PTE Academic Practice: Free Reading, Vocabulary, Grammar & Listening Exercises

PTE Academic (Pearson Test of English Academic) is a fully computer-based English proficiency test accepted by thousands of universities worldwide and for immigration to Australia, New Zealand and the UK. It's known for fast results — often within 48 hours — and is popular with test-takers who prefer a machine-scored format over face-to-face examiners. Below are free exercises that build the core skills PTE tests, with an honest note on where the format matches and where it doesn't.

Best forAustralia, NZ & UK immigration; university admission worldwide

Format~3 hours, fully computer-scored — Speaking, Writing, Reading, Listening

Score validity2 years

Reading practice for PTE Academic

PTE Reading includes "Re-order paragraphs," "Fill in the blanks," and multiple-choice tasks on academic-style passages. The question formats are different from those here, but building speed and comprehension on dense, topic-driven texts directly supports your PTE Reading score. These passages cover the science, environment and social topics typical of PTE.

The economic impact of deforestationB1/B2/C1
Ancient handprints found in IndonesiaB1/B2/C1
New discovery in the fight against malariaB1/B2/C1
USA: Where did winter go?B1/B2/C1
California's waste recycling problemB1/B2/C1
How dolphins talk to their youngB1/B2/C1

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Grammar for PTE Academic

PTE's "Reading and Writing: Fill in the blanks" tasks test grammar in context — choosing the right word form, tense, or connector within a running paragraph. The grammar points below are exactly what trips up test-takers at the B2–C1 range: passive voice, conjunctions, relative clauses, and verb form distinctions.

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Vocabulary for PTE Academic

PTE's fill-in-the-blank tasks often hinge on knowing whether a word is the right form (noun vs. adjective, verb vs. noun) as much as whether it's the right word. Word formation exercises — suffixes, compound nouns and adjectives — are high-value here alongside broader topic vocabulary.

Suffix practice (-ful, -less, -ness)Word formation
Compound nouns 1Word formation
Environmental issues vocabularyTopic vocab
Technology & social media vocabularyTopic vocab
Crime & law vocabularyTopic vocab
College & university termsTopic vocab

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Listening practice for PTE Academic

PTE Listening includes "Summarize spoken text," "Fill in the blanks" from audio, and "Highlight correct summary" tasks — all machine-scored. The key skill is processing spoken English quickly and accurately. Our video and audio listening exercises don't replicate PTE's task types, but they build the listening fluency and concentration that underpins all of them.

Movie clip listening 1 (American English)Listening
Movie clip listening 4 (British English)Listening

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A note on PTE format PTE Academic is unusual because every section is entirely computer-scored — including Speaking. The exam integrates skills across tasks (e.g. you read a passage and then write a summary, or listen and then type). Nothing on this site directly simulates that integrated format. Where the exercises here genuinely help is building the grammar accuracy, vocabulary range, and reading speed that feed into your PTE score across all sections. Be sure to work through official Pearson practice materials as well to get familiar with the actual task types before exam day.

More exam prep Not sure PTE is the right exam for you? Compare all major English exams on our exam prep hub, or browse the full reading comprehension, grammar, and vocabulary sections.