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PTE Listening Practice Test

Build your listening skills with spoken summaries, multiple-choice questions, missing words and dictation. Choose a task type to focus your practice.

PTE Academic8 task types

Select a task type:

01SSTSummarize Spoken TextStart 02MCMAMultiple Choice, Multiple AnswersStart 03FIBFill in the BlanksStart 04HCSHighlight Correct SummaryStart 05MCSAMultiple Choice, Single AnswerStart 06SMWSelect Missing WordStart 07HIWHighlight Incorrect WordsStart 08WFDWrite from DictationStart

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Make the most of listening practice

Choose a focus, try a question, then review what you learned.

Build a map of what you hear

Listen for who is speaking, the subject and the reason for the conversation. Then connect details to that main message. A number matters because it describes a deadline, price or change; writing down every number without its meaning makes review harder. Use short notes for causes, contrasts and conclusions rather than trying to transcribe everything.

Train detail and spelling separately

For dictation and missing words, listen to a short sentence and write exactly what you hear. Check endings, articles and plural forms before looking at a transcript. During review, separate a word you did not recognise from a word you heard but misspelled. Keep a small list of recurring mistakes and practise each word in a complete phrase.

Review the evidence, then listen again

After a practice recording, explain why your selected answer follows from the speaker’s words. Notice whether a distractor repeats a word but changes the speaker’s intention. Replay difficult sections during study, then try a fresh recording without replaying it. Remembering an old answer is different from following a new speaker.

Connect this practice with the other skills

Use Writing preparation to work on clear summaries, and Speaking preparation to practise recalling a message aloud. Explore the complete question bank to plan your practice, or compare full test formats in Mock Exams.

A focused practice session

  1. 1

    Choose

    Choose one task type and read its instructions.

  2. 2

    Try

    Make an initial attempt without consulting an answer or a template.

  3. 3

    Review

    Find the decision or language pattern that caused difficulty.

  4. 4

    Apply

    Repeat once to apply the correction, then move to a new prompt.

Listen for meaning and detail

  • Listen for the main idea before focusing on individual words.
  • Take short notes on names, numbers and relationships between ideas.
  • Review spelling and grammar when completing written answers.

Keep building your PTE skills

Focus on one task type, then combine your preparation with the other skills. For a complete test format, explore PTE mock exams.

PTE Academic Listening is the last of the exam's three sections, running 31-39 minutes, and its eight tasks feed several different skill scores - Listening, Writing and Reading. This hub explains what the section tests, the eight tasks inside it, how the timing and shared clock work, exactly how each task is scored, and how to plan Listening practice around it.

What PTE Academic Listening tests

Listening is the third and final part of PTE Academic: 31-39 minutes across 8 of the exam's 22 question types, inside a roughly two-hour test of 65-75 questions.

Listening is unusually cross-skill: Summarize Spoken Text and Write from Dictation also score into Writing, and Highlight Correct Summary and Highlight Incorrect Words also score into Reading. Highlight Incorrect Words needs a printed transcript on screen, not just audio.

The eight Listening tasks

All eight sit in the practice catalogue under Listening, in test order:

  • Summarize Spoken Text (SST) - listen to a 60-90 second recording and summarize it in 50-70 words, with 10 minutes total to listen and write.
  • Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers (MCMA) - listen to an 80-120 second recording and select every correct answer.
  • Fill in the Blanks (FIB) - listen to a 30-60 second recording and type the missing words into a transcript.
  • Highlight Correct Summary (HCS) - listen to a 30-90 second recording and pick the paragraph that best summarizes it.
  • Multiple Choice, Single Answer (MCSA) - listen to a 30-90 second recording and choose the one correct answer.
  • Select Missing Word (SMW) - listen to a 20-70 second recording where the last word or words are replaced by a beep, then choose the missing word from 3-5 options.
  • Highlight Incorrect Words (HIW) - listen to a 15-50 second recording while reading a transcript, and click every word that does not match what you hear.
  • Write from Dictation (WFD) - listen to a short 3-5 second sentence and type exactly what you heard.

Time management for Listening

Most Listening tasks do not carry their own answer timer; instead they share the 31-39 minute section clock, with a short pre-audio window before some recordings start (7 seconds for Fill in the Blanks and Multiple Choice Multiple Answers, 5 seconds for Multiple Choice Single Answer, 10 seconds for Highlight Incorrect Words).

Summarize Spoken Text is the exception: it has its own fixed 10-minute (600 second) window to listen to the recording and write your summary, the single longest per-item allowance anywhere in the Listening section. Staying focused for the full recording matters more than reaction speed on most of these eight tasks.

How PTE Academic scores Listening

Multiple Choice, Single Answer, Highlight Correct Summary and Select Missing Word are all straightforward correct/incorrect, 1 point each. Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers and Highlight Incorrect Words both use the same +1 correct / -1 incorrect pattern per option or word, with the item never scoring below 0 - so an over-eager guess on either task can cost you a point you would otherwise have kept.

Fill in the Blanks and Write from Dictation both score 1 point for every word you get correct and correctly spelled, with no penalty for a wrong word beyond not earning that point; Pearson's scoring rule for Write from Dictation does not require the words to be in the right sequence, only correctly spelled, though the on-screen tip still suggests typing them in order.

Summarize Spoken Text carries five traits - Content (4), Form (2, full credit for 50-70 words), Grammar (2), Vocabulary (2) and Spelling (2) - and a human expert reviews the Content score. If Content or Form scores 0, the whole response scores 0 on every trait.

A study plan for Listening

Start with the correct/incorrect tasks - Multiple Choice Single Answer, Highlight Correct Summary and Select Missing Word - to build comfort with the audio pace and accents before tackling anything with negative marking.

Practise Fill in the Blanks and Write from Dictation together, since both reward accurate spelling of exactly what you heard; keep a running list of words you consistently mishear or misspell.

Save Multiple Choice Multiple Answers and Highlight Incorrect Words for later in your plan, since both punish incorrect guesses - only select an option or flag a word when you are reasonably confident. Finish with full Summarize Spoken Text attempts under the real 10-minute window so listening, note-taking and writing all happen inside one timed block, the way they do on test day.

PTE Listening FAQ