Test Structure
The format and contents of the PTE-A unfold as seen in the following table. There are twenty different question types (listed as “Items”), eleven of which are new that is, these little tasks (many take less than a minute) have never appeared on a test of this sort before.
| Item Type | Skills Assessed | Time allowed |
| Part 1: Speaking and Writing (38 to 46 total items/tasks) | ||
| Personal Introduction | Not assessed (unscored) | 1 min. |
| 1. Read aloud | Reading and speaking | 30-35 min. |
| 2. Repeat sentence | Listening and speaking | |
| 3. Describe image | Speaking | |
| 4. Re-tell lecture | Listening and speaking | |
| 5. Answer short question | Listening and speaking | |
| 6. Summarize written text | Reading and writing | 20 min. |
| 7. Write essay | Writing | 20 min. |
| Part 2: Reading (15-20 total items) | ||
| 8. Multiple-choice, choose single answer | Reading | 32-41 min. |
| 9. Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers | Reading | |
| 10. Re-order paragraphs | Reading | |
| 11. Reading: fill in the blanks | Reading | |
| 12. Reading & writing: fill in the blanks | Reading and writing | |
| Part 3: Listening (17-25 total items) | ||
| 13. Summarize spoken text | Listening and writing | 20 or 30 min. |
| 14. Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers | Listening | 23-28 min. |
| 15. Fill in the blanks | Listening and writing | |
| 16. Highlight correct summary | Listening and reading | |
| 17. Multiple-choice, choose single answer | Listening | |
| 18. Select missing word | Listening | |
| 19. Highlight incorrect words | Listening and reading | |
| 20. Write from dictation | Listening and writing | |
| 19. Highlight incorrect words | Listening and reading | - |
| 20. Write from dictation | Listening and writing | - |