In PTE, your score doesn’t just depend on what you know — it depends on how well you manage your time under pressure.
Some students spend too long trying to perfect one answer and end up rushing the rest of the test. Others freeze, unsure how long they should be planning, writing, or speaking. But if you want to perform at your best, you need a time strategy — not just exam knowledge.
Let’s look at three common time-management mistakes students make in the PTE exam — and how to avoid them.
Mistake #1: No Big-Picture Strategy
The PTE exam always follows the same order: Speaking → Writing → Reading → Listening. You begin with back-to-back oral tasks, move straight into extended writing, and then hit the two most focus-intensive sections — Reading and Listening — right at the end.
It’s a long test. And if you’re mentally drained before the Listening section, your performance will suffer.
That’s why we encourage students to think of their energy like a battery. Don’t drain it all in the first 30 minutes. You don’t need to over-analyse every word in Describe Image or spend 10 minutes planning your essay. The goal is to stay sharp all the way through.
Mistake #2: Over-preparing — and Losing the Clock
Many students waste time trying to mentally rehearse full answers before they speak or write — but the PTE timer doesn’t wait.
Take Read Aloud, for example. You get 40 seconds to prepare. That’s enough time to glance at the text, check for tricky words, and plan your tone. If you spend that time trying to silently “perform” the whole sentence in your head, you’ll trip yourself up.
The same goes for Write Essay. Planning is important — but taking too long leaves you rushed and flustered when it matters most.
At e-English, we teach students a simple time structure for essays:
- 3 minutes planning
- 12 minutes writing
- 5 minutes editing
This allows you to stay calm, write clearly, and still have time to fix small errors at the end.