PTE Academic preparation, live online
PTE Academic uses AI-led scoring, with human content checks on selected tasks. Preparation needs both clear spoken delivery and relevant answers. Our live lessons cover task technique, timed practice and feedback; our practice results are not official Pearson scores.
Exam format
What the PTE Academic actually looks like
The structure, the timing and the scoring, stated plainly — before anything about a course.
- Length
- About two hours
- Questions
- 22 task types across three parts
- Scored
- 10–90 overall, with the same scale for each of the four skills
- Adaptivity
- Not adaptive; every candidate meets the same task types
Speaking and Writing
Read aloud, repeat sentence, describe image, re-tell lecture, answer short questions, respond to a situation and summarize a group discussion, then summarize written text and an essay. The two conversational speaking tasks were added in 2025 and are the ones older material does not cover.
Reading
Two separate fill in the blanks formats, a re-order paragraphs task, and multiple choice in both a single-answer and a multiple-answer version. Only the multiple-answer variant deducts marks within the question itself, and that one difference should change how you guess on it.
Listening
Write from dictation, summarize spoken text, highlight incorrect words, highlight the correct summary, plus multiple choice and fill in the blanks. The dictation task earns far more than its handful of seconds implies, because one answer feeds both a listening score and a writing score.
- AI scores every response; seven task types also receive human content ratings. Pronunciation and oral fluency remain AI-scored.
- Some tasks contribute to more than one skill score. Use the current Pearson score guide rather than assuming every task has equal weight.
- Results usually arrive within days rather than weeks, which matters when an application deadline is close.
Before you start
Is PTE Academic preparation right for you?
Who it suits. Students whose chosen institution accepts PTE Academic and who want practice with computer-delivered tasks and feedback.
When to check another option. PTE Core or PTE Home preparation by assumption. Check the exact variant required before booking lessons or the test.
Why it matters
What a PTE Academic score is for
Start with the exact test variant and minimum scores your institution accepts. Then compare the computer-based format with your strengths. Lessons focus on the tasks behind a weak score, so practice has a specific purpose rather than becoming repeated full tests.
Coverage
What the preparation covers
The ground a course goes over. A group course takes it in its published order; for one-to-one lessons, how much of it you need and in what order is what the diagnostic decides.
- Speaking practice includes the two 2025 additions: responding to a situation and summarising a group discussion
- Writing: summarise written text, and the essay, at the length and structure the rubric expects
- Reading: fill in the blanks, re-order paragraphs, multiple choice
- Listening: summarise spoken text, fill in the blanks, highlight incorrect words, write from dictation
- How integrated-skill scoring works, and full-length practice tests marked against it
Where marks go
Where candidates lose marks on the PTE Academic
Not a list of study tips. These are the specific ways this particular test takes marks off people who know the material.
Preparing without the 2025 speaking tasks
Respond to a Situation and Summarize Group Discussion were added in 2025. Material written before that does not mention them, and meeting an unfamiliar task type in a timed speaking section is an expensive way to find out.
Pausing to think in a speaking task
The engine scores fluency continuously. A long pause reads as disfluency even when what follows is excellent, and self-correcting mid-sentence costs more than the error would have. Keeping going is a technique, and it is learnable.
Ignoring how integrated scoring works
Because tasks score two skills at once, a weakness shows up in a score you did not expect. Students who diagnose from the score report alone often fix the wrong thing; the fix is usually in the task, not the skill.
Writing over or under the word count
Summarize written text and the essay both have limits, and the engine applies them without judgement. A summary that runs to two sentences scores badly no matter how good it is, and this is the easiest mark on the test to stop losing.
Guessing on multiple-answer reading questions
Those questions mark you down for wrong selections within the question. Selecting everything plausible is worse than selecting only what you are sure of, which is the opposite of the instinct most tests train.
Treating write-from-dictation as a listening task
It scores listening and writing together, is worth more than its length suggests, and rewards a specific technique — capturing structure first, filling words after. Most candidates never practise it deliberately.
Lesson format
Group course, or one-to-one
Group · 45 hours
Forty-five hours: 25 ninety-minute lessons on the task types, then five full mock exams, each gone through live in class. Classes hold at most six, task types are taught with their scoring in view so you know which part of an answer is actually being read, and twenty PTE practice tests and the question bank come with the course.
One-to-one
One-to-one lessons for a band you need by a date — usually speaking fluency, or the summarise-written-text and essay tasks, where a repeatable structure moves the score fastest.
Group course
How the PTE Academic group course runs
A fixed timetable, in Türkiye time (UTC+3). The dates and lessons below are the ones the classes are actually taught to.
- Lessons
- 90 minutes each
- Days and times
- Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, 19:00–20:30
- Length
- 13 to 14 weeks · 45 hours
- Class size
- Up to 24 students per group, taught by level in classes of at most 6
Week by week
- Topic lessons: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 19:00–20:30 — 25 lessons of 90 minutes.
- Mock exams: five full mocks, online and timed, on Sunday mornings at 10:00, outside lesson time.
- Mock reviews: each mock is gone through in class the following Tuesday, 19:00–20:30. A review covers only the mock before it.
What the lessons cover
- Speaking · 8 lessons
- Writing · 2 lessons
- Reading · 5 lessons
- Listening · 7 lessons
- Format, integrated practice and strategy · 3 lessons — the opening format lesson, an integrated-skills lesson, and a final strategy lesson
- Mock reviews · 5 lessons — one after each of the five full mocks
Start dates open for enrolment
Starts Mon 4 January 2027
Last lesson 30 March 2027 · enrol by 1 January 2027
Starts Mon 1 March 2027
Last lesson 1 June 2027 · enrol by 26 February 2027
Starts Mon 17 May 2027
Last lesson 17 August 2027 · enrol by 14 May 2027
What the course includes
- 20 full-length PTE Academic practice tests
- The PTE question bank, full access
- TestPrep AI Tutor, which talks you through the mistakes in your practice tests — your first 2 are free
- Five full PTE mock exams, each reviewed live in class
- Speaking mocks, and marked feedback on your Writing
- Every lesson recorded, to rewatch for 14 days
- A study plan written for you by TestPrep
- Homework, with your progress tracked from lesson to lesson
- Questions answered within 24 hours
- Regular progress reports for parents
- All course materials, at no extra cost
The question bank opens on your account once the first week of the course is over, and the practice tests on the day of the last topic lesson.
Paid by card on this site, in US dollars, through Stripe. The exact amount is shown before you pay. A group place is confirmed by e-mail once the payment goes through, and what the course includes opens on the account registered here with the student's e-mail address.
How it runs
How the teaching works
A diagnostic before one-to-one lessons are planned
One-to-one lessons start by finding out where the marks are actually going. That is not a formality: on most of these tests the gap a student describes and the gap the diagnostic shows are different, and hours spent on the described one are hours wasted. A group course starts on its published first lesson instead. If you want a baseline of your own first, the free PTE Academic diagnostic test is there for that.
Teaching in the order your deadline allows
A group course works through the syllabus in a fixed order because a class has to. One-to-one starts with whatever is costing you most and works outwards, which is why it suits a retake or a short runway better.
Timed work from early, not saved for the end
Untimed accuracy is a poor predictor of a timed score, and finding that out three weeks before the test is too late. Timed sections start in the first fortnight, short at first.
Review and progress checks
Review looks beyond the mark: which errors recur, whether the reasoning is clearer and how accuracy holds under time pressure. Bring earlier attempts to the discussion so the next practice has a specific purpose.
All of it runs in the browser, live, with a teacher on the other end. There are no recordings sold as a course and no premises to travel to.
Timeline
How long PTE Academic preparation takes
A rough shape rather than a promise. People arrive at different starting points and the plan is built around yours, but this is what a full run usually looks like.
- 1
Six to twelve weeks out — diagnostic and task audit
A full-length test to establish the band, then a task-by-task audit. On PTE the useful diagnosis is which tasks are costing marks, not which skills, because the scoring is integrated.
- 2
Weeks 2–6 — task types against the rubric
Each task type taught with its scoring criteria in view, so you know which part of an answer the engine actually reads. The two 2025 speaking tasks are covered like any other, not as an addendum.
- 3
Weeks 6–10 — timed practice and recorded feedback
Full sections under timing, with recorded speaking feedback. Fluency and pronunciation improve from hearing your own attempts against a model far faster than from being told about them.
- 4
Final fortnight — the tasks still costing you
Narrow and repetitive by design: the three or four task types still losing marks, drilled until the technique is automatic under a clock.
Practice
Practising between lessons
Lessons are where something gets explained; the marks move in the hours between them. The PTE Academic group course includes both: the question bank opens once its first week is over, and the practice tests on the day of the last topic lesson. One-to-one packages do not include them; both are also sold on their own.
Full-length practice tests
The real section timing, the on-screen tools the test gives you, and the real adaptive behaviour. A score from an untimed paper printout tells you much less than it appears to.
Question bank
Filter to one section and one difficulty band and work a narrow skill until the pattern in your wrong answers is obvious. Solved questions are remembered, so a session does not hand back what you already got right.
TestPrep AI Tutor talks you through the questions you got wrong
When your PTE practice test ends, pick a mistake on your results page and the lesson starts. The tutor won't just read out the answer: it asks you, writes the steps on the board and lets you find where you went wrong.
On the PTE it works through Listening and Reading questions. Your PTE Writing (Write Essay, Summarize Written Text, Summarize Spoken Text) text is coached against Pearson's published scoring traits. On the Speaking tasks it works from the transcript of your recording; it does not re-score pronunciation or fluency.
Your first 2 mistakes are free (up to 10 minutes)
No card needed to try it, just your account.
Then 30-minute blocks at $4. Unused minutes stay on your account for your next practice tests.
FAQ
PTE Academic questions we get asked
- Is PTE easier than IELTS?
- Neither is universally easier. PTE uses computer-delivered tasks and AI-led scoring with selected human checks; IELTS includes an interview. Compare accepted test variants, the format and your own practice responses before choosing.
- How quickly do results come back?
- Usually within a few days, which is why it is often the choice when a deadline is close. Confirm the current turnaround with Pearson before you plan an application around it.
- Does my accent matter?
- Scoring rewards being understood, not sounding like any particular variety of English, and the engine was built against speakers from many first-language backgrounds. What genuinely costs marks is hesitation, stress landing on the wrong syllable, and word endings that get swallowed — every one of which responds to practice.
- What is a good PTE score?
- Entirely dependent on what you are applying for: universities and visa routes publish their own minimums, and they differ by more than people expect. Find the number your actual application needs before setting a target.
- Can I prepare in six weeks?
- If you are already close to the band you need and the gap is technique rather than English, yes — PTE responds well to short, targeted preparation because so much of it is task technique. If the gap is the language itself, six weeks is optimistic.
- Do the practice tests here score like the real thing?
- They apply the same task types and the same timing, and the fill-in-the-blank tasks are marked the way the test marks them. Speaking and writing get teacher feedback against the rubric rather than a machine score, which is more useful for improving and less useful as a prediction.
Pricing
What PTE Academic preparation costs
Shown in US dollars. Charged in US dollars — there is no conversion at checkout to be surprised by.
One-to-one lessons
One-to-one lessons for a band you need by a date — usually speaking fluency, or the summarise-written-text and essay tasks, where a repeatable structure moves the score fastest.
Single lesson
One 90-minute lesson, to see how it goes.
$70Book10 lessons
Prepaid, usable across subjects where the exam has them.
20 lessons
The usual choice for a full preparation run.
Group course · 45 hours
Forty-five hours: 25 ninety-minute lessons on the task types, then five full mock exams, each gone through live in class. Classes hold at most six, task types are taught with their scoring in view so you know which part of an answer is actually being read, and twenty PTE practice tests and the question bank come with the course.
Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, 19:00–20:30, Türkiye time. Next class starts Mon 4 January 2027. Timetable and start dates
Paid in full
The whole course, one payment.
In instalments
Per instalment: 2 monthly payments, the first when you enrol.
First private lesson, or first week of a group course: if it is not what you wanted, you get your money back.
Three or more of you preparing together? We can open a private group at the group course price, with the lesson days and times agreed with the group.
Paid by card on this site, in US dollars, through Stripe. The exact amount is shown before you pay. A group place is confirmed by e-mail once the payment goes through, and what the course includes opens on the account registered here with the student's e-mail address.