Big PTE Update from August 7, 2025 – Everything You Need to Know
🚨 Important Update for PTE Academic/UKVI from August 7th, 2025: All the Information You Need
A significant modification to the PTE Academic and PTE UKVI exams has been formally announced by Pearson and is scheduled to launch on August 7th, 2025. This update is necessary if you're getting ready to appear for the exam on or after the mentioned date and could impact how you prepare.
In this blog, we’ll break down everything you need to know, including:
- The rationale behind Pearson's modifications
- What exactly is changing?
- The impact this has on you and your preparation
Now let's get started.
🤔 Why Is The PTE Academic Exam Changing?
Pearson aims to enhance the PTE's fairness, dependability, and accuracy in reflecting real-world communication. The official announcement states that these changes are designed to improve the evaluation process and ensure that test-takers can more effectively demonstrate their true language proficiency.
Over the past 12 months, several exam administrators reported that trial questions, such as "Respond to a Situation" and "Summarize Group Discussion," appeared in the test.
These two question structures will formally become a permanent feature of the PTE Speaking section of the PTE Academic and PTE UKVI exams as of August 7, 2025.
🤷 What's Changing?
➤ Two New Question Types Introduced:
✅ Respond to a Situation:
🔹 Task: Listen to a real-life scenario and react suitably.
🔹 Skill Evaluated: Speaking.
Want to practice? Start with the Respond to a Situation Sample Questions, designed to reflect everyday scenarios.
✅ Summarize Group Discussion
🔹 Task: Recap the main ideas from a brief audio group discussion.
🔹 Skills Evaluated: Speaking and Listening
Looking to sharpen your skills? Begin with curated Summarize Group Discussion Sample Questions that mirror typical group conversations.
➤ The total number of question types was 20, but it is now 22.
➤ The test duration has been extended by approximately fifteen minutes.
📌 Important: Nothing changes for you if your test is before 7th August 2025. If your exam is on or after August 7th, you must prepare for these new formats.
📝 What About Human Marking?
For 7 question types, Pearson has increased human oversight:
- Describe Image
- Retell Lecture
- Respond to a Situation
- Summarize Group Discussion
- Summarize Written Text
- Write Essay
- Summarize Spoken Text
This update aims to reduce the over-reliance on memorized templates. If a response appears overly templated or copied, it may be flagged for human review. However, if your answers are relevant and original, there is no need to worry.
📈 Is The Score Report Changing?
No. The PTE scoring methodology has not changed:
➤ Quick results in 2–5 business days;
➤ Completely AI-scored, with human oversight for certain tasks;
➤ Score out of 90;
➤ Module structure and section format remain unchanged;
➤ Accepted by universities, institutions, and visas worldwide
📚 What About PTE Core?
As of right now, the PTE Core test has not undergone any changes. Continue with your preparations for the PTE Core as planned.
✍️ Key Conclusions
➤ Don't worry if your test is before August 7th, 2025, as it won't affect you.
➤ Be sure to practice the two new question types if your test is on or after August 7th, 2025.
➤ While templates may still be permitted, they should be used wisely with real, topic-specific content.
➤ Rather than making the test harder, the modifications are intended to make it more fair and realistic.
Start practicing the new questions now on AlfaPTE.com.
We’ve already updated our platform to reflect the new changes, so you can get a head start today!
💬 Do You Have Any More Questions?
Reach out to our support team or join our active community to discuss how these updates might affect your personal strategy.
Watch this space for detailed guides and video tutorials on each new task—only on Alfa PTE.
