Insights hub
    Mini-course · 14 steps 55–70 min

    Why good speakers still miss 88/90 in PTE Speaking

    A 14-step mini-course built from two real one-on-one mentorship sessions with students targeting Superior English.

    0 of 14 lessons done0%

    This course is built from two real one-on-one mentorship sessions with two different students, both targeting Superior English (Speaking 88/90). The techniques come from direct, hands-on experimentation across thousands of hours of coaching and dozens of real PTE attempts — not from a textbook.

    Every technique includes the practical what to do, the linguistic or cognitive-science logic behind why it works, and the tactical strategies that make each task workable in real time: what to do with your preparation seconds, how to take notes, how to handle a word you don’t recognise, and how to actually train your memory.

    A note on calibration: Pearson does not publish the exact internal workings of its automated speech-scoring algorithm, and nothing here claims to describe it. What this course describes is well-established science about how speech and memory are planned, produced and perceived — and how these coaching techniques align with it. The techniques were built and refined by testing against real PTE outcomes over ten years; the academic framing explains why they make sense.

    Work through it in order — each lesson takes a few minutes and ends with a self-check. Tick Mark this lesson as done and your progress is saved on this device.