How to pass PTE
Pass means the score on your offer or visa form. Here is a task order that matches that number.
Name the pass mark
Passing PTE is not a universal 50. An offer might want 65 overall with no skill under 60. A visa table might want something else. Write the overall and the four floors on paper before you open a practice set. Without that, a good mock is just a number.
Enabling tasks first
Repeat Sentence, Read Aloud and Write from Dictation affect more than one skill on Academic. Drill them in short sets. Read the sentence once, in chunks, then speak at a steady pace. For dictation, write the whole sentence before you edit spelling. Five accurate items beat twenty rushed ones.
The long writing task for your paper
Academic candidates need Summarize Written Text as one sentence and an essay of about 200 to 300 words in 20 minutes. Core candidates need a 25 to 50 word summary and an email of 80 to 120 words in 9 minutes. Practising the wrong long task is a common reason a mock looks fine and the real test does not.
Mocks and the booking
One full timed mock a week is enough. More than that often trains fatigue rather than English. Book when several practice checks sit above the target, not after one lucky set. PTEGRO’s percentage is a practice check: speaking is a transcript match, writing is length and shared words, closed items are right or wrong. It is not Pearson’s 10–90 report.
Related reading: PTE or IELTS, is PTE easier, how to pass PTE, the score report. Then open practice.
A weekly shape
Five short days beat one long Sunday. Day one is Read Aloud. Day two is Repeat Sentence. Day three is Write from Dictation and the summary. Day four is the essay or the email. Day five is a mixed section. The weekend mock replaces a sixth drill if you are tired. Review misses the same day, or the list of weak types grows in secret.
Keep a note of the item type, not only the percentage. A 70 that hides a failed Describe Image will not survive a test that serves more images.
Speaking and writing without a myth
Pearson’s speaking mark uses more than a transcript. A practice site that counts matching words is a drill, not that mark. Still, if the transcript misses half the passage, the real mark will not be fine. Record, listen, and fix pace before you buy another course. For writing, hit the form first: one sentence for Academic summary, 200 to 300 words for the essay, 80 to 120 words for a Core email. Content that breaks the form is the usual miss.
When to book
Book when three recent timed practices sit at or above the required overall and no skill floor is missed. One good evening is not a trend. If the test is UKVI, book the UKVI product. If the form says Core or Home, stop Academic practice and switch. After the result, use the skill scores to decide whether a second attempt is worth the fee.
Review that actually changes the next mock
After each set, write the item type and the miss in one line. “Repeat Sentence dropped the second clause” is useful. “Speaking was bad” is not. Fix that line the next day before you add a new task. Keep word-count rules on a card: Academic summary one sentence, essay about 200 to 300 words, Core email 80 to 120 words in 9 minutes. Passing is this list, done under a timer, against the score on your form. It is not a certificate from a practice page.
If a skill floor is the risk, give that skill four of the five practice days. Overall practice that ignores the floor is how candidates pass the average and fail the offer.
Use the article, then the timer
Read this once, then sit a timed set the same day. An article that never becomes a microphone attempt will not change a score. Note the cut-off, the product name, and the item type you missed. Return to the matching practice path: Academic or UKVI for the two-hour paper, Core for the email paper, and the short speaking drill only if the form says Home. Keep the Pearson report separate from any practice check. The article explains the choice. The centre test is the only result an institution can verify.