PTE Re-tell Lecture
You hear a short lecture and re-tell it aloud. It feeds Speaking and Listening, and the whole difficulty is that you must take notes you can then speak from fluently — which is a different kind of note from one you would read.
Notes you can speak from
Dense notes produce halting speech, because reading and speaking compete. Five or six keywords in a column produce fluent speech, because they prompt rather than script.
- Note the topic, then three or four keywords in the order they came.
- Note one example if a clear one is given.
- Note the conclusion — speakers signal it, and it makes a clean ending.
- Do not write sentences. You will read them, and reading aloud from your own notes sounds exactly like it.
Delivering it
- Open with the topic — "The lecture was about…".
- Follow your keywords in order.
- Mention the example.
- Close on the speaker's conclusion.
Content is scored, but fluency and pronunciation are scored alongside it. A candidate who covers four of six points fluently outscores one who covers all six with pauses and restarts.
Re-tell Lecture — FAQs
2 questions
Yes, and you should — but keywords, not sentences.
Start from what you have. Speaking continuously about part of the lecture scores better than hesitating over all of it.
More speaking & writing question types
Sources
Written from the test board's own published material and checked on 1 October 2026.