PTE 79+: integrated tasks that lift two scores at once
By Saurabh Thakulla · Published · Updated
“PTE 79+” usually means scoring at least 79 in each of the four communicative skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing. One weak skill is enough to miss the target, even if your overall score is high.
Australia changed its PTE requirements on 7 August 2025. The old “79 in every skill” rule for superior English applies only to tests taken on or before 6 August 2025. For tests taken from 7 August 2025, the Department of Home Affairs asks for at least 69 listening, 70 reading, 85 writing and 88 speaking (checked 8 October 2026). Writing and speaking now need more than 79, so the integrated tasks below matter even more.
The fastest way to lift all four is to understand integrated tasks. In PTE Academic, many tasks count towards more than one skill. Get one of them right and two scores go up. Get it wrong and two go down.
The integrated tasks
| Task | Counts towards |
|---|---|
| Read Aloud | Reading and speaking |
| Repeat Sentence | Listening and speaking |
| Re-tell Lecture | Listening and speaking |
| Summarize Written Text | Reading and writing |
| Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks | Reading and writing |
| Summarize Spoken Text | Listening and writing |
| Write from Dictation | Listening and writing |
| Highlight Incorrect Words | Listening and reading |
Since August 2025, PTE also includes Summarize Group Discussion, where you listen to several speakers and summarise the discussion aloud, and Respond to a Situation, a spoken reply to an everyday scenario.
Why this matters for 79+
Because these tasks feed two skills, they are where practice pays off twice. Three of them deserve extra attention:
Read Aloud. It’s short, appears early and is scored on both content and how you say it. Clear pronunciation and a steady pace, with no long pauses or restarts, matter more than a perfect accent.
Repeat Sentence. You hear a sentence once and repeat it. Every word you reproduce counts, so practise holding phrases in memory rather than single words, and keep speaking even if you miss part of it.
Write from Dictation. You hear one sentence and type it exactly. Spelling and every word count. It’s short, but a strong source of both listening and writing marks, so practise until you rarely miss a word.
Templates won’t save you anymore
For years, students memorised fixed templates for Describe Image, Re-tell Lecture and the essay. Since August 2025, Pearson’s scoring combines AI with human review, and memorised templates are detected and penalised.
Learning a structure is still useful: an opening, two or three key points, a conclusion. Fill it with what you actually see or hear, in your own words.
A weekly routine that works
- Daily: 15 minutes of Read Aloud and Repeat Sentence, recorded so you can listen back.
- Daily: 10 Write from Dictation sentences. Check every spelling mistake.
- Three times a week: one Summarize Written Text and one Summarize Spoken Text, keeping strictly to the word limits.
- Weekly: one full mock test under real timing. Then spend more time on the tasks that lost the most marks than on the ones you already do well.
Measure, don’t guess
The hardest part of PTE speaking is that you can’t judge your own fluency and pronunciation. Record yourself and listen back. Better still, use practice that marks every word, so you can see exactly which sounds and pauses cost you marks.
Prepyo’s PTE practice includes all of these task types, including the two added in August 2025, with instant feedback and a mistake bank that brings weak tasks back until they improve.
Frequently asked questions
Practise on Prepyo
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