The short answer
Your PTE Speaking score is a number from 10 to 90 built from every spoken task in Part 1. Per the PTE Academic Test Taker Score Guide, the open speaking tasks are scored first on Content and then on two traits that are scored by AI: Pronunciation (0 to 5) and Oral Fluency (0 to 5). Pearson does not publish how trait points turn into 79, but its own descriptors make the target clear. Oral Fluency level 4 allows "no more than one hesitation, one repetition or a false start"; level 5 allows none. Pronunciation level 4 allows only "a few minor consonant, vowel or stress distortions" that do not affect intelligibility. A 79 plus speaker, in our reading, sounds like that in almost every response, and never lets a memorised template zero the Content of an item. The thing most candidates get wrong: they chase speed. Nothing in the Oral Fluency scale rewards speed. It rewards rhythm, phrasing and the absence of restarts, and Pearson's format page says plainly that there is no need to rush. This page explains the scales, then gives you a 30-day plan built on them.
- Scale: 10 to 90 for the overall score and each of the four skills. The overall score is not an average of the skills.
- Traits on open speaking tasks: Content, then Pronunciation 0 to 5 and Oral Fluency 0 to 5.
- On Describe Image, Retell Lecture, Summarize Group Discussion and Respond to a Situation, Content is scored by AI and reviewed by a human; in the Score Guide's example, a second human decides if they disagree. Pronunciation and Oral Fluency are AI-scored.
- Pearson publishes no task weights and no trait-to-score table.
What 79 in Speaking means on Pearson's own tables
The Score Guide prints Pearson's current best estimate of how PTE Academic lines up with IELTS Academic, updated after research released in July 2025. The Speaking column surprises most candidates.
| IELTS band | PTE Speaking (Pearson alignment) | PTE Overall (same table) |
|---|---|---|
| 6.5 | 66 to 75 | 55 to 62 |
| 7.0 | 76 to 82 | 63 to 70 |
| 7.5 | 83 to 87 | 71 to 78 |
| 8.0 | 88 to 89 | 79 to 85 |
| 8.5 | 90 | 86 to 89 |
So an overall 79 sits beside IELTS 8.0, but a Speaking 79 sits inside the IELTS 7.0 row. Pearson attaches a disclaimer: predicting one test's score from another always carries measurement error, and the tests do not measure exactly the same thing. Use the table to understand the size of the target, not to convert a result. For PTE Core the relevant table is IRCC's: Speaking 76 to 83 is CLB 8 and 84 to 88 is CLB 9, per the canada.ca language-testing page (see our PTE Core page). Which number your university, regulator or visa needs is set by that body; check its own page before you plan.
Which tasks feed the Speaking score
Item counts are from the Academic Score Guide and the PTE Core Score Guide (January 2026). Skills scored are from the Score Guides and the format pages.
| Task | Academic items | Core items | Skills it feeds | Traits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read Aloud | 6 to 7 | 6 to 7 | Academic Score Guide: Speaking. Core Score Guide: Reading and Speaking | Content (word errors), Pronunciation, Oral Fluency |
| Repeat Sentence | 10 to 12 | 10 to 12 | Listening and Speaking | Content 0 to 3, Pronunciation, Oral Fluency |
| Describe Image | 5 to 6 | 3 to 4 | Speaking | Content, Pronunciation, Oral Fluency |
| Retell Lecture | 2 to 3 | Not in Core | Listening and Speaking | Content 0 to 6, Pronunciation, Oral Fluency |
| Summarize Group Discussion | 2 to 3 | Not in Core | Listening and Speaking | Content 0 to 6, Pronunciation, Oral Fluency |
| Respond to a Situation | 2 to 3 | 2 to 4 | Speaking | Academic: Content, Pronunciation, Oral Fluency. Core: Appropriacy, Pronunciation, Fluency |
| Answer Short Question | 5 to 6 | 5 to 6 | Academic Score Guide: Listening. Core Score Guide: Listening and Speaking | Vocabulary, correct or incorrect |
Add up the Academic counts for the tasks that carry Pronunciation and Oral Fluency and you get 27 to 34 spoken responses in one test (our sum of the Score Guide figures). Repeat Sentence and Read Aloud are 16 to 19 of them. That is why week 1 of the plan below goes to those two tasks: a pause habit you remove there disappears from roughly half or more of your scored spoken responses. It is also why integrated tasks matter twice; a weak Repeat Sentence costs you in Listening as well as Speaking.
Content comes first: the rule that zeroes fluent answers
The Score Guide's worked example for Describe Image sets out the order. The response is scored on Content first. If there is no response, or the response is irrelevant, Content is 0 and there is no further scoring. Only if Content is above 0 are Pronunciation and Oral Fluency scored. The guide then adds the sentence that matters most for template users: "Responses that contain pre-prepared or memorized material are classified as irrelevant responses."
| Task | How Content is scored (Score Guide) | What that means for 79 plus |
|---|---|---|
| Read Aloud | Each replacement, omission or insertion of a word counts as one error. | Read every word, including "the" and "of". Skipping a word to keep the rhythm still costs a Content point. |
| Repeat Sentence | 3 for all words in sequence, 2 for at least half, 1 for less than half, 0 for almost nothing. Hesitations are ignored for Content. | Keep going even after a mistake; the pause costs Oral Fluency, but continuing saves Content. |
| Describe Image, Retell Lecture, Summarize Group Discussion, Respond to a Situation | 0 to 6 scales that reward accurate main ideas, relationships, implications and paraphrase in your own words. | Use a frame, but fill it with this image, this lecture, this discussion. Never a stock paragraph. |
The Oral Fluency scale, 0 to 5, in plain English
The left column quotes or closely paraphrases the Score Guide's criteria page. The right column is our reading of what each level sounds like in a 40-second answer.
| Level | Score Guide criteria (key phrases) | What it sounds like (TalkDrill) |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Highly proficient | "Smooth rhythm and phrasing. There are no hesitations, repetitions, false starts or phonological simplifications." | Every phrase lands in one breath group; you never go back to fix a word. |
| 4 Advanced | "Acceptable rhythm with appropriate phrasing and word emphasis. There is no more than one hesitation, one repetition or a false start." | One small slip in the whole answer, and the key words are stressed. |
| 3 Good | Acceptable speed, may be uneven; more than one hesitation, but most words in continuous phrases; few repetitions; no long pauses; not staccato. | Fluent in places, with two or three "um" moments or a restart in a 40-second answer. |
| 2 Intermediate | May be uneven or staccato; at least one smooth three-word run; no more than two or three hesitations; one long pause at most. | Word-by-word delivery with a few smooth stretches. |
| 1 Limited | Irregular phrasing; "staccato or syllabic timing"; multiple hesitations or false starts; one or two long pauses. | Each syllable given equal weight, with restarts. |
| 0 Disfluent | Slow and laboured; most words isolated; more than one long pause. | Mostly single words. |
Three things follow. First, the jump from 3 to 4 is about counting slips, not about speed: one hesitation, one repetition or one false start is the limit. Second, "syllabic timing" is named at level 1. Many Indian and Nepali first languages give syllables more equal length than English does, so reading English with that rhythm can cap Oral Fluency even when every sound is right (our judgement; the scale itself names no language). Third, Pearson's own Read Aloud tip is the cure: break the text into meaningful chunks using the punctuation, go up a little at the start of a chunk, fall a little at the end, and stress the words that carry the information. Our connected speech sentences and the read-aloud practice train exactly that.
The Pronunciation scale, 0 to 5, in plain English
| Level | Score Guide criteria (key phrases) | Typical gap for our readers (TalkDrill judgement) |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Highly proficient | All vowels and consonants easily understood; assimilation and deletions appropriate to continuous speech; stress correct in all words; sentence stress fully appropriate. | Linking across word boundaries ("next week" with no gap) and weak forms of "to", "of" and "and". |
| 4 Advanced | Clear and unambiguous; a few minor distortions that do not affect intelligibility; stress correct on all common words; sentence stress reasonable. | Word stress on long academic words: deVELopment, ecoNOMic, PHOtograph against phoTOgraphy. |
| 3 Good | Most sounds correct; some consistent errors make a few words unclear; a few consonants regularly distorted or omitted. | Punjabi and Hindi: v and w merged, th as t or d. Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam: final consonants softened or followed by an extra vowel. |
| 2 Intermediate | Some sounds consistently wrong; at least two thirds intelligible; listeners adjust to the accent; consonant clusters simplified; some stress misplaced. | A vowel added before s-clusters ("ischool", "estation"), clusters cut ("tex" for "texts"). |
| 1 Intrusive | Many sounds wrong; a strong intrusive accent; about a third of words hard to follow; syllables added or missed. | Rare among candidates aiming for 79, but fatigue and nerves push people down a level. |
| 0 Non-English | Completely characteristic of another language; more than half unintelligible. | Not a level our readers start at. |
Accent is not the target. Pearson's format page says PTE recognises regional and national varieties of English pronunciation to the degree that they are understandable to most regular speakers, and its help centre says the scoring engine is trained on speech from over 90 language groups. Intelligibility and stress are the target. The drills that move this scale are short and specific: v and w, th, word stress rules and the schwa. Our first-language pages for Hindi, Punjabi and Telugu speakers and for Nepali and Tagalog speakers list the substitutions in order of cost.
Day 0: a diagnostic you can run tonight
The best starting point is Pearson's own official Scored Practice Test (Core candidates: the Core version), because it is the only practice score produced by Pearson's engine. If you want a free first look, record these six responses on your phone with the real timers and mark them with the sheet below. Our marks are estimates against the published scales, not a prediction of your PTE score.
| Record | Timer | Count while listening back |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Read Aloud passage of about 60 words | 35 s to prepare, then read | Skipped or changed words; pauses over one second |
| 3 Repeat Sentences (ask a friend to say them once) | Start at once | Words kept in order; restarts |
| 1 Describe Image (any bar chart) | 25 s, then 40 s | Main trend named; a conclusion given; long pauses |
| 1 Retell Lecture or, for Core, 1 Respond to a Situation | 10 or 20 s, then 40 s | Main points or the practical detail; words copied from the prompt |
Then answer three questions. How many hesitations, repetitions or false starts did you make per response (the Oral Fluency count)? Which words would a stranger mishear (the Pronunciation list)? Did any answer use sentences you had memorised (the Content risk)? Write the three answers at the top of your plan. They decide where your extra minutes go.
The 30-day plan, day by day
About 40 minutes a day. Weeks 1, 2 and 4 are the same for both tests; week 3 splits into an Academic track and a Core track. Every task links to the page or practice mode it needs. The plan is TalkDrill's; the timings inside it are Pearson's.
Week 1: Read Aloud and Repeat Sentence (the fluency base)
| Day | Task | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Read the Read Aloud page. Mark chunks on five passages with a slash at every meaning break, then read each twice, recorded. | Read Aloud guide |
| 2 | Read Aloud with 30 to 40 seconds of preparation only, five passages. Count skipped words. | Read-aloud practice |
| 3 | Repeat Sentence: 20 sentences, said once by a friend or app; repeat in meaning chunks; never stop. | Repeat Sentence guide |
| 4 | Your top two sounds from day 0 (v and w, th, final consonants): ten minutes of drills, then five passages. | v and w drill |
| 5 | Shadowing: play a 30-second clip, speak along a half-second behind, three times. Then 20 Repeat Sentences. | Connected speech sentences |
| 6 | Word stress: ten long academic words a day, stressed correctly inside sentences, then read two passages. | Word stress drill |
| 7 | Mini-mock: 7 Read Aloud and 12 Repeat Sentence back to back. Compare with day 0 counts. | Practice bank |
Week 2: Describe Image (Content plus fluency for 40 seconds)
| Day | Task | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Learn the frame for each chart type: bar, line, pie, table, process, map, picture. | Describe Image guide |
| 9 to 12 | Four images a day, a different type each time, 25 seconds to prepare and 40 to speak. Check: main point, two details, a conclusion. | Describe Image guide |
| 13 | Mixed: three images, three passages, ten sentences, in that order without breaks. | Practice bank |
| 14 | Listen to day 9 and day 13 images side by side. Count hesitations per answer; you want one or none. | Your recordings |
Week 3, Academic track: Retell Lecture and Summarize Group Discussion
| Day | Task | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | Learn both note grids. Retell the worked lecture twice in 40 seconds. | Listen-then-speak guide |
| 16 to 17 | Two retells a day from short talks you have not heard before. | Listening practice quiz |
| 18 to 19 | One AI group discussion a day, then a two-minute spoken summary with speaker attribution. | Group discussion practice |
| 20 | Respond to a Situation (Academic, 10 seconds to prepare): six situations. | Role-play practice |
| 21 | Half mock: every Academic speaking task once, timed. | Practice bank |
Week 3, Core track: Respond to a Situation
| Day | Task | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | Learn the Appropriacy levels and the four-move structure. | PTE Core guide |
| 16 to 19 | Five of the twenty practice situations a day, 20 seconds to plan and 40 to speak, alternating formal and informal. | PTE Core guide |
| 20 | Live role-plays where the AI answers back, to practise tone under pressure. | Role-play practice |
| 21 | Half mock: every Core speaking task once, timed. | Practice bank |
Week 4: mocks, the weakest trait, and a taper
| Day | Task | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | Full speaking section mock with real timers and no pauses between items. | Practice bank |
| 23 | Fix the weakest trait from day 22: fluency days use chunk-marked passages; pronunciation days use your sound drills. | Read-aloud practice |
| 24 | Second full mock. Count hesitations per response again. | Practice bank |
| 25 | Your first-language list: the three substitutions you still make, ten minutes each. | First-language page |
| 26 | An official scored practice test, if you bought two. Compare with day 0. | Pearson scored practice test |
| 27 | Light day: five passages and ten sentences, nothing new. | Read-aloud practice |
| 28 | Re-read the fees and test-day rules; check your passport details match your myPTE account. | Fees, dates and results |
| 29 | Ten minutes of warm-up reading only. Sleep. | |
| 30 | Test day, or a final short mock if your test is later. |
Test-day habits that protect the score
- Arrive early. The PTE Academic Test Taker Handbook says you must arrive at least 30 minutes before your test; late arrivals are not allowed to test and lose the fee.
- Speak after the tone, not before. The format page says your voice is not recorded until the microphone opens. Repeat Sentence and Answer Short Question have no tone: start as soon as the status shows Recording.
- Start promptly and never stop for three seconds. Pearson's format page says that if you wait more than three seconds to start an Answer Short Question the recording stops, and that stopping for three seconds while speaking ends the recording in Read Aloud, Repeat Sentence, Describe Image and Retell Lecture.
- Do not correct yourself. A restart is a false start on the Oral Fluency scale. Carry on.
- Keep a steady volume and distance from the microphone. Pearson's Academic page says test rooms have no more than 15 seats, so others will be speaking near you; the handbook recommends keeping your headset on for the whole test.
- Use the whiteboard. The handbook says you get an erasable whiteboard and two pens. There are no scheduled breaks, and the clock does not stop if you request one.
If you miss 79: rescore, technical review or retake
First, read the Skills Profile in your Score Report. Pearson's help centre says it shows eight skill areas, including extended speaking, short speaking and open response speaking and writing, with personal recommendations, and that it is visible only to you. Pearson also says scores vary a little from sitting to sitting; the differences should be quite small.
| Option | What it is (Pearson policy pages, read 21 October 2026) | When it makes sense (TalkDrill) |
|---|---|---|
| Rescore | A human expert rescores your whole test. USD 160, refunded if your overall or skill scores change. Scores usually stay the same and can go down. Request by phone within 14 calendar days of release; once per test; most recent test only; not if another test is already booked. (Rescore policy, updated 25 August 2026.) | Only when one skill is just short and the rest are safely above target, because a lower result replaces the old one. |
| Technical review | Checks your speaking audio for technical faults. USD 50; it does not change scores. If a fault is found, the test fee and review fee are refunded. Request within 15 business days of results. | When the room was noisy, the headset failed or a recording cut off for a reason that was not you. |
| Retake | Book after you receive your last scores; one booking at a time; up to 12 tests in any 12 months. (Retake policy.) | When the diagnostic shows a habit you can fix in two to three weeks: repeat weeks 1 and 4 of this plan, then book. |
Booking, fees and the reschedule rules are on our fees, dates and results page. The PTE Speaking hub links every task page in this series, and the older complete guide covers the original five task types in one place.