PTE Academic Speaking – Retell Lecture Samples

The PTE Retell Lecture Section of Your Exam

With this section of the exam you’ll need to be able to do three things really well. First is to listen to a lecture, then understand the key components of it and finally explain what you just listened to in your own words. We’ll take a little closer look at each of these different pieces of the puzzle.

Listen to a Lecture

The first part is listening to the lecture. The lecture itself is not long. In fact, it is between 60 and 90 seconds in total length. That means you don’t have to remember a lot of content. And you actually don’t need to remember anything because you can take notes during the process.

While you are listening to the lecture make sure that you take clear notes that will help you remember what you want to say. That may mean writing out a little bit more but if it helps you give a better answer it’s going to be worth the extra writing.

Understand the Key Components

While you’re listening try to pull out the most important information and understand what it means. Recognize what the speaker is actually saying and what point they are trying to get across as well.

When you take notes make sure these are the types of things that you record. Specific numbers are generally a good indicator that the information is important and you should remember it. Write these down and make note of what they’re talking about.

Explain What You Heard

The final component is explaining what you heard during the lecture. This is where you’re going to take the notes that you wrote and give a brief summary. Make sure that you include all of the important information so that someone who listens to it would be able to understand the lecture without listening to it themselves.

You will be scored on three different components: content, pronunciation and fluency. That means you need to focus on all three of these areas when you’re deciding exactly what to say.

Have a Quality PTE Retell Lecture Template

One of the biggest things is to have a template to follow when you’re talking about the lecture. If you focus on these points, you’ll be able to write out your notes in a way that you can practically read your template and fill in the blanks with the notes you’ve written down.

If you look at each of these, you’ll see there are 6 different things to say in your retelling. The first is the topic of the lecture. The second is something that the speaker mentioned. Then something else that they described. Another keyword or fact that they talked about. Something that was discussed and something that was suggested.

In general, these are different ways to say that the speaker said something. But they make it easier for you to highlight the different parts of the lecture and to retell it in a clear way. This makes sure that your summary is well rounded and highlights the important concepts. That is how you’re going to get a better score on your content.

Sample PTE Retell Lectures

Wrap Up

In preparing for the PTE academic speaking retell lecture, make sure that you have your template memorized. If you do, walking into the test will be much easier because all you have to do is fill in the blanks of your template with the bullet point notes that you take during the lecture. To practice this process, check out the PTE speaking retell lecture practice that we have for you. These will help you listen for the right information every time, so your summaries contain all of the content you need.