PTE syllabus: the item types are the syllabus

Start with the items that pay twice

If you have limited time, spend it here. These items contribute to two skills each, so improvement shows up twice on the report:

1. Read aloud — speaking and reading. Practise reading at natural pace without stopping to correct.
2. Repeat sentence — speaking and listening. Listen for meaning rather than storing sounds; start immediately; never restart.
3. Write from dictation — listening and writing. Every correct word scores, so type what you caught and spell carefully.
4. Re-tell lecture — speaking and listening. Say the content words; fluency beats completeness.
5. Summarise written text — reading and writing. One sentence, 5 to 75 words, no full stop in the middle.

Speaking: what to study

• Oral fluency — continuous, even-paced speech. Hesitation and restarts cost more than the occasional wrong word.
• Pronunciation — intelligibility, not accent. Word stress on longer words is where most marks go.
• Starting immediately. The microphone opens and a long silence ends the item.
• Not self-correcting. Once you restart a sentence, the fluency score for that item is already damaged.

Writing: what to study

• The essay — 200 to 300 words in 20 minutes, four visible paragraphs, formal linking words, varied vocabulary and a couple of complex sentences. The count is enforced at both ends.
• Summarise written text — one grammatical sentence between 5 and 75 words. Practise joining with a semicolon or a relative clause.
• Spelling, which is marked and which the algorithm does not forgive. Pick one spelling standard and keep to it.

Reading: what to study

• Re-order paragraphs — find the opening box first, then chain by reference words. Each correct adjacent pair scores.
• Fill in the blanks — usually decided by collocation rather than meaning. If two options both make sense, choose the one you have actually seen beside that word.
• Pace. Reading is about half an hour and does not let you return to it.

Listening: what to study

• Note-taking in a fixed shape — topic, three or four points, conclusion. Do not try to transcribe.
• Summarise spoken text — 50 to 70 words in ten minutes, written from your notes without replaying.
• Highlight incorrect words — follow the transcript at the speaker's pace and click as you hear the difference. This one penalises wrong clicks.
• Numbers, names and dates, which need separate drilling.

A three-week shape

1. Week 1 — item types. Meet all twenty until no instruction is a surprise. Score nothing; just learn the tasks.
2. Week 2 — the integrated five. Drill read aloud, repeat sentence, write from dictation, re-tell lecture and summarise written text daily.
3. Week 3 — full length at pace. Two complete sittings, then time spent on why each wrong answer was wrong.