PTE: PTE Academic Guide: Fee, Format, Dates and Minimum Scores

PTE Academic is a single sitting of about two hours, made up of three timed parts rather than four separate skill tests. Speaking & Writing comes first and runs 76 to 84 minutes, mixing spoken tasks such as reading a text aloud and describing an image with written tasks such as a summary and an essay. Reading runs 23 to 30 minutes and uses tasks like reordering paragraphs and filling in blanks. Listening runs 31 to 39 minutes and includes summarising spoken text, filling in blanks while listening, and highlighting the correct summary. Several question types feed into more than one skill score at once, which is how Pearson keeps the whole test to about two hours.

PTE Academic is administered only at an authorised test centre on a computer; Pearson states plainly that it cannot be taken at home. The test fee is set by country and test centre rather than fixed worldwide, so a test taker needs to check the price for their own location through Pearson's test centre finder when booking.

Scores are reported on the Global Scale of English, from 10 to 90, with one overall score plus scores for speaking, writing, reading and listening, and these line up to CEFR levels from A1 near the bottom to C2 at 85 to 90. Most test takers get their result within two business days of sitting the test, and Pearson advises contacting support if nothing has arrived after five days. Scores are valid for two years from the test date, after which they expire and cannot be used for study or visa purposes, though an institution can set its own shorter acceptance window.

A test taker can only book a new PTE Academic sitting once the score from the previous attempt has been received, and only one test can be booked at a time, up to six months ahead. Within any rolling 12 month period, a test taker can sit PTE Academic up to 12 times; more than that needs Pearson's permission. Sending scores to institutions is free and unlimited: a test taker signs in to the myPTE account, sends the report to up to seven institutions at once, and can repeat this for as many institutions as needed over time. Institutions typically see the score within about 48 hours; a score report code is also available so an institution can look up the result directly instead of waiting for a sent copy.

PTE Academic is accepted by thousands of universities and colleges worldwide, at both bachelor and master level, but every institution and every programme sets its own minimum score, and postgraduate programmes commonly ask for a higher score than undergraduate programmes at the same institution. A candidate should always check the exact score a programme asks for rather than assume one figure applies everywhere.