PTE Academic scoring confuses many candidates because the score report does not add up the way you might expect. Once you understand integrated tasks and how each item type is marked, it becomes clear why some small tasks matter much more than their length suggests.
What is on your score report
| Score | Scale |
|---|---|
| Overall | 10–90 |
| Listening | 10–90 |
| Reading | 10–90 |
| Speaking | 10–90 |
| Writing | 10–90 |
The overall score reflects performance across all scored items in the test. Because items contribute to different skills in different amounts, the overall is not the mean of the four skill scores.
Integrated tasks: one answer, two skills
A large share of PTE Academic tasks test two skills at once. Some examples:
| Task | Contributes to |
|---|---|
| Read Aloud | Reading and Speaking |
| Repeat Sentence | Listening and Speaking |
| Re-tell Lecture | Listening and Speaking |
| Summarize Written Text | Reading and Writing |
| Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks | Reading and Writing |
| Summarize Spoken Text | Listening and Writing |
| Highlight Incorrect Words | Listening and Reading |
| Write from Dictation | Listening and Writing |
This is why candidates who work on high-frequency integrated tasks such as Repeat Sentence and Write from Dictation often see several skill scores rise together.
How different item types are marked
Correct or incorrect
Some tasks are simply right or wrong, such as Multiple Choice, Single Answer, Highlight Correct Summary and Select Missing Word.
Partial credit
Many tasks give credit for each correct part:
- Fill in the Blanks tasks: one point per correctly completed blank
- Reorder Paragraph: credit for each correctly ordered adjacent pair, so getting most of the order right still earns points
- Write from Dictation: credit for each correctly spelled word from the sentence
Negative marking
On Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers (Reading and Listening) and Highlight Incorrect Words, each correct selection earns a point and each incorrect selection loses a point. An item cannot go below zero. The practical rule: select only the options you are confident about. Guessing extra options usually costs more than it gains.
Speaking and writing traits
Open responses are assessed on several traits. For speaking tasks, these typically include content, oral fluency and pronunciation. For writing tasks, they include content, form (such as staying within the word limits), grammar, vocabulary and, for the essay, development and structure.
Two consequences:
- Form matters. A Write Essay response outside the 200–300 word range, or a Summarize Written Text answer that is not a single sentence of 5–75 words, can lose heavily on form, which also affects other traits.
- Fluency is scored on its own. Hesitations, restarts and long pauses reduce oral fluency even when your content is good.
Pearson states that some open-response tasks also receive human review in addition to automated scoring.
PTE Academic and CEFR
| PTE Academic | CEFR |
|---|---|
| 85–90 | C2 |
| 76–84 | C1 |
| 59–75 | B2 |
| 43–58 | B1 |
| 30–42 | A2 |
To compare PTE Academic with IELTS or TOEFL using official CEFR alignments, see our score converter. Avoid unofficial point-to-band conversion charts: requirements should always be checked against the institution's own published scores.
Worked example: one mistake, two skills
Take Write from Dictation. You hear: "Students must submit their assignments before the end of the week." You type: "Students must submit there assignment before the end of week."
- "there" is misspelled for "their", so it earns nothing.
- "assignment" is missing the plural s, so it does not match "assignments".
- "the" before "week" is missing.
That sentence has 11 words; you matched 8 of them. Because Write from Dictation contributes to both Listening and Writing, those three lost words affect two skill scores at once. Multiply that across three or four dictation items, plus Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks and Summarize Spoken Text, and it is easy to see why small spelling and grammar habits move PTE scores more than candidates expect.
The same logic works in your favour. Improving your accuracy on a task that feeds two skills is one of the most efficient ways to raise several scores together.
Common myths about PTE scoring
"The overall is the average of my four skills." It is not. The overall reflects all scored items, so do not try to calculate it from your skill scores.
"Speaking faster means higher fluency." Oral fluency rewards smooth, natural delivery with sensible phrasing. Rushing usually introduces mispronunciations and unnatural pauses at the wrong places.
"I need a native-speaker accent." Pronunciation is about being easy to understand, with clear sounds, stress and rhythm. You do not need to sound like any particular country's speakers.
"Selecting more options gives more chances." On Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers and Highlight Incorrect Words, every wrong selection costs a point. Extra guesses usually lower the item score.
"A memorised template guarantees content marks." Content is assessed against what the task asked. A generic template that does not address the specific image, lecture or prompt earns little for content, however fluent it sounds.
Reading your score report
When you receive your report, look beyond the overall number:
- Compare the four skill scores. A gap of ten points or more between skills usually points to a specific task family, such as Writing being held down by spelling in dictation and summaries.
- Check against each requirement. Many universities and visa routes set a minimum for each skill as well as an overall score.
- Link weak skills to tasks. Speaking weak? Look at Read Aloud and Repeat Sentence first, since they appear most often. Listening weak? Look at Write from Dictation and Fill in the Blanks.
How to raise your score efficiently
- Protect your form scores. Know every word limit and time limit by heart; see the full list in our PTE Academic format guide.
- Train fluency before vocabulary in speaking tasks. Smooth delivery at a natural pace earns more than advanced words delivered with pauses.
- Drill integrated high-frequency tasks. Repeat Sentence, Read Aloud, Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks and Write from Dictation appear often and feed more than one skill.
- Stop over-selecting on negatively marked tasks.
- Watch your spelling. It affects every written response and every typed Listening answer.
Setting a target score
Before you practise, find the exact requirement for every institution or visa you are applying to, including any minimum for each skill. Then:
- Convert the requirement into a per-skill target, adding a margin of a few points.
- Compare it with your practice test results skill by skill.
- Spend most of your time on the skill with the largest gap, using the task families that feed it.
Practice scores vs official scores
No practice platform can produce an official PTE score. Estimated scores are useful for tracking progress over time, as long as you compare like with like: full tests taken under full timed conditions.
EnglishHub's PTE Academic simulator follows the real test format, with 50 full mock tests, 200 practice sets and AI feedback on speaking and writing responses. Your first mock is free: start a PTE Academic mock, or explore the PTE Academic hub.
EnglishHub is an independent practice platform and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Pearson. Practice scores are estimates, not official PTE results.
Frequently asked questions
Is the PTE Academic overall score an average of the four skills?
No. The overall score is calculated from performance across all items in the test. It is not a simple average of the Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing scores.
Which PTE Academic tasks have negative marking?
Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers (in Reading and Listening) and Highlight Incorrect Words. A wrong selection subtracts a point, but an item's score never goes below zero.
What PTE Academic score equals CEFR C1?
Pearson aligns PTE Academic scores of 76 to 84 with CEFR C1. Scores of 59 to 75 align with B2, and 85 to 90 with C2.
Are PTE Academic scores marked by a computer?
PTE Academic uses automated scoring, and Pearson states that some open-response answers also receive human review. Practice platforms cannot reproduce Pearson's official scoring process.
How long are PTE Academic scores valid?
Pearson typically describes scores as valid for two years, but the organisation receiving your score decides what it accepts. Check the rule with your university or visa authority.
