PTE-A Writing Module

The Writing is the second section of the Speaking module. In other words, it does not have any separate section or time. Once you are done with the Speaking module, clicking on the next button will ask you to take the Writing test.
The writing test assesses your writing skills in terms of how good you are in grammar, formatting sentences, and sticking to the topic given. You will be judged on the quality of your writing.

Section overview

Items Task Number of Items Prompt length Scoring Skills assessed Time to answer
Summarize written text You need to summarize the passage in one sentence. 1 - 2 text up to 300 words Partial Credit reading and writing 10 minutes
Write essay You need to write an essay on a given topic between 200 and 300 words. 1 - 2 2-3 sentences Partial Credit writing 20 minutes

Summarize written text

What is it?

You need to write a summary of the given paragraphs on a particular topic. You have 10 minutes to finish the summary.

Alert:

You will have to write the summary in only ONE sentence. This means, only one full stop (a period) is allowed. Nevertheless, you may use commas and semicolons for more than once.

Tip:

You’ll have the ‘word count’ at the bottom of the text box. You must include the main points from the given paragraphs to make your summary rich and precise. You also have a choice to cut, copy, or paste the text.

Cut

Select the text you want to delete and left-click ‘cut’

Copy

Select the text you want to copy and left-click ‘copy’

Paste

Take the cursor to the place where you want to paste the copied or cut text. Then, left-click ‘paste’.

Scoring: Partial credit

How are you judged? Reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, content and style

Write essay

What is it?

You will have to write an essay on a given topic. The topic will be mentioned in a line or two. You need to write the essay between 200 and 300 words.

You have 20 minutes to finish this task. Your writing will be judged on grammar, coherence, vocabulary, and written discourse.

Tip:

You’ll have the ‘word count’ at the bottom of the text box. Make sure that you don’t write under 200 words. Nor should you exceed 300 words or else it’ll attract penalty and you’ll score less. Try to remain neutral in writing on any topic. You should avoid repeating the words or sentences.

You also have a choice to cut, copy, or paste the text. This is useful when you don’t want to take any chance to spell a difficult word in your content. Say: an essay where you need to type the word ‘homeostasis’ more than once.

Cut

Select the text you want to delete and left-click ‘cut’

Copy

Select the text you want to copy and left-click ‘copy’

Paste

Take the cursor to the place where you want to paste the copied or cut text. Then, left-click ‘paste’.

Scoring: Partial credit

How are you judged? Writing, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, written discourse, How your content is judged? Coherence, style, structure, linguistic level, content