The basics
- Scale: each skill (listening, reading, speaking, writing) and your overall score are reported from 10 to 90.
- Integrated tasks: many tasks count towards more than one skill. Write from Dictation, for example, counts for listening and writing.
- AI plus humans: speaking and writing are scored by AI, and Pearson says human experts also review content in tasks such as Describe Image, Retell Lecture, the essay and Summarize Spoken Text before scores are confirmed.
Three kinds of marking
| Type | How it works | Tasks |
|---|---|---|
| Correct / incorrect | Full marks or zero | Multiple Choice Single Answer, Highlight Correct Summary, Select Missing Word, Answer Short Question |
| Partial credit | Points for each correct part | Fill in the Blanks, Reorder Paragraph, Write from Dictation, speaking and writing tasks |
| Partial credit with negative marking | +1 for each right choice, −1 for each wrong one (never below 0) | Multiple Choice Multiple Answers (reading and listening), Highlight Incorrect Words |
Speaking criteria
Most speaking tasks are scored on:
- Content: did you say the right things? For Read Aloud and Repeat Sentence, that means the exact words. For open tasks, it means the main points, details and a conclusion, in your own words.
- Pronunciation: are you easy to understand for most English speakers? Regional accents are fine.
- Oral fluency: smooth rhythm and phrasing. Hesitations, repetitions and false starts lower this score.
Silence matters: if you don't start within about 3 seconds, or stop for 3 seconds, the recording ends.
Writing criteria
- Write Essay: content, development/structure/coherence, form (200–300 words), general linguistic range, grammar, vocabulary range and spelling. Under 120 or over 380 words scores zero.
- Summarize Written Text: content, form (one sentence, 5–75 words), grammar and vocabulary. Wrong form or topic scores zero.
- Summarize Spoken Text: content, form (50–70 words), grammar, vocabulary and spelling. Under 40 or over 100 words scores zero.
- Spelling: US, UK, Australian and Canadian spelling are accepted, but be consistent. Check yours with our spelling consistency checker.
Practise with the same rules
All our practice tests use these point rules for auto-marked tasks, so you learn when guessing hurts. See how our marking works.
Source: Pearson's official test format pages. Pearson may update its scoring. Its pages are the final word.