and mainly work on the global front next to international audiences. It provides mental strength to the students that they can study with classmates and faculty members from around the globe in the official language of the universe.

Since PTE is an English language test, it has similar Exam patterns like other standardized English language exams. It consists of three parts of language proficiency:

  • Reading
  • Listening
  • Speaking

PTE exam pattern 2020 has the following sections:

  • Question: Duration of Reading the Text Prompt: The time span of each prompt you have to do changes as per the length of the text. The length can be measured in words or sentences. You should be proactive in this section.
  • Prepare for Answer: Time provided to Relax and Think: Students do not have to answer the question straight away. On average, students will have 10 to 15 seconds to prepare for each section. One can relax and think for a few seconds on the process of answering the question.
  • Answer: Time for Action: This is the fixed time duration where one needs to perform. The answers are recorded as one speaks, saved as text when one writes and selected as options in MCQs.

Go through the section-wise details in the boxes provided with each segment describing the PTE Test pattern 2020:

Speaking and Writing Section — 77 to 93 minutes

It is clear from the name of the section, it evaluates two basic skills required in order to learn a language i.e., the writing and speaking skills of the students. This segment consists of six small sections that assess students on their agility over speaking and writing the written test that you should read for the first time ever. The time duration for the complete section is 77 to 93 minutes and the time available to each segment is as mentioned below:

Segments PatternTime Duration
Personal Introduction55 seconds: 25 seconds for prompt, 30 seconds to recording
Read Aloud30-40 seconds  for reading preparation out of 60 words text
Repeat Sentence15 seconds: 3-9 seconds for prompt, 15 seconds to recording
Describe Image25 seconds are provided to understand the image and prepare the response on the same
Re-Tell Lecture90 seconds for prompt length, 10 seconds for preparation and 40 seconds for answering
Answer Short Question20 seconds: 3-9 seconds for prompt, 10 seconds for answering
Summarize Written Text10 minutes for answering to text prompt consisting of 300 words
Essay20 minutes for answering to text prompt of 2 to 3 sentences
 

Reading Section — 32 to 41 minutes

This segment evaluates the aspirant as per their capability of understanding the text written in the English language. Reading is sub-divided into 5 sub-parts and its duration is around 32-41 minutes. The following are the section-wise sub-patterns of this section. One needs to be aware of these as it is important in planning the time management for this section:

Segments PatternTime Duration varies on the length of the Text Prompt
MCQ Single AnswerText including 300 words to be read
MCQ, Multiple AnswersText including 300 words to be read
Paragraph ReorderingText including 150 words to be read
Fill in the blanks(Reading)Text including 80 words to be read
Fill in the blanks(Reading and writing)Text including 300 words to be read
 

Listening Sections— 45 to 57 minutes

The listening section of the PTE Test is provided with time duration of 45 to 57 minutes. This section is crafted to analyze the capability to grasp spoken English by the student. Here, the candidate should make sure that he/she carefully listen to the audio file played and recollect what they listened. This segment is further divided into 8 sections and the time duration available for each segment is mentioned below:

Segments PatternTime Duration
Summarize Spoken Text60 to 90 seconds to retain  50-70 words, 10 minutes for  writing
MCQs, Multiple Answers40 to 90 seconds for prompt
Fill in the Blanks30 to 60 seconds
Highlighting Correct Summary30 to 90 seconds
MCQs, Single Answer30 to 60 seconds
Missing Words20 to 70 seconds
Highlighting Incorrect Words15 to 50 seconds
Writing From Dictation3 to 5 seconds

Crafted to make sure that the candidate’s English language skills, the standardized English language exams follow similar pattern mostly. Therefore, preparing for a global language test will make it easy for you to take the remaining two of the exams. Once the basic PTE Academic exam pattern 2020 is clear, one must check out the section-wise preparation tips for PTE Academic exam.

 If you are confused over which exam you should write out of the three main English language exams, go through our article IELTS VS TOEFL VS PTE.

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