PTE Academic · Learn · 30 October 2026 · 6 min read

PTE speaking tips: fluency, pronunciation and the 2025 tasks

How to raise your PTE Academic speaking score: steady fluency, clear pronunciation, microphone habits and routines for the two tasks added in 2025.

Speaking in PTE Academic is unusual. There is no examiner in front of you: you speak into a headset microphone, the computer records you, and your responses are scored against set traits. Candidates who speak well in conversation are sometimes surprised by a low score, while others with simpler English do well because their delivery is steady and clear.

This guide covers the delivery habits that matter across all speaking items, then gives routines for the two tasks added in August 2025: Respond to a Situation and Summarize Group Discussion. For the full test structure, see the PTE Academic format overview.

How speaking is judged

Most speaking items are judged on three groups of traits:

Fluency and pronunciation apply across many items, so improving them lifts several scores at once. Pearson has said that since the 2025 update some responses are scored by trained human raters as well as automatically. The traits remain the same. For more on how scores are built, see which PTE tasks matter most.

Fluency: keep a steady flow

Fluency in PTE means smooth, continuous speech at a natural pace. It does not mean speaking fast.

• Do not restart sentences. If you make a small mistake, carry on. A restart breaks the flow and often costs more than the error.
• Avoid long pauses. If you are silent for about three seconds, the recording stops and you cannot restart it.
• Use short, natural pauses at phrase boundaries, the way you would when reading aloud to someone: after a comma, between clauses, at a full stop.
• Avoid filler sounds such as "um" and "er". A brief silent pause is better.
• Keep a moderate pace. Rushing leads to swallowed words and mistakes; speaking too slowly sounds hesitant.

Tip: if you lose your place in Read Aloud, skip the word and keep going. One missed word costs less than a long pause.

Pronunciation: be clear, not perfect

You do not need a British, American or any other particular accent. You need to be easy to understand.

• Finish your words. Pronounce final consonants, especially plural -s and past tense -ed.
• Stress the right syllable in common academic words: de-VEL-op-ment, e-CON-o-my versus e-co-NOM-ic, PHO-to-graph versus pho-TOG-raph-y.
• Stress key words in a sentence and let small words, such as of, to and the, be lighter.
• Use falling intonation at the end of statements, so sentences sound complete.

Record yourself reading a short paragraph, then listen back. Note any words you hesitate on and look up their pronunciation in a good dictionary with audio.

Microphone and setup habits

Delivery depends partly on the recording itself.

• Position the microphone a couple of finger-widths from the corner of your mouth, not directly in front of it, to avoid breathing noise.
• Start speaking promptly after the tone or when the status box shows recording. A long delay at the start can be treated as silence.
• Speak at a normal volume. Shouting distorts the sound; whispering is hard to hear.
• Ignore other candidates if you test in a centre. Everyone is speaking at once; focus on your own screen.

Routines for the core speaking items

Our item guides give a full routine for each. In brief:

• Read Aloud: use the preparation time to read silently, mark phrase breaks mentally and check difficult words.
• Repeat Sentence: listen for meaning and rhythm, then repeat at the same pace. If you miss a word, keep the flow.
• Describe Image: introduce the image, describe two or three key features, then give a conclusion or implication.
• Re-tell Lecture: note the topic and three or four key points, then speak in a clear order.
• Answer Short Question: give a short answer, often one word or a few words.

The 2025 tasks

Respond to a Situation

You read and hear a short description of a situation, then reply as if speaking directly to the person in it. Our Respond to a Situation guide covers timing in detail.

A simple routine:

1. Identify who you are speaking to and the relationship: a tutor, a colleague, a neighbour, a friend.
2. Identify every action the situation asks for: apologise, explain, request, suggest.
3. Open naturally and say why you are speaking.
4. Cover each action in turn, with one reason or detail for each.
5. Close politely, for example by thanking the person or suggesting a next step.

Here is a situation we have written for practice:

You borrowed a classmate's notes for a week, but you spilled coffee on two pages. Speak to your classmate.

A strong reply would apologise, explain what happened, offer a solution such as copying the pages again, and end politely. Match your tone to the person: friendly with a classmate, more formal with a tutor.

Summarize Group Discussion

You hear a discussion between several speakers, then summarise it aloud. See our Summarize Group Discussion guide for timing and a worked example.

A simple routine:

1. Note the topic at the top of your noteboard.
2. Make a column for each speaker, with their main view in three or four key words.
3. Note any conclusion: do they agree, compromise or leave it open?
4. Speak in order: the topic, each speaker's view, then the outcome.
5. Use reporting verbs to move between speakers: argued, pointed out, disagreed, suggested.

Tip: you do not need every detail. A clear summary of each speaker's position and the outcome, delivered fluently, is the goal.

Common mistakes

• Memorised templates. A fixed script that does not fit the image, lecture or situation scores poorly for content. Use a flexible structure, not a word-for-word script.
• Correcting yourself. Restarts damage fluency.
• Starting late. Watch the status box and begin promptly.
• Speaking too fast in the hope of saying more.
• Ignoring the new tasks because older materials do not include them.

A weekly speaking routine

• Every day: ten minutes of Read Aloud and Repeat Sentence, recorded.
• Three times a week: two Describe Image and two Re-tell Lecture responses.
• Three times a week: one Respond to a Situation and one Summarize Group Discussion.
• Once a week: listen back to a full set and note your three most common delivery problems.

Our four-week PTE study plan puts this into a schedule. Find practice on the PTE hub, and check current format and scoring details on pearsonpte.com.