PTE Core practice, in the order the real test runs it
One sitting of about two hours with no breaks: Speaking & Writing, then Reading, then Listening. Every task type, the preparation countdowns, and recording that starts by itself — because on test day there is no Record button.
In the PTE bank today: 10 full tests, 44 practice sets, 399 task-type drills, 1,179 questions (live count, 2026-10-18).
Practise one question at a time
Pick any of the task types — Read Aloud, Repeat Sentence, Write Email, Fill in the Blanks — answer a single question and see its score at once, then try it again or move to the next. Reading and Listening questions are marked the moment you answer; Speaking and Writing are marked on Pearson's published criteria. A free account includes:
- One free practice test in each skill (Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking), fully marked
- One free full mock exam in which Listening and Reading are scored and one Writing task and one Speaking task are marked (a partly marked mock gives no overall score)
- 10 marked single questions a day (up to 3 of them writing), with Reading and Listening questions unlimited
Part 1 — Speaking & Writing
50–65 minutes
- Personal Introduction (not scored)
- Read Aloud — text up to 60 words
- Repeat Sentence
- Describe Image
- Respond to a Situation
- Answer Short Question
- Summarize Written Text — 25–50 words, 10 minutes
- Write Email — 80–120 words, 9 minutes
Part 2 — Reading
27–37 minutes
- Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks
- Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers
- Reorder Paragraph
- Fill in the Blanks
- Multiple Choice, Single Answer
Part 3 — Listening
22–37 minutes
- Summarize Spoken Text — 20–30 words, 8 minutes
- Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers
- Fill in the Blanks
- Multiple Choice, Single Answer
- Select Missing Word
- Highlight Incorrect Words
- Write from Dictation
What your score means for immigration
PTE Core reports each skill on a 10–90 scale. IRCC publishes the conversion to Canadian Language Benchmarks, and assesses every skill separately — so the level your application is judged at is your weakest skill, not your average.
| CLB | Speaking | Listening | Reading | Writing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 or above | 89+ | 89+ | 88+ | 90 |
| 9 | 84–88 | 82–88 | 78–87 | 88–89 |
| 8 | 76–83 | 71–81 | 69–77 | 79–87 |
| 7 | 68–75 | 60–70 | 60–68 | 69–78 |
| 6 | 59–67 | 50–59 | 51–59 | 60–68 |
| 5 | 51–58 | 39–49 | 42–50 | 51–59 |
| 4 | 42–50 | 28–38 | 33–41 | 41–50 |
Source: IRCC, Express Entry language test results (checked 18 September 2026). Where a coaching site disagrees with this table, it is wrong.
Honest about the scoring
Section scores here are estimates. Pearson scores adaptively against an item bank it does not publish, so no practice test outside Pearson can reproduce its marking exactly. Pearson also states that the overall score is not an average of the skill scores and cannot be derived from them by any formula — the headline number in your report is ours, and is labelled so. The CLB conversion above is not an estimate: it is IRCC’s own table.
Pearson publishes the format and scoring at pearsonpte.com/pte-core and its scoring page. PTE and PTE Core are trademarks of Pearson. ExamStep is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Pearson, and none of the material here is taken from a real test.