If you’re planning to take the PTE Academic or PTE Academic UKVI anytime soon, you should know that some exciting updates are coming in 2025! These updates, set to launch on August 7, 2025, are designed to make the test even more accurate and fair in evaluating your English language skills. Let’s break down these changes and how they will impact your preparation.

What’s Staying the Same?

Before diving into the changes, here’s some good news: the core structure of the PTE Academic is staying the same. This means you’ll still see:

• The same test sections: Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing.

• The original 20-question types have been used to assess English proficiency for years.

• AI-powered scoring: The test will continue to rely on artificial intelligence (AI) to grade most of your responses, making it fast and fair.

• Quick results: Expect your test scores within 2-5 days of taking the exam, making it one of the quickest English proficiency tests available.

So, if you’re already familiar with the format, you’ll find that the updates will simply refine and enhance the test rather than change it dramatically.

What’s New? Two Exciting Question Types!

Now, let’s get to the exciting part. The new question types that will appear in the Speaking & Writing section. Here are the two updates you need to be aware of:

1. Summarize Group Discussion

• What You’ll Do: You’ll listen to a conversation between three people discussing a topic. After listening, you’ll be asked to summarize what they said in your own words.

• Time: The prompt will last up to 3 minutes, and you’ll have 2 minutes to respond.

• Skills Tested: This task will evaluate your listening and speaking abilities as you’ll need to understand the discussion and articulate the key points.

2. Respond to a Situation

• What You’ll Do: In this task, you will receive a brief description of a situation. After reading and listening to it, you’ll need to answer a question with an extended response.

• Time: The prompt length is up to 60 words, and you will have 40 seconds to give your answer.

• Skills Tested: This one will assess your speaking skills, specifically how well you can provide a clear, concise response to a given scenario.

Now, the test will feature 22 question types and a total of 65-75 questions in each exam, slightly increasing the number of questions while maintaining a similar exam duration.

Other Enhancements You Should Know About

Apart from the two new question types, here are some other important updates that will improve the test experience:

• More Questions, Same Duration: You’ll see a few more questions overall in the test, but the test will still last approximately two hours, with only slight variations in the time.

• Smarter Scoring: The way your answers are graded is getting even more advanced. While AI will still handle most of the grading, some questions will also involve human expert review to make sure everything is accurately assessed. However, note that humans won’t score things like pronunciation or fluency. The tasks that will include a human review of content before final scores are included in Describe Image, Retell Lecture, Respond to a Situation, Summarize Group Discussion, Summarize Written Text, Write Essay, and Summarize Spoken Text.

• Enhanced Scoring Criteria: PTE Academic has introduced enhanced scoring criteria for some tasks. These improvements are designed to make it easier for you to understand exactly what is required to achieve the best possible scores.

Why Are These Changes Happening?

The updates are part of Pearson’s ongoing effort to make the PTE Academic an even more authentic, fair, and efficient test of your English skills. For a test-taker, these changes mean you’ll face a more holistic and realistic assessment of your English skills. Whether you’re using PTE Academic for university admissions, professional certifications, or immigration, the updates are designed to give you a fairer and more accurate score.

How to Prepare for These Changes?

Since the scoring criteria have been enhanced, it’s also a good idea to focus on improving all aspects of your language: speaking, writing, reading and listening. If you’re taking the exam before August 7, 2025, there’s no need to worry about the new updates. you’ll still have the original 20 question types in your exam. However, if you’re taking the exam after August 7, 2025, make sure to prepare with updated PTE materials that include the new question types and scoring criteria. This will ensure you’re fully ready for the changes and can perform at your best.