Practise Describe Image for PTE Core. Open a question and work on your response at your own pace.
PTE Academic version of this page1198 questions · PTE Core
Describe Image shows a chart, map, process diagram or photo that you describe aloud. Identify the visual, state its main message, support that message with two or three details, then close with an accurate overview — a flexible structure, not a script to force onto every image.
PTE Core's Describe Image gives you fewer items than PTE Academic - three or four instead of five or six - but the same 25 seconds to prepare and 40 seconds to speak. Core also scores Content out of 5 rather than 6 and labels the fluency trait simply "Fluency", small differences that change what a full Content score is worth.
Describe Image shows a chart, graph, map, process diagram or photograph. You get a short silent period to study it, then describe it aloud: what it shows, its main message, and enough detail to support that message.
PTE Core includes three to four Describe Image items, fewer than the five to six on PTE Academic.
Describe Image feeds your Speaking score only, and Content is judged first. That order shapes the whole task: before you think about sounding fluent, make sure what you say is an accurate account of the image in front of you.
The timing is identical to PTE Academic's Describe Image, so if you already have Academic practice material for this task, the preparation and speaking windows still apply.
| Detail | PTE Core |
|---|---|
| Items per test | 3-4 |
| Preparation time | 25 seconds |
| Answer time | 40 seconds |
| Skill assessed | Speaking |
Core scores Describe Image on Content, Pronunciation and Fluency. Content is scored first and out of 5 - one point lower than Academic's maximum of 6; if Content comes back at 0, Pronunciation and Fluency are not scored either, so an answer needs at least some accurate description of the image to earn anything.
Pronunciation and Fluency are each marked 0 to 5 against Pearson's usual proficiency bands, from Non-English or Disfluent up to Highly proficient.
Describe Image is a purely Speaking task in Core. Unlike Read Aloud (Reading and Speaking) or Repeat Sentence and Answer Short Question (Listening and Speaking), it does not feed any other skill, so treat it as focused Speaking practice.
Twenty-five seconds is enough to plan a shape for your answer, not to script it. This is the order we suggest working in.
A flexible four-part structure works for any Describe Image item: name the visual, state its main message, add two or three supporting details, then close with a short overview sentence. Adjust the wording to the visual type - a map needs location language, a process needs sequencing language, a bar chart needs comparison language - but keep the shape.
Example (written by LexiPTE) - Describe Image prompt: a bar chart comparing weekly hours spent on four activities (work, study, exercise, sleep) for a sample group.
"This bar chart compares four weekly activities for a sample group. Sleep takes up the most time, at around fifty hours across the week, followed closely by work at roughly forty hours. Study and exercise are noticeably smaller, at under ten hours each. Overall, the chart shows that paid work and sleep dominate the group's week, leaving comparatively little time for study or exercise."
This answer names the chart type first, states the clear main message (sleep and work dominate), supports it with two figures, then closes with a one-sentence overview - the same four-part shape works for a map, a process diagram or a photo.
Most of these mistakes come from skipping the planning step, in our experience, rather than from weak English.
Practise Describe Image with a mix of chart types - bar, line, pie, map, process and photo - since each needs slightly different vocabulary. After each attempt, check whether your answer named a clear main message within the first two sentences.
