Improving Your Skills

    Master every PTE skill — with answers you can check

    Pearson-aligned strategies for Speaking, Writing, Reading and Listening — each section comes with practice exercises and a click-to-reveal answer key, so you can study independently or with a trainer.

    Speaking skills for PTE Academic

    Build fluency, pronunciation and confidence

    Speak confidently, fluently and at a reasonable pace and volume — practise in a way that focuses on the test tasks.

    To prepare, you will need to
    • Build fluency and confidence in speaking.
    • Use correct pronunciation including rhythm and stress.
    • Show variety and accuracy in the language you use.
    • Speak within a specific time limit without hesitating or stopping.
    The tasks will require you to
    • Read aloud and repeat sentences.
    • Use your notes to explain what you hear.
    • Organise your ideas to describe an image.
    • Answer a short vocabulary question.
    • Summarize what people say.
    • Respond to a situation.

    Self-study habits that work

    Tick the ways of studying you have already tried. Whatever you do, record yourself, play it back and ask: did I include the main points? Was my pronunciation clear and natural?

    • Record yourself reading a short text aloud.
    • Note new words in a vocabulary book and use them in your speaking.
    • Sum up a podcast, lecture, TV show, movie or video after watching.
    • Copy a native speaker (e.g. videos with subtitles).
    • Get familiar with academic images (graphs, processes, maps, photographs) and the language to describe them.
    • Play a sentence from a webinar/podcast and record yourself copying it.
    • Practise tongue twisters that focus on sounds you find difficult.
    • Play back recordings and listen for improvements.
    • Identify your strengths and weaknesses and focus on what to work on.
    • Take every opportunity to speak English to build confidence.

    Focusing on pronunciation

    Individual sounds matter, but pronunciation is more than sounds — sentence and word stress, intonation and rhythm are all essential.

    Read through a text first to get an idea of what it is about.

    Identify the main verb in each sentence — it helps you read more naturally.

    Mark words that need to be emphasised, then read aloud with correct stress.

    2

    Read the text. Underline the main verb in each sentence. Highlight the stressed syllables.

    The tiger is recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a lighter underside. It is a territorial animal and is generally a solitary but social predator, requiring large areas of habitat. Tiger cubs remain with their mother for about two years, before they become independent and establish their own home range.
    Model answer
    4

    Does the voice usually rise (↗) or fall (↘) in each situation?

    1. 1. at the end of a question
    2. 2. to show you are not certain
    3. 3. at the end of a sentence
    4. 4. to show you do not believe something
    5. 5. when you are sure
    Answer key

    Building fluency

    To become fluent, you need regular contact with the language. Tick the activities you already do every week.

    • Listen to audiobooks and podcasts.
    • Watch movies and documentaries in English.
    • Note new vocabulary.
    • Speak with other people in English.
    • Join face-to-face or online clubs connected to your hobbies.
    • Read interesting articles in English.
    • Join internet forums related to your interests.
    • Try apps for learning English.
    • ‘Shadow’ a native speaker — listen and copy what you hear.
    • Speak in English while doing an activity (e.g. cooking).
    • Do a language exchange with a partner.

    Speaking from notes

    Retell Lecture and Summarize Group Discussion both ask you to make notes and explain what you heard. Knowing how to make effective notes — and use them — is essential.

    7b

    Practise summarising the notes below. Record yourself, then compare with the model answer.

    Business: Dangers of expanding biz too quickly 1 old syst ≠ work on new scale → overwhelm (resources, staff) 2 hiring too fast = not right ppl, ≠ time training 3 mgmt. → must scale to new sitn → delegate
    Model answer

    Building your vocabulary

    Vocabulary is tested directly in Answer Short Question and indirectly across all speaking tasks. When you note a new word, write meaning, pronunciation and an example sentence — not just the word.

    10

    Mark the stressed syllables in each pair of words. (Bold = stressed syllable.)

    1. 1. a) photograph   b) photographer
    2. 2. a) necessary   b) necessarily
    3. 3. a) philosophy   b) philosophically
    4. 4. a) record (noun)   b) record (verb)
    5. 5. a) conflict   b) conflicting
    6. 6. a) perfect   b) perfection
    7. 7. a) subject (noun)   b) subject (verb)
    Answer key

    Content adapted from The Official Guide to PTE Academic, 3rd edition — Digital Resources (© Pearson Education Limited 2025) for use as a study aid.