PTE Speaking practice with an AI partner

PTE Academic Speaking is a run of short, timed tasks answered into a microphone. You read aloud, repeat sentences, describe an image, retell a lecture and answer short questions, and since August 2025 you also summarize a group discussion and respond to an everyday situation. Preparation time is short or absent, so what you need is the habit of starting promptly and keeping going.

Airi is a voice AI partner you can rehearse those tasks with as a role-play. Ask her to say a sentence for you to repeat, give a short talk for you to retell, or play the other person in a situation. She answers out loud, reacts to what you said and shows one small fix at a time. She does not score your answers or predict a PTE result.

A quick example with Airi

Can we practice Retell Lecture? Give me a short talk and I'll retell it.

Sure. Here it is: City trees do more than look nice. They shade the streets and keep them cooler in summer, and their roots help the ground soak up heavy rain. That is why some cities now plan for trees the way they plan for roads. Go ahead when you're ready.

The talk was about trees in cities. The speaker said trees keep streets cooler and helps the ground soak up rain. So some cities treat trees as seriously as roads.

Small fix: "trees keep streets cooler and help the ground soak up rain." You kept the main idea and both reasons. Want a longer talk this time?

Try a conversation like this, free600 free credits, about 8 minutes of speaking. No card.

PTE Academic Speaking format: seven question types and their timings

PTE Academic's speaking tasks open Part 1, Speaking and Writing, which Pearson lists at about 76 to 84 minutes with the writing tasks. The question counts below are from Pearson's Test Taker Score Guide (July 2025 edition), and the timings from its test format page (pearsonpte.com).

Task	Questions	Prepare, then speak	What you do
Read Aloud	6 to 7	30 to 40 seconds, then read (time varies with the text)	Read a text of up to 60 words.
Repeat Sentence	10 to 12	No preparation, 15 seconds	Repeat a sentence of 3 to 9 seconds.
Describe Image	5 to 6	25 seconds, then 40 seconds	Describe an image in detail.
Retell Lecture	2 to 3	10 seconds, then 40 seconds	Retell a lecture of up to 90 seconds in your own words.
Answer Short Question	5 to 6	No preparation, 10 seconds	Answer in one or a few words.
Summarize Group Discussion	2 to 3	10 seconds, then 2 minutes	Summarize a discussion of up to 3 minutes between three people.
Respond to a Situation	2 to 3	10 seconds, then 40 seconds	Read and hear a situation of up to 60 words, then answer a question about it.

Pearson added Summarize Group Discussion and Respond to a Situation in August 2025, so older practice material omits them. Before the first task there is a personal introduction (25 seconds to prepare, 30 to speak) that does not count toward your score.

How PTE Speaking is scored: content, oral fluency and pronunciation

Pearson's Score Guide rates six of the seven tasks on three traits. Answer Short Question is the exception: each answer is simply correct or incorrect.

Content: how well your answer fits the prompt. In Read Aloud and Repeat Sentence it is a matter of words: each one you replace, leave out or add is an error. In Describe Image, Retell Lecture, Summarize Group Discussion and Respond to a Situation it is rated 0 to 6, by a human expert as well as AI. If the two disagree, a second human decides.
Oral fluency (0 to 5, AI only): the top band describes smooth rhythm and phrasing with no hesitations, repetitions or false starts. Pearson's format page says the best responses keep a constant and natural rate of speech.
Pronunciation (0 to 5, AI only): the top band describes sounds that regular speakers of English understand easily, with stress in the right places.
Memorized answers: the guide classes responses that contain pre-prepared or memorized material as irrelevant. Content gets 0, and the other two traits are then not rated at all.

Opening lines for Describe Image, Retell Lecture and the two newest PTE tasks

Task	A strong answer begins	Then cover
Describe Image: say what it shows	This line graph shows how average rents changed in three cities between 2015 and 2025.	The highest and lowest points, one comparison or trend, and what it all adds up to.
Retell Lecture: give the main idea	The lecture was about sleep and memory. The speaker's main point was that ...	The reasons or examples the speaker gave, linked with words like "because" and "as a result".
Summarize Group Discussion: compare speakers	The first speaker wanted to run interviews, whereas the second preferred an online survey.	The third speaker's view, where they agreed or disagreed, and where the discussion ended up.
Respond to a Situation: greet, then ask	Hi Professor Lee, do you have a minute? I've been sick all week, so could I submit the essay on Monday instead?	A detail from the prompt that supports your request, and a polite close.

The third column follows what the Score Guide's top content bands describe. Adapt the openings, never recite them: everything after the first few words must come from the prompt in front of you.

PTE Speaking mistakes the Score Guide marks down

Instead of	Say	Why
Read Aloud: "The govern ... sorry, the government has agreed ..."	"The government has agreed ..." Keep reading; never go back.	The oral fluency scale marks down false starts and repetitions, and an added word counts as a content error.
Describe Image: "There is a blue bar. There is a red bar."	"Sales in Asia, the blue bars, were almost double those in Europe."	A bare list of points sits near the bottom of the content scale; relationships between features sit at the top.
Retell Lecture: "Bees. Pollination. Crops. A problem."	"The speaker explained that many crops depend on bees, so losing bees means smaller harvests."	Isolated words rate near the bottom for content; main ideas in your own words rate at the top.
Respond to a Situation: "Sorry I missed the test. Can I take it later?"	"Professor Lee, I'm sorry I missed yesterday's test. I had a fever, and I can bring a doctor's note. Could I take it later this week?"	A fitting answer with no elaboration or support is rated 1 for content; the top band is fully developed. Pearson's format page also asks for formal or informal language to suit who you are talking to.
Repeat Sentence: "The library will be closed ... um ... sorry, I forgot the rest."	"The library will be closed until the end of the month." If a word is gone, keep going with the words you have.	Content counts the prompt's words in the correct order: all of them is 3 points, at least half is 2. Hesitating costs oral fluency, and an apology adds nothing.

PTE Speaking drills to run with Airi

Free credits cover about eight minutes of speaking, so pick two or three steps per sitting. Airi does not rate your answers or predict a PTE result; she answers out loud and shows one small fix at a time. Keep your own timer.

Repeat Sentence: "Say a ten-word sentence about university life, then wait while I repeat it. Do five, each a little longer."
Retell Lecture: "Give me a one-minute talk on a science topic, then stop." Retell it in 40 seconds: topic, main point, one example.
Describe Image: describe any chart from a news site for 40 seconds, then ask: "What did you picture? What was unclear?" In the Score Guide, top content lets a listener picture the whole image.
Respond to a Situation: "Be my professor. I missed yesterday's test because my train was canceled. I'll start." Greet, explain, ask.
Summarize Group Discussion: "Make up a short discussion between three students, Ana, Ben and Chloe, about whether lectures should be recorded, and tell me what each one says." Then summarize who thought what, and where they disagreed, in under two minutes.
When a small fix appears, say the corrected sentence once and move on.

How to get the most from it

Plan in the preparation time

Read Aloud gives you 30 to 40 seconds before the microphone opens: read the text through and decide where to pause. Describe Image gives you 25: find what the image compares and its biggest difference.

Copy the rhythm in Repeat Sentence

Pearson's own tip is to copy the stress and intonation of the sentence you hear. Say it back in the same phrases, not word by word.

Use the full two minutes

Summarize Group Discussion is the longest spoken answer in the test. Say what each speaker thought, then where they agreed or disagreed.

Start speaking today

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Frequently asked questions

Does Airi follow PTE task types?

As a role-play, yes. Ask her to say sentences for you to repeat, give a short talk for you to retell, or act out a situation, and she will answer out loud and respond to what you say. She is a practice partner, not the test software, so bring your own chart for Describe Image and keep your own timer. She does not score your answers.

Is this official PTE prep?

No. Airi is an independent AI speaking partner for practice, not affiliated with or endorsed by PTE or Pearson. For the official format and criteria, use Pearson's own website and its Test Taker Score Guide.

Will it help my speaking score?

No practice tool can promise a PTE result, and Airi does not score your speaking or predict one. What she offers is speaking time: a place to practice answering promptly and getting to the end of a sentence without going back to repair it. Signing up with Google gives you 600 free credits, about eight minutes of speaking. After that there are one-off packs, USD 5, 10 or 20 for 2,600, 7,200 or 17,000 credits, with no subscription.

Can I use templates in PTE Speaking?

Not safely. Pearson's Score Guide classes responses that contain pre-prepared or memorized material as irrelevant, which means 0 for content and no points for that response. Content in Describe Image, Retell Lecture, Summarize Group Discussion and Respond to a Situation is also reviewed by a human expert. Learn flexible opening lines, then fill them with what is actually in the prompt.

Does my accent matter in PTE Speaking?

What matters is whether you are easy to understand, not which variety of English you speak. Pearson states that PTE Academic recognizes regional and national varieties of English pronunciation to the degree that most regular speakers of the language can understand them. The lower bands of the pronunciation scale describe speech that is hard to follow: consistently mispronounced sounds, omitted consonants and stress in the wrong place.

What happens if I pause during a PTE Speaking answer?

Two things. Pearson's format page says hesitations, repetitions and false starts will negatively affect your score. And Pearson's instructions for Answer Short Question say the recording stops if you wait more than three seconds, or stop for three seconds while speaking. Practice starting promptly and finishing the sentence even when it is not perfect.

Last updated: 2026-10-03