PTE Academic Speaking is the part of the test where you talk into a microphone and Pearson's system marks what you say for content, pronunciation and fluency. It runs inside the combined Speaking & Writing section, so pacing matters as much as accuracy. This hub explains what each Speaking task tests, how much time you get, how the scoring actually breaks down trait by trait, and how to build a study plan around it.
PTE Academic combines Speaking and Writing into one 76-84 minute section that carries 9 of the exam's 22 question types. Seven of those nine are Speaking tasks; you answer into a microphone while a timer counts down on screen.
The exam itself has 65-75 questions across roughly two hours, with Reading and Listening making up the other two sections. Speaking is not scored as one lump mark: each task contributes trait scores (Content, Pronunciation, Oral fluency, and similar) that feed into your overall Speaking score, and Pearson's overall score is not a simple average of the four skills.
All seven sit in the practice catalogue under Speaking, in the order you meet them in the real test:
- Read Aloud (RA) - read a short on-screen text (up to 60 words) aloud after a preparation window.
- Repeat Sentence (RS) - listen once to a short sentence and repeat it back immediately, with no preparation time.
- Describe Image (DI) - describe a chart, graph, map or picture after 25 seconds of preparation.
- Retell Lecture (RL) - listen to a talk of up to 90 seconds, then retell it in your own words.
- Answer Short Question (ASQ) - answer a one-word or few-word general-knowledge question.
- Summarize Group Discussion (SGD) - listen to a discussion between three people and summarize it in your own words.
- Respond to a Situation (RTS) - read a short scenario and speak an appropriate response.
Preparation and answer windows are short and fixed per task, and once time runs out the microphone stops recording automatically. Repeat Sentence and Answer Short Question give you no preparation time at all: you respond as soon as the prompt ends. Describe Image gives 25 seconds to prepare and 40 seconds to answer; Retell Lecture gives 10 seconds to prepare (after a 3-second look at the image) and 40 seconds to answer; Respond to a Situation gives 10 seconds to prepare and 40 seconds to answer; Summarize Group Discussion gives 10 seconds to prepare and a full 2 minutes (120 seconds) to answer, the longest response window in the section.
Read Aloud's answer time is not fixed by Pearson; it depends on how long the passage is, and preparation runs 30-40 seconds. Pearson gives 76-84 minutes for the whole Speaking & Writing section, which covers all nine tasks, including the two Writing tasks.
Every Speaking task except Answer Short Question is marked on Content plus two spoken-delivery traits, Pronunciation and Oral fluency, each on a 0-5 band (5 Highly proficient down to 0 Non-English for Pronunciation, or 0 Disfluent for Oral fluency). Content itself varies by task: Read Aloud is marked on how many words you reproduce correctly, Repeat Sentence on a 0-3 scale for how much of the sentence you got in the right sequence, and Describe Image, Retell Lecture, Summarize Group Discussion and Respond to a Situation are marked out of 6 for relevant, complete content.
Pearson runs a human expert review of the Content score for Describe Image, Retell Lecture, Respond to a Situation and Summarize Group Discussion, in addition to the AI score; Pronunciation and Oral fluency stay AI-only. One task in this bucket, Answer Short Question, is scored 0 or 1 for the right word and actually counts toward your Listening score, not Speaking - it sits in the Speaking practice list because you answer it out loud, but Pearson scores it as a listening item.
There is partial credit throughout: a weak or incomplete answer on Describe Image or Retell Lecture still earns some Content marks, while giving no answer or an irrelevant answer on Respond to a Situation or Retell Lecture earns none.
Start with Read Aloud and Repeat Sentence: they are the most frequent item types (6-7 and 10-12 items respectively) and reward steady pronunciation and pacing more than clever content. Record yourself and listen back for word-for-word accuracy before worrying about accent.
Once pronunciation and fluency feel stable, move to the content-heavy tasks - Describe Image, Retell Lecture, Summarize Group Discussion and Respond to a Situation - and practise structuring an answer inside a fixed prep window: a one-sentence overview, two or three supporting points, a closing line. Time yourself against the real windows (25s/40s for Describe Image, 10s/40s for Retell Lecture and Respond to a Situation, 10s/120s for Summarize Group Discussion) so the clock stops being a surprise on test day.
Finish with Answer Short Question drills for quick vocabulary recall, and run a handful of full-length Speaking & Writing sections back to back so you get used to keeping your voice steady well into the section.
