PTE Repeat Sentence in one paragraph
PTE Repeat Sentence plays a short sentence once, lasting 3 to 9 seconds. When it ends, the microphone opens and you have 15 seconds to say it back exactly. PTE Academic has 10 to 12 Repeat Sentence items, per Pearson's Score Guide, more than any other speaking task type. Each is scored with partial credit: Content 0 to 3 (3 for every word in the right order, 2 for at least half, 1 for less than half, 0 for almost nothing), plus Pronunciation and Oral Fluency, each 0 to 5. The single most useful fact: hesitations do not cost Content, but three seconds of silence ends the recording. So always say what you have, in order, and never stop to search.
- Audio: 3 to 9 seconds, played once, no replay.
- Answer: 15 seconds in PTE Academic, starting as soon as the audio ends.
- Items: 10 to 12 in PTE Academic and 10 to 12 in PTE Core, per the two Score Guides.
- Content 0 to 3 by partial credit; Pronunciation 0 to 5; Oral Fluency 0 to 5.
- Feeds Listening and Speaking.
- Answer Short Question, the other short listening task in Part 1, is covered in its own section below.
If you are coming from an older guide, including the first version of our PTE Speaking complete guide: Pearson's format page now lists nine question types in Part 1 of PTE Academic (about 76 to 84 minutes), including Summarize Group Discussion and Respond to a Situation. The Repeat Sentence facts here come from Pearson's current pages. The full task list is on the PTE Speaking hub.
Timing, item count and what happens on screen
Repeat Sentence comes straight after Read Aloud in Part 1. The audio starts by itself. When it ends, the recording status box changes to "Recording" and you speak. When the progress bar reaches the end, the status changes to "Completed".
| Detail | PTE Academic | PTE Core |
|---|---|---|
| Number of items | 10 to 12 (Score Guide) | 10 to 12 (Core Score Guide, January 2026) |
| Audio length | 3 to 9 seconds | 3 to 9 seconds |
| Time to answer | 15 seconds | Not clearly stated (see note) |
| Preparation time | None: the microphone opens when the audio ends | None |
| Tone before recording | "There is a short tone" | "There is no short tone" |
| Replay | Not possible | Not possible |
| Skills affected | Listening, speaking, pronunciation, oral fluency | Listening, speaking, oral fluency, pronunciation |
Note on PTE Core: the Core format page labels both of its timing fields for this task "Prompt length", one reading 3 to 9 seconds and the other 40 seconds, so we have not stated a Core answer time. Practising to the 15-second Academic window prepares you for both, because a 12-word sentence takes well under 15 seconds to say at a natural pace.
How partial credit works: Content 0 to 3
Pearson's format page says Content "is scored by counting the number of correct word sequences in your response". The Score Guide turns that into four bands:
| Content score | Score Guide wording |
|---|---|
| 3 | All words in the response from the prompt in the correct sequence |
| 2 | At least 50% of words in the response from the prompt in the correct sequence |
| 1 | Less than 50% of words in the response from the prompt in the correct sequence |
| 0 | Almost nothing from the prompt in the response |
Two notes in the Score Guide decide how you should practise. First, "Errors = replacements, omissions and insertions only". A synonym is a replacement, a skipped word is an omission and an added word is an insertion. Second, "Hesitations, filled or unfilled pauses, leading or trailing material are ignored in the scoring of content." An "um" before you start, or a pause in the middle, does not take words away from you.
Read the bands as steps. Getting from 1 to 2 needs half the sentence in order. Getting from 2 to 3 needs every word. For most candidates the realistic gains are in two places: never dropping below half on a long sentence, and getting short sentences exactly right. Pronunciation and Oral Fluency are scored separately, 0 to 5 each, on the same scales as Read Aloud, so a response with Content 2 can still earn strong marks for delivery.
Pearson does not publish the exact counting method beyond these bands. The worked example below shows how we read them, and it is an illustration, not a Pearson score.
Worked example: one sentence, five responses
Written by TalkDrill: five responses to one 12-word sentence
Audio: "Applications for the summer research programme close at the end of March."
| Response | What changed | Content, by our reading of the Score Guide |
|---|---|---|
| A. "Applications for the summer research programme close at the end of March." | Nothing | 3: all words in the correct sequence |
| B. "Applications for the summer programme close at the end of March." | "research" omitted | 2: eleven of twelve words in sequence, so at least half, but not all |
| C. "Applications for the research programme close in March." | "summer" and "at the end of" omitted; "in" inserted | 2: seven of twelve words in sequence, just over half |
| D. "The summer ... in March." | Most of the sentence missing | 1: three of twelve words, less than half |
| E. Silence, then the recording stops | No response | 0: "No credit is given for no response" |
Two lessons. Responses B and C score the same Content band even though C lost far more, which is why a partial answer is always worth saying. And Oral Fluency is separate: response B said smoothly can score better overall than response A said with two restarts, because A loses Oral Fluency for the restarts while B loses only one word of Content. Pearson does not publish how the traits are weighted, so treat this as our reading, not a rule.
The meaning-chunk memory method
Pearson's own tip is to listen for meaningful phrases. Its example has three, "each one carries a separate message":
Pearson's example
Next week's tutorial / on Tuesday / has been cancelled.
Its second tip is to copy the speaker's stress and intonation, because "these patterns help to convey the meaning". Its example is "I'm going to attend the briefing for students", with the falling intonation marked on "briefing" and "students".
A sentence of 12 separate words is hard to hold. The same sentence as three meanings is easy. TalkDrill builds those two tips into five steps:
- Listen for the frame, not the words. Most sentences in this task have a who or what, an action, and a detail of time, place or reason. Hear those three slots fill.
- Turn it into a picture while it plays. "Applications for the summer research programme close at the end of March" becomes a poster with a deadline. A picture holds the nouns; grammar holds the order.
- Echo the rhythm silently. Let the stress pattern run in your head as you hear it: apPLIcations for the SUMmer reSEARCH programme / CLOSE / at the END of MARCH. You will repeat the rhythm, and the words ride on it.
- Start the moment the microphone opens. Delay is the enemy of memory, and waiting for perfect recall is how the three-second limit catches people.
- If the middle goes, bridge to the end. Say the first chunk, then the last chunk, without stopping. The end of a sentence is often the part you heard most recently.
To build capacity, train with real speech. Take any short lecture or news clip, pause after each sentence, and repeat it. Start with sentences of six to eight words and add length only when you get three in a row exactly right. We suggest ten minutes a day of this shadowing rather than an hour once a week, because the skill is speed of chunking, not knowledge.
Why stopping costs more than a wrong word
Put three of Pearson's rules side by side:
- Content ignores hesitations and counts words in sequence, with partial credit down to "less than 50%".
- "No credit is given for no response or an irrelevant response."
- "If you stop for three seconds whilst speaking, the recording status will change to 'completed' even if you haven't finished." The format page names Repeat Sentence as one of the tasks this applies to.
A wrong word costs one error inside a band that tolerates errors. A long stop can end the recording with half the sentence unsaid, which can cost you a whole Content band, and it lowers Oral Fluency as well. So the decision on test day is always the same: keep talking, in the order you heard it.
What to say when you have lost part of it (TalkDrill's recovery pattern)
Say the opening chunk exactly as heard. Leave the smallest possible pause. Say the closing chunk. Stop. For example: "Students who missed the lecture ... from the website." Do not say "sorry", do not restart, and do not fill the gap with invented words, because insertions are errors and "sorry" sounds like a false start.
Answer Short Question: the other 3 to 9 second task
Answer Short Question also plays a short recording once, and it trips up the same habit: waiting too long. Pearson's format page and the Score Guide set it out like this:
| Detail | Answer Short Question (PTE Academic) |
|---|---|
| Items | 5 to 6 (Score Guide) |
| Audio | 3 to 9 seconds; you may also see an image |
| Time to answer | 10 seconds |
| Tone | None: "there is no short tone", so speak as soon as the status shows Recording |
| Answer length | A single word or a few words |
| Scoring | Correct or incorrect; trait Vocabulary, 1 or 0 |
| Skill | Listening (Score Guide). The format page says speaking and writing are not tested |
Pearson's tips are short and worth following exactly. "If you wait for more than three seconds, the recording will stop", so answer at once. And "There is no point in saying more than you need to say", because "There are no extra marks for additional words." Its own example question is "What type of periodical is published on a daily basis?", and it shows two answers of different lengths that "would score the same marks".
PTE Core has the same task, also with 5 to 6 items, and the PTE Core Score Guide (January 2026) lists it under Listening and Speaking. Five practice questions written by TalkDrill are below; another five, with model answers and notes, are in the practice bank. Have someone read each question once, then answer within three seconds.
| Question (read it aloud once) | Answer |
|---|---|
| What do you call the line where the sky seems to meet the land or the sea? | The horizon |
| Which month comes immediately after February? | March |
| What is the name of the place where you can borrow books for free? | A library |
| If someone is a vegetarian, what kind of food do they not eat? | Meat |
| Which instrument do astronomers use to look at distant stars? | A telescope |
10 practice sentences by length
All ten sentences were written by TalkDrill in the campus and study style Pearson's own examples use; none is a PTE item. They are grouped by length so you can climb. You need someone, or something, to read them to you: a study partner reading at normal speed, or any text-to-speech reader. Do not read them yourself first, or the memory test is gone.
- Record your answer the moment the sentence ends.
- Check it against the text: count words in the right order and note which band (3, 2, 1 or 0) you would have reached.
- Note any stop longer than a breath.
Show the sentences (for the person reading them aloud)
| # | Sentence | Words | Chunks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The seminar has been moved to room twelve. | 8 | The seminar / has been moved / to room twelve |
| 2 | Most students prefer to study in the morning. | 8 | Most students / prefer to study / in the morning |
| 3 | Please switch off your phones before the exam begins. | 9 | Please switch off your phones / before the exam begins |
| 4 | The results of the survey will be published next month. | 10 | The results of the survey / will be published / next month |
| 5 | You need to register for the workshop by Wednesday afternoon. | 10 | You need to register / for the workshop / by Wednesday afternoon |
| 6 | Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing governments today. | 11 | Climate change / is one of the biggest challenges / facing governments today |
| 7 | The new bus route connects the campus with the city centre. | 11 | The new bus route / connects the campus / with the city centre |
| 8 | Several researchers have since questioned whether the original experiment was properly designed. | 12 | Several researchers have since questioned / whether the original experiment / was properly designed |
| 9 | Students are reminded that late assignments will not be accepted without evidence. | 12 | Students are reminded / that late assignments / will not be accepted without evidence |
| 10 | The museum's new exhibition explores how trade and travel shaped the ancient world. | 13 | The museum's new exhibition / explores how trade and travel / shaped the ancient world |
What each length tests. Sentences 1 to 3 should be exact every time; if they are not, the problem is listening or nerves, not memory. Sentences 4 to 7 test whether you hear three chunks. Sentences 8 to 10 test the bridge: the middle of a 12 or 13-word sentence is where most people lose words, and the recovery pattern above is how you keep at least half.
Watch the small endings as you check: "moved" (a d sound), "questioned", "designed", "reminded", "shaped" (a t sound), and the plurals "phones", "results", "challenges", "governments". A dropped ending changes the word, which costs Content as well as Pronunciation. These endings are a common difficulty for speakers of languages whose words usually end in a vowel, such as Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam, and for Nepali speakers. The past-tense -ed endings drill and the plural endings drill target exactly these sounds.
Common losses and a 14-day route
| Loss | Which trait it hits | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Stopping to recall a missing word | Oral Fluency; three seconds ends the recording | Bridge from the first chunk to the last |
| Starting late or with "um" | Oral Fluency (not Content) | Start on the first word the moment the microphone opens |
| Saying a synonym ("due to" for "because of") | Content: each changed word is a replacement | Repeat, do not paraphrase |
| Changing the word order | Content, because it counts words in sequence | Echo the rhythm, which keeps the order |
| Dropping "the", "a", plurals or past endings | Content and Pronunciation | Practise endings; check your recording word by word |
| Flat, rushed delivery | Oral Fluency and Pronunciation | Copy the speaker's stress and falling intonation, as Pearson advises |
| Writing the sentence down | Content (attention split while listening) | Picture the meaning instead |
A 14-day route, ten to fifteen minutes a day
- Days 1 and 2, baseline. Have all ten sentences above read to you. Record each answer and mark the Content band you reached. Keep the recordings.
- Days 3 to 6, shadowing. Ten minutes a day with a lecture or news clip, pausing after each sentence and repeating it. Start at six to eight words.
- Days 7 to 10, the length ladder. Sentences 4 to 10 above, then the eight sentences in the PTE Speaking practice bank, each with its chunk marks and memory hook. Use the recovery pattern on purpose once a day so it is automatic.
- Days 11 and 12, the endings. The two ending drills linked above, then re-record sentences 8 to 10 and listen only for endings.
- Days 13 and 14, test sequence. Seven Read Aloud passages from our Read Aloud page, then twelve Repeat Sentence items without a break, then five Answer Short Questions. Compare day 14 with day 1.
After Repeat Sentence, the next task in Part 1 is Describe Image, and the 79 plus roadmap folds all of these into a 30-day plan. Nepali and Filipino candidates should also read PTE Speaking for Nepali and Filipino candidates for the final-sound and stress patterns that cost words in this task. The primary source for this page is Pearson's PTE Academic Speaking and Writing format page; the Content bands are in the Score Guide on the PTE Academic scoring page, and the Core version of the task is on the PTE Core Speaking and Writing format page.