The task and its timing
You hear a sentence lasting 3 to 9 seconds, once, and repeat it exactly. The microphone opens after a short tone and you have 15 seconds to answer (Pearson). The audio cannot be replayed.
Because it is an integrated item, the score counts towards both Listening and Speaking.
Scales and ranges are from Pearson's PTE Academic Test Taker Score Guide (the post-August-2025 edition, copyright 2025, PDF dated 4 March 2026), read on 4 October 2026. The level descriptions are our own summaries, not Pearson's wording.
Content: 0–3
Only replacements, omissions and insertions are errors. The guide says hesitations, pauses, filled pauses such as "um", and anything said before or after the sentence are ignored for content. They can still cost you on fluency.
| Score | What it typically means | Common reason for losing it |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Every word of the sentence, in the right order | One swapped or missed word drops you to 2 |
| 2 | At least half the words, in the right order | Losing the end of a longer sentence |
| 1 | Some words, in order, but under half | Remembering key words but not the structure joining them |
| 0 | Almost nothing from the sentence | Losing focus during the audio, or saying something unrelated |
Know your target? Check where you stand
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Take a free scored PTE mock →Pronunciation: 0–5
The same pronunciation scale applies to every scored speaking item. It measures how easily an ordinary English speaker understands you.
| Score | What it typically means | Common reason for losing it |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Highly proficient | An ordinary listener catches every sound without effort, words run together the way they do in natural speech, and both word stress and sentence stress are right. | Small stress slips on a long word |
| 4 Advanced | Sounds are clear, with a few small slips in a vowel, consonant or stress pattern that never make a word hard to understand. | One or two sounds consistently off |
| 3 Good | Most sounds are right, but a recurring slip or two leaves the odd word unclear, and some sounds are dropped or blurred in certain positions. | Unclear word endings that blur grammar words |
| 2 Intermediate | Some sounds are wrong every time; roughly two thirds of the speech is understandable and the listener has to tune in to the accent; stress sometimes lands in the wrong place. | Copying the words but not the stress pattern you heard |
| 1 Intrusive | Many sounds are wrong and the accent gets in the way; a listener could miss about a third of the words, and syllables may be added or dropped. | A heavy first-language sound pattern across the sentence |
| 0 Non-English | The speech follows another language's sound system; more than half could be unintelligible and many words have the wrong number of syllables. | Mumbling the words you did not catch |
Oral Fluency: 0–5
A sentence repeated perfectly but in fragments can still score low here, because fluency is judged separately from content.
| Score | What it typically means | Common reason for losing it |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Highly proficient | Smooth rhythm and natural phrasing, with no hesitations, repeated words, restarts or swallowed sounds. | A single pause to recall a word |
| 4 Advanced | Natural rhythm and sensible phrasing overall; a single slip (a pause, a repeated word or a restart) is tolerated. | Pausing twice, or repeating a phrase to get it right |
| 3 Good | A reasonable pace that may be uneven; more than one hesitation is possible, but most words come in connected phrases, with no long pauses and no choppy delivery. | Saying the sentence in uneven bursts |
| 2 Intermediate | Speech is uneven, but a longer answer still contains some fluent stretches of a few words, with only a couple of hesitations and at most one long silence. | A long gap while searching memory mid-sentence |
| 1 Limited | Irregular phrasing or word-by-word delivery, with several hesitations, repetitions or restarts; longer answers may contain one or two long pauses. | Word-by-word delivery with several restarts |
| 0 Disfluent | Slow and effortful, with most words spoken one at a time and more than one long pause. | Isolated words with long silences |
Practical advice for Repeat Sentence
This is our advice, not Pearson's rules. Listen in phrases rather than single words; Pearson's tips make the same point, because content is scored on correct word sequences.
If you missed a word, keep the rhythm and carry on rather than stopping. A missed word costs content, but a long silence costs fluency too.
Start speaking straight after the tone, and copy the speaker's stress and intonation. Pearson's test-format page warns that the recording stops if you stay silent for three seconds.
Drill short academic sentences daily. BandLadder's AI scores practice answers on content, pronunciation and fluency, as an unofficial guide.
Frequently asked questions
How many Repeat Sentence questions are in PTE Academic?+
10 to 12 per test, according to the Score Guide.
What is the maximum content score for Repeat Sentence?+
3, for every word of the sentence in the right order. Pronunciation and oral fluency are scored 0–5 each.
Do pauses count as content errors in Repeat Sentence?+
No. The guide says hesitations and pauses are ignored for content, but they still affect oral fluency.
Does Repeat Sentence affect my listening score?+
Yes. It counts towards both Listening and Speaking.
Can I replay the audio in Repeat Sentence?+
No. You hear it once and can record your answer once.
Keep reading
Related
- PTE Academic scoring criteria overview
- PTE Read Aloud scoring criteria
- Free PTE mock test
- PTE predictions
- All 711 guides
Verified against the linked official sources on 4 October 2026. Rules change: confirm on the official page before you book or apply.
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