Glossary term

Integrated Task

An integrated task is a PTE item that assesses two communicative skills at once, with its score counting towards both: listening then speaking, reading then writing, listening then writing, or listening and reading together. Pearson’s score guide marks these items as assessing two skills, and they are why the overall is not an average of the four.

Updated 23 September 2026

In plain language

One response, two skill scores. The integrated items are the highest-leverage practice in the test, because every point you gain on them lands twice.

Where you meet it

Not labelled on the report. In Pearson’s score guide the “Communicative skills scored” column names two skills for each integrated item.

How integrated scoring works

An item’s score is computed once and then contributes to each skill the item assesses. A ten-word Write From Dictation sentence typed perfectly adds its points to Listening and to Writing. A Repeat Sentence with Content 3 and top fluency and pronunciation lifts Listening and Speaking together. Pearson’s guide says the scores on these items “contribute to the score of both communicative skills that are assessed at the same time”.

That is also why the overall is computed from all items rather than by averaging the skills: an integrated item would otherwise be counted twice in the average.

Why they matter for planning

Repeat Sentence has 10–12 items and Write From Dictation 3–4, and both are integrated. Between them they carry a large share of the Listening score and a meaningful share of Speaking and Writing. They are also the most trainable items in the test, because both are working memory for English sentences, which grows with daily exposure.

The practical order for most learners is therefore: dictation and Repeat Sentence first, then the summaries, then the single-skill items. The two tests differ on which items are integrated; Read Aloud and Answer Short Question are integrated in Core but single-skill in Academic since the 2025 update.

The numbers that matter

Listening and Speaking	Repeat Sentence, Retell Lecture, Summarize Group Discussion (Academic); Answer Short Question in Core
Reading and Writing	Summarize Written Text; dropdown Fill in the Blanks in Core
Listening and Writing	Summarize Spoken Text, Write From Dictation; Listening Fill in the Blanks in Core
Listening and Reading	Highlight Correct Summary, Highlight Incorrect Words
Reading and Speaking	Read Aloud in Core (Speaking only in Academic)

Worked example

One sentence, two skills

Write From Dictation plays “Many diseases that were once serious have now been eradicated.” A learner types all ten words correctly: ten points into Listening and ten into Writing. Another drops “once” and misspells “eradicated”: eight and eight. The two-point gap appears in two skill scores, not one.

What it shows: Integrated items double both the reward and the cost of every word.

Tasks where it applies

Frequently asked questions

Which PTE tasks are integrated?

In PTE Academic: Repeat Sentence, Retell Lecture, Summarize Group Discussion, Summarize Written Text, Summarize Spoken Text, Write From Dictation, Highlight Correct Summary and Highlight Incorrect Words. PTE Core adds Read Aloud, Answer Short Question, dropdown Fill in the Blanks and Listening Fill in the Blanks.

Is Read Aloud an integrated task?

In PTE Core, yes: it assesses Reading and Speaking. In PTE Academic since the 2025 score guide it assesses Speaking only.

Do integrated tasks count double in the overall score?

No. The overall is computed from every item once. Integrated items count towards two skill scores, which is exactly why the overall is not the average of the four skills.