PTE Academic Question Types & How Each Is Scored
PTE Academic has twenty question types across speaking, writing, reading and listening. What trips candidates up is not the number of types but that they are scored in different ways — some by fixed rules, some by AI, some with negative marking. Here is every type, how it is scored, and a full guide for each.
Scoring at a glance
| Scoring method | Applies to |
|---|---|
| AI speech scoring | Read Aloud, Repeat Sentence, Describe Image, Retell Lecture, Summarize Group Discussion, Respond to a Situation, Answer Short Question |
| AI writing scoring | Summarize Written Text, Write Essay, Summarize Spoken Text |
| Deterministic (fixed rules) | All reading tasks, Fill in the Blanks, Write from Dictation, Highlight Correct Summary, Select Missing Word |
| Negative marking | Multiple Choice Multiple Answers (reading & listening) and Highlight Incorrect Words only |
Speaking question types
Writing question types
Reading question types
Listening question types
Frequently asked questions
How many question types are in PTE Academic?
Twenty, spread across speaking (7), writing (2), reading (5) and listening (8), including the newer Summarize Group Discussion and Respond to a Situation speaking tasks.
Which PTE Academic questions have negative marking?
Only Multiple Choice Multiple Answers (in reading and listening) and Highlight Incorrect Words. In these, each wrong selection cancels a correct one, floored at zero — every other task has no penalty.
Which PTE question types are worth the most practice?
The cross-scored ones — Read Aloud, Write from Dictation and Summarize Spoken Text — because each contributes to two skill bands, so improving them lifts more than one score.
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