Read Aloud and Repeat Sentence open the Speaking and Writing part of PTE Core, and together they make up 16 to 19 items. Each one also counts toward two skills: Read Aloud for Reading and Speaking, Repeat Sentence for Listening and Speaking. That makes them some of the most valuable minutes of the test. This guide explains how both are scored and how to practise them.

The example texts and sentences below are original and written for this independent practice site. They are not official Pearson material.

The two tasks side by side

For both: if you don’t start within 3 seconds, or you stop for 3 seconds, the recording ends. There is one take only.

Repeat Sentence

How Content is scored

Hesitations don’t affect the Content score, but they do lower fluency. Pronunciation and fluency are each scored from 0 to 5, so a smooth answer that misses one word can still score well.

Tips

• Listen in chunks, not words. “The library is closing early / on Thursday / because of the storm” is three meaning groups, not fourteen separate words. Remember the groups and the words come with them.
• Start right away. The microphone opens as soon as the audio ends, with no tone. A pause of 3 seconds ends the recording.
• Copy the rhythm. Repeat with the same stress and intonation you heard. It helps both memory and fluency.
• If you lose a word, keep going. Say the rest of the sentence smoothly. Stopping to search for the missing word costs fluency and can trigger the 3-second cut-off.
• Don’t add words. Extras don’t earn points, and anything you add can break the word order.

Practise with these

Say each one aloud after reading it once, then cover it and repeat it from memory:

1. Please return your parking pass to the front desk before you leave.
2. The bus to the airport now runs every twenty minutes on weekends.
3. I’d like to change my dentist appointment to next Tuesday morning.
4. All new staff need to complete the safety training by Friday.

Read Aloud

How it’s scored

Content counts each word you replace, leave out or add as an error, so the maximum depends on the length of the text. Pronunciation and oral fluency are each scored from 0 to 5, and Pearson accepts regional and national accents as long as they are easy to understand.

Tips

• Use the preparation time well. Read the text silently once for meaning, then mark the pauses in your head: commas, full stops, and the natural breaks in long sentences.
• Check the hard words first. Names, numbers and long words are where people stop. Decide how you’ll say them before the tone.
• Read at a steady, conversational pace. Rushing causes skipped words; reading too slowly sounds staccato and lowers fluency.
• Don’t go back. If you misread a word, continue. Restarting a sentence adds words and a hesitation, which costs more than the slip.
• Start after the tone, not before. Anything you say before the microphone opens isn’t recorded.

Practise with this

Give yourself 35 seconds to prepare, then read it aloud once, recording yourself:

The Westside Community Pool will close for cleaning from Monday, March 9 to Sunday, March 15. During this time, swimming lessons will move to the Northgate Recreation Centre on Elm Avenue. Members can use either location at no extra cost. We apologize for the inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you back.

Listen back for any word you changed, skipped or added, and for pauses that weren’t at a comma or full stop.

Test yourself

Keep practising

Both tasks feed your Speaking score, where CLB 7 needs 68 (see the PTE Core score chart). Next, read the Describe Image guide, or see the whole format in the PTE Core test guide.