A2–C2 · PTE Academic
PTE Academic Practice Test 2
AI-generated practice paper in the style of PTE Academic — original material, not a reproduction of any real exam paper, following the official task types. Listening audio is read aloud by your browser's voice. For Speaking you can record yourself and compare with a model answer, and Writing tasks include a model answer — neither is scored automatically, since that needs real speech and writing evaluation this site does not offer for this exam.
Speaking
Read Aloud
Look at the text below. In 30 seconds, you must read this text aloud as naturally and clearly as possible.
Solar panels convert sunlight directly into electricity using semiconductor materials, most commonly silicon. Although the technology was once prohibitively expensive, costs have fallen by around ninety percent in the past decade. In sunny regions, solar power is now often cheaper than electricity generated from coal.
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Model answer: Pronounce "semiconductor" and "prohibitively" carefully; they are the hardest words. Pause after "electricity" and "expensive". Stress "ninety percent" and "decade". In the last sentence, emphasise "often cheaper" and let your voice fall on "coal".
Migratory birds navigate thousands of kilometres with astonishing accuracy. Some species use the position of the sun and stars, while others detect the Earth's magnetic field. Young birds often make their first journey without guidance, relying entirely on instinct.
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Model answer: Stress "thousands" and "astonishing accuracy". Pause after "kilometres" and after "stars". Contrast "some species" with "others" using pitch. Pronounce "magnetic" clearly, and end "relying entirely on instinct" with a slow, falling tone.
Repeat Sentence
You will hear a sentence. Please repeat the sentence exactly as you hear it.
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Model answer: Our campus has a friendly atmosphere and excellent sports facilities.
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Model answer: Newspapers have struggled to survive as readers move online.
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Model answer: The theory was widely criticised when it was first proposed.
Describe Image
Describe the image in detail.
| Native speakers | Total speakers | |
|---|---|---|
| English | 380 | 1450 |
| Mandarin Chinese | 920 | 1130 |
| Hindi | 345 | 600 |
| Spanish | 485 | 560 |
| French | 80 | 310 |
| Arabic | 380 | 380 |
Look at the image below. In 25 seconds, prepare, then describe in detail what the image is showing. You will have 40 seconds to speak.
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Model answer: The table lists native and total speakers of six major languages in millions. English has the largest total, 1,450 million, but only 380 million native speakers, which means most people who use it learned it as a second language. Mandarin has the most native speakers, 920 million. Spanish has 485 million native speakers and 560 million in total. French shows the biggest gap between native and total speakers after English.
Re-tell Lecture
Listen to the lecture and retell it.
Listen to the lecture. Then retell it in your own words. You will have 40 seconds to speak.
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Model answer: The lecture explains Sahel desertification as land losing its capacity to support vegetation, driven by overgrazing, poor farming practices, and erratic rainfall from climate change, rather than the desert physically advancing. The Great Green Wall initiative aims to restore land across the continent, and while progress is slower than hoped, successful sections show real soil and water improvements.
Answer Short Question
You will hear a question. Type your answer in one or a few words.
1. Type what you hear.
2. Type what you hear.
3. Type what you hear.
4. Type what you hear.
Summarize Group Discussion
Listen to a group discussion and summarise it.
Listen to the discussion. Then summarise it, covering each speaker's main point. You will have 70 seconds to speak.
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Model answer: Anna worries intense competitive youth sport pressures children too early. Ben argues competition builds resilience and teamwork. Carla distinguishes healthy competition from overly intense, results-focused programs. The group agrees the real problem is early specialization and win-focused coaching, and that better coach training and multi-sport participation would preserve competition's benefits while reducing harm.
Respond to a Situation
Listen to the situation and respond as if you were in it.
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Model answer: I noticed we've taken a different, longer route than the one shown on the app when I booked this trip, and the fare has gone up quite a bit as a result. Is there a specific reason for this route, like traffic or roadworks? I'd like to raise this with the app afterward if the fare doesn't match what was originally quoted.
Writing
Summarize Written Text
Read the passage and write a one-sentence summary.
Cognitive load theory, developed by the educational psychologist John Sweller in the 1980s, starts from a simple observation: working memory, the mental workspace in which we consciously process new information, is extremely limited. Most people can hold only around four or five separate items in mind at once. Long-term memory, by contrast, has enormous capacity, and experts rely on it to organise knowledge into structured patterns called schemas, which allow them to treat many pieces of information as a single unit. A chess master, for instance, sees a familiar arrangement of pieces where a novice sees dozens of individual objects. The theory has important implications for teaching. If instructors present too much unfamiliar material at once, or if the presentation itself is confusing, learners' working memory becomes overloaded and little is retained. Sweller and his colleagues therefore recommend that beginners study worked examples rather than struggle with problems unaided, that related text and diagrams be placed close together, and that unnecessary decoration be removed. Interestingly, techniques that help novices can hinder advanced learners, since detailed guidance becomes redundant once a schema exists, a phenomenon called the expertise reversal effect. Critics argue that the theory underestimates the value of exploration and motivation, but its central message, that instruction should be designed around the limits of human memory, is widely respected among teachers.
Read the passage and summarise it in ONE sentence of no more than 75 words.
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Model answer: Cognitive load theory argues that limited working memory is easily overwhelmed, so teaching should use worked examples and clear, uncluttered presentation for beginners, while allowing experts, who already hold organised schemas, to receive less guidance, an approach widely respected despite some criticism.
Write Essay
Write an essay of about 200-300 words on the topic.
Experiments on animals have led to many important medical advances. However, some people believe that such testing is unacceptable. What is your opinion?
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Model answer: Animal testing forces us to weigh the suffering of animals against the potential to save human lives, and there is no comfortable answer. My own view is that it can be justified in limited circumstances, but only under strict conditions and with a firm commitment to replacing it.
It is undeniable that animal research has contributed to major medical progress. Vaccines against polio and measles, insulin treatment for diabetes and many cancer drugs were developed with the help of animal experiments. Regulators still require safety testing of new medicines before they are given to human volunteers, because a living organism responds in ways that a cell in a dish cannot.
On the other hand, animals feel pain and fear, and it is difficult to defend causing them suffering merely to develop cosmetics or household products, which is why testing for these purposes has already been banned in many countries. Furthermore, results do not always transfer to humans, since a substance that is harmless to a mouse can be dangerous to a person, and vice versa.
The ethical path, in my opinion, is to follow the principle of the three Rs: replace animals with alternatives wherever possible, reduce the number used and refine procedures to minimise distress. Advances such as tissue grown in laboratories and computer simulation are promising. Governments should therefore invest in these methods while allowing animal tests only when no alternative exists and the medical benefit is serious.
Reading
Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks
Select the best word for each blank.
Engineers designing buildings for earthquake-prone regions must ensure that a structure can and dissipate the sudden, powerful movements of the ground without collapsing. One common approach involves flexible foundations, sometimes fitted with rubber or steel bearings, that allow the base of a building to slightly while the structure above remains comparatively stable. Tall buildings are often designed with a degree of intentional flexibility as well, since a completely rigid structure is likely to crack under the stress of violent shaking than one that can sway gently and return to position. Engineers also distribute weight carefully throughout a design, since an uneven structure is toppling during a quake. Building codes in earthquake-prone countries are regularly updated as researchers more from each major event.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Read the text and select all the correct answers.
Rust forms when iron reacts with oxygen in the presence of moisture, producing a reddish-brown compound that is chemically distinct from the metal it originates from and considerably weaker in structural terms. Unlike some other metals, such as aluminium, which form a thin protective oxide layer that actually shields the underlying metal from further reaction, the rust that forms on iron is porous and flakes away easily, continually exposing fresh metal beneath it to further corrosion. This is why an iron structure left entirely unprotected can eventually corrode all the way through, whereas an aluminium object typically develops a stable protective layer and then corrodes no further under normal conditions. To prevent rust, engineers commonly coat iron and steel with paint, zinc or other protective materials that physically block oxygen and moisture from reaching the metal surface, and structures particularly exposed to moisture, such as ships and bridges, often receive specialised coatings combined with regular inspection and maintenance schedules. Understanding this difference between metals has shaped engineering choices for centuries, influencing decisions about which metal to use for a given structure based partly on the corrosive environment it will need to withstand.
1. Which TWO statements are supported by the passage?
Re-order Paragraphs
Click the sentences to put them in the correct order.
2. Put the paragraph in the correct order.
Reading: Fill in the Blanks
Choose the best word for each blank.
Despite growing public awareness of mental health issues in recent years, many people experiencing conditions such as depression or anxiety still report feeling reluctant to their difficulties to employers, friends or even close family members, out of a persistent fear of being judged or treated differently as a result. Researchers studying this stigma have found that direct personal contact with someone openly living with a mental health condition tends to prejudiced attitudes considerably more effectively than abstract public awareness campaigns alone, since a relatable, sympathetic personal story or example can meaningfully inaccurate stereotypes in a way that general information often struggles to achieve. Workplace policies that explicitly and visibly support mental health, such as offering confidential counselling services or actively training managers to recognise early warning signs of serious distress in an employee, can help an environment in which employees feel genuinely safe seeking help before a problem becomes significantly more severe. Public figures who have chosen to speak openly about their own personal struggles with mental health have also been credited by researchers with helping to gradually conversations that would once have been considered far too private or shameful to discuss so openly in public.
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Read the text and choose the best answer.
Throughout spring and summer, tree leaves appear green primarily because they contain large amounts of chlorophyll, the pigment plants use to capture sunlight for photosynthesis, which happens to reflect green light strongly while absorbing other wavelengths. As autumn approaches and daylight hours shorten, deciduous trees begin breaking down and reabsorbing the chlorophyll in their leaves, a process that allows the tree to recover some valuable nutrients before shedding leaves it can no longer efficiently use during the darker, colder months ahead. As the dominant green chlorophyll fades, other pigments that had been present in the leaf all along, but previously masked by chlorophyll's stronger colour, become visible for the first time, producing the yellow and orange autumn colours many people associate with the season. Red autumn colours, by contrast, typically come from a different pigment that some trees actively produce only in autumn, a process influenced by factors including bright sunlight and cool, but not freezing, night-time temperatures. Because weather conditions vary considerably from year to year, the timing and vividness of autumn colour can differ noticeably even within the exact same forest from one autumn to the next.
3. What does the passage say about yellow and orange autumn leaf colours?
Listening
Summarize Spoken Text
Listen to the recording, then write a summary.
Transcript (available after checking)
Vertical farming means growing crops in stacked layers inside a controlled indoor environment, often in a warehouse, using artificial light and water that circulates through the system. The advantages are considerable. Because the plants grow under precisely controlled conditions, yields can be many times greater per square metre than in a field, and the water use can be ninety percent lower. There are no pesticides, and farms can be built inside cities, which cuts transport distances. However, there are drawbacks. The lighting and climate control demand a large amount of electricity, so costs are high, and the approach works well only for crops like lettuce and herbs, not for wheat or rice. Several vertical farming companies have gone bankrupt. Analysts now suggest the technology will remain a useful complement to traditional agriculture rather than a replacement for it.
Write a summary of the lecture in 50–70 words.
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Model answer: Vertical farms grow crops in stacked indoor layers, achieving high yields with little water, no pesticides and short transport distances. However, they use large amounts of electricity, are costly, and suit only crops like leafy greens. Several companies have failed, so analysts see them as a complement to traditional farming.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Listen and select all the correct answers.
Transcript (available after checking)
The Mediterranean diet has been studied for decades, and it consistently shows health benefits. It's based on vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans, nuts and olive oil, with fish and poultry eaten more often than red meat, and only modest amounts of dairy and wine. A large Spanish trial found that people who followed the diet and were given extra olive oil or nuts had about thirty percent fewer heart attacks and strokes than those in a control group. Researchers believe the benefits come from the overall pattern and not from any single food. It's worth noting that the diet isn't only about ingredients. Traditional Mediterranean meals are eaten slowly, in company, which may also contribute to wellbeing. And crucially, it doesn't need to be expensive, since beans and seasonal vegetables are cheap.
1. Which THREE points are made about the diet?
Fill in the Blanks
Listen to the recording and type the missing words.
Under normal conditions, desert locusts live as solitary, relatively harmless insects scattered thinly across dry landscapes, but heavy rainfall can trigger a dramatic transformation. Abundant vegetation lets locust numbers multiply fast, and once crowded enough, contact between individuals triggers hormonal changes that turn them into a different , gregarious and driven to gather into enormous . These swarms can hold billions of , travel vast distances on the wind, and strip crops bare within hours wherever they . Warning systems now track rainfall from satellites, aiming to spot the conditions that trigger swarming before locust numbers spiral out of .
Highlight Correct Summary
Listen and choose the paragraph that best summarises the recording.
Transcript (available after checking)
Every magnet has a north and a south pole, and the basic rule that opposite poles attract while like poles repel comes down to how the magnetic field lines flow between them; field lines emerge from the north pole and curve around to enter the south pole of the same or a neighbouring magnet. What surprises many people is that snapping a bar magnet in half doesn't produce one north-only piece and one south-only piece; instead, each broken piece immediately becomes a complete magnet with its own north and south pole, because magnetism arises from the aligned behaviour of countless tiny atomic-scale magnetic regions throughout the material, not from two separate objects glued together at the ends. Heating a magnet strongly enough can eventually disrupt this alignment and destroy its magnetism entirely.
2. Which paragraph best summarises the recording?
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Listen and choose the best answer.
Transcript (available after checking)
Most substances become denser as they cool and solidify, since their molecules pack more tightly together, but water is unusual: as it freezes, water molecules arrange themselves into a crystal lattice with more open space between them than exists in liquid water, making ice slightly less dense than the liquid water surrounding it. This is why ice floats rather than sinking, and the consequence matters enormously for aquatic life, since a floating layer of ice at the surface of a lake insulates the water beneath from further freezing, allowing fish and other organisms to survive winter in liquid water below an icy surface layer.
3. Why does ice float on water, according to the speaker?
Select Missing Word
The recording ends with a beep. Choose the option that best completes it.
4. Choose the word or phrase that best completes the recording.
Highlight Incorrect Words
Listen to the recording and select the words in the text that differ from what you hear.
5. The text below differs from the recording in some words. Select the words that are DIFFERENT from what you hear. Corks gradually became the standard stopper for wine bottles in the seventeenth century, creating an obvious new problem: how to dislodge a cork wedged tightly into a narrow glass neck. Early corkscrews adapted a spiral design originally used by carpenters for drilling small holes into wood, and that simple helical shape, when twisted and pulled, remains essentially unchanged in most corkscrews sold today.
Write from Dictation
Listen to the sentence and type it exactly as you hear it.
6. Type what you hear.
7. Type what you hear.
Keep your streak going
Up next: PTE Academic Practice Test 3