Key Overall Changes in PTE (from 7 August 2025)

 

Key Overall Changes in PTE (from 7 August 2025)

Before diving module-wise, here are the high-level changes you must know:

Feature	Change	Why / Implication
New question types	Two new tasks added: Respond to a Situation and Summarize Group Discussion	To make the test more realistic and test spontaneous, real-life English use
Number of tasks	Task count increases (from ~52–64 to ~65–75)	More questions means more variety and opportunities to show your ability, but also more stamina needed.
Duration	Test time extended (approx. extra 10–15 minutes)	You’ll need to manage time across a slightly longer test.
Scoring & marking	Hybrid scoring: AI + human oversight for certain tasks	To reduce overreliance on templates and ensure content quality is checked by humans.
Skill mapping (which question counts toward which skill)	Some question types now contribute to only one skill (instead of multiple)	More clarity in how each task is scored; you’ll want to focus on boosting individual skill scores.

These changes aim to make PTE more reflective of real, spontaneous English usage, more fair, and with be

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Module-Wise Changes & What to Do

Let’s go through Speaking, Writing, Reading, Listening with what’s new and how you should adjust.

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1. Speaking (and tasks that combine Speaking)

New / changed tasks:

• Respond to a Situation (new)
  · You’ll receive a real-life scenario (e.g. “You’re late, leave a voicemail…”). You must speak a spontaneous response. · Time: ~ 40 seconds · Assesses: Speaking only (not reading)
• Summarize Group Discussion (new)
   You’ll hear a discussion among 2–4 people, then speak a summary.
•  Time: ~2 minutes to respond after listening (audio up to ~3 min)
•  Skills assessed: Speaking + Listening
• Repeat Sentence now has a “beep” at the end of audio to signal when you can respond (no guessing)
• Existing tasks like Read Aloud, Describe Image, Retell Lecture, Answer Short Question remain, but their scoring contributions may shift.
• Scoring / marking changes:

• Some speaking tasks will now undergo human checking (especially content, relevance, originality) besides AI. Tasks include: Describe Image, Retell Lecture, Respond to a Situation, Summarize Group Discussion.
• Fluency and pronunciation will still be largely AI scored. Human raters mainly check content quality not pronunciation.
• What to do / tips:

• Practice spontaneous spoken responses rather than relying heavily on memorized templates. The new “Respond to a Situation” forces more natural speech.
• For Summarize Group Discussion, practice taking notes quickly, listening for main ideas, and summarizing with clarity.
• Be original. Avoid overly formulaic answers that AI might flag as template use (especially for tasks with human oversight).
• Time yourself: you’ll need to respond quickly, and new tasks are time-tight.
• Pay attention to the “beep” in Repeat Sentence: start when the beep comes, not before.

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2. Writing

Task changes:

• The writing tasks (Summarize Written Text, Essay) remain, but their scoring rubrics are expanded.
• The score scale for traits like Content, Development, Structure & Coherence, Linguistic Range will have more granularity. (E.g. trait scores now up to 0–6 instead of lower scales)

Scoring / marking changes:

• Human review will be involved for content relevance, coherence, and originality in the writing tasks (Essay, Summarize Written Text) in addition to AI scoring.
• The test has increased sensitivity to over-template or repetitive structures. Overused templates may be flagged.

What to do / tips:

• Focus on clear structure and coherent development rather than trying to force long vocabulary.
• Avoid over-relying on fixed templates. Use them as guides, but tailor them to the topic.
• Emphasize original content, proper argument development, linking ideas.
• Practice under time pressure to manage the slightly longer duration.

3. Reading

Changes and re-mapping:

• Some question types that previously contributed to two skills might now only contribute to one skill. For example:
• Fill in the Blanks (Reading & Writing) will now be scored for Reading only
• Other tasks’ contributions may shift in a similar way
• The number of questions in some tasks may increase (e.g. Reorder Paragraphs, Fill in the Blanks) to accommodate the increased task count.
• Scoring / marking changes:

• Reading tasks remain largely AI scored; no major human oversight changes announced for reading tasks.
• Because some tasks’ contributions shift, your reading skill will carry more weight in certain tasks.

What to do / tips:

• Strengthen vocabulary, grammar, and reading speed (skimming, scanning).
• Practice tasks like Reorder Paragraphs, Fill in the Blanks, Multiple Choice (single / multiple) often.
• Don’t neglect that reading now may have more tasks; build stamina and speed.
• Be careful in tasks that used to count toward writing — they now may only count for reading, so mistakes hurt reading score more.

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4. Listening

Changes and re-mapping:

• Some listening tasks will now contribute to only one skill (Listening) rather than multiple (Listening & Writing) — e.g. Fill in the Blanks (listening) now counts just for Listening.
• There’s no major change in task types (Summarize Spoken Text, Highlight Correct Summary, Multiple Choice, Fill in the Blanks, etc.) but question count and weights may adjust.

Scoring / marking changes:

• Some tasks like Summarize Spoken Text may be subject to human review for content alongside AI.
• More emphasis on content relevance and originality in longer listening responses.

What to do / tips:

• Improve listening strategies: note-taking, identifying main ideas vs details, paraphrasing.
• Practice summarizing spoken text under time constraints.
• Work on detecting signal words, discourse markers, speaker changes.
• Because tasks count fully for listening now (not partly writing), reduce errors.

What Stayed the Same / Unchanged

• The fundamental three-section structure (Speaking & Writing, Reading, Listening) remains.
• The overall scoring scale (10–90) is unchanged many core question types (Read Aloud, Multiple Choice, Reorder Paragraphs, etc.) continue to exist. Turnaround time for results remains (2 days typical). Recognition by institutions, visa authorities, and universities stays the same.

Summary & What You Must Focus On

1.      Learn the two new question types — place emphasis on Respond to a Situation and Summarize Group Discussion, as these are brand new and will appear in speaking.

2.      Practice spontaneity and originality — avoid overly memorized or template responses, especially since human review is involved now.

3.      Sharpen individual skill areas — because some tasks now contribute only to a single skill, you need to be strong in each (reading, listening, writing, speaking) individually.

4.      Time management & stamina — with more tasks and slightly longer duration, practice full tests under timed conditions.

5.      Understand new scoring rubrics — study how traits (content, coherence, development, lexical range) are now evaluated with more granularity.

6.      Use quality mock tests updated to the new format** — only then your practice will match real test environment.