How Speaking Is Scored in IELTS, PTE and TOEFL

Two people can give the same answer and get very different results in different tests. That is not because one test is “harder”. Each test looks at different things, and some of them are scored by a person while others are scored by a machine. If you know what the scorer is listening for, you can stop wasting effort on things that do not count.

This article sets out how IELTS, PTE Academic™ and the TOEFL iBT® test score speaking, using only the test owners’ own published criteria.

IELTS: a trained examiner and four criteria

The IELTS Speaking test is a face-to-face interview with an examiner. It lasts 11–14 minutes and is recorded. The examiner rates you on four criteria:

1. Fluency and coherence: how smoothly you keep going and how logically you link ideas.
   
2. Lexical resource: the range of your vocabulary and how accurately and appropriately you use it.
   
3. Grammatical range and accuracy: the range of your grammar and how accurately you use it.
   
4. Pronunciation: how easily you can be understood.
   

The public IELTS Speaking band descriptors describe each band. A few details stand out:

• At band 9, “any hesitation that occurs is used only to prepare the content of the next utterance and not to find words or grammar.” Pausing to think about ideas is natural. Pausing to search for words is what gets marked down.
  
• Pronunciation is about intelligibility, not accent. Band 9 says “accent has no effect on intelligibility”, and band 8 says it has “minimal effect”.
  
• At the lowest bands, the descriptors mention “memorised utterances”, so examiners are trained to notice prepared speech.
  

What this means for practice: IELTS rewards a real conversation. Develop your answers, use the words you control well, and keep talking through small mistakes. Our IELTS band descriptors guide goes deeper.

PTE Academic: AI scoring, with humans checking content

Pearson says PTE Academic is marked by an AI scoring system, and you never speak to a human examiner. Its Test Taker Score Guide explains how humans are still involved:

• Human experts rate responses to train the scoring engine.
  
• Humans score “anomalies”, responses the machine cannot reliably score, for example because they are quiet or unclear.
  
• Some tasks, such as Describe Image and Retell Lecture, always get a human review of Content. If the AI and the human disagree, a second human makes the final judgement.
  
• Pronunciation and Oral Fluency are scored by AI only.
  

Most open speaking tasks are scored on three traits: Content, Pronunciation and Oral Fluency. The order matters. Pearson says the response is scored on Content first, and if Content is 0, there is no further scoring. A response that is irrelevant, or that contains pre-prepared or memorised material, is treated as irrelevant.

The score guide also describes the fluency scale. The top level means “smooth rhythm and phrasing” with “no hesitations, repetitions, false starts”. Lower levels mention long pauses and staccato speech.

What this means for practice:

• Stay on the actual prompt. A memorised template that ignores the image or lecture can score 0 for the whole item.
  
• Keep your speech smooth and steady. A small slip you move past costs less than stopping, restarting or a long pause.
  
• Speak clearly at a normal volume into the microphone. The machine only hears what the microphone picks up.
  

TOEFL iBT (2026 format): two tasks, two rubrics

Since January 2026 the TOEFL iBT Speaking section has two task types, Listen and Repeat and Take an Interview. ETS’s 2026 test specifications list speaking items as “AI Scored”, evaluated with natural language processing and machine learning. Each item is worth up to 5 points, and section scores are reported on the new 1–6 scale.

ETS publishes a Speaking Scoring Guide for both tasks.

Listen and Repeat

You hear a sentence and repeat it. A 5 is “an exact repetition of the prompt”. A 4 “captures the meaning” with minor changes. ETS’s examples include one or two function words missing or changed, missing tense or number markers, or two words swapped. Lower scores come from missing large parts of the sentence, changing its meaning, or being hard to understand.

Take an Interview

You answer four questions from a pre-recorded interviewer. A fully successful response (5) is “on topic and well elaborated”, keeps a “good conversational speaking pace” with natural pauses, is “easily intelligible”, and uses “a range of accurate grammar and vocabulary”. At 3, ETS mentions “frequent or lengthy pauses” and frequent filler words. A response that is off topic, or only says “I don’t know”, scores 0.

What this means for practice: For Listen and Repeat, train your short-term memory for meaning, not just sounds. If you remember the meaning, you can rebuild the sentence. For the interview, answer the question directly, add a reason and an example, and finish within the time.

What all three tests have in common

Look past the different formats and the same qualities run through all three tests:

Quality	IELTS	PTE	TOEFL
Being easy to understand	Pronunciation criterion	Pronunciation trait	“Intelligibility” in both rubrics
Keeping going smoothly	Fluency and coherence	Oral Fluency trait	“Speaking pace”, pauses
Answering the actual question	Coherence, relevance	Content (0 = no score)	“On topic”, relevance
Accurate, varied language	Lexical resource, grammar	Content (for some tasks)	“Range of accurate grammar and vocabulary”

So whichever test you take, the foundation is the same. Be clear, keep going, answer what was asked, and use language you control.

Two cautions

1. No practice tool gives an official score. Only the official test does. Practice estimates, including ours, are useful for spotting trends, not for predicting an exact result.
   
2. Formats change. PTE Academic added new speaking tasks in 2025, and TOEFL iBT changed its speaking section in 2026. Always check the test owner’s current page before you prepare.
   

Practise against the right criteria

Lingo Copilot scores practice answers on the traits each test uses: the four IELTS criteria with an AI examiner, PTE’s Content, Pronunciation and Oral Fluency, and TOEFL’s two task rubrics. Pick your exam on the Lingo Copilot home page and try a full mock free. Your first mock for each exam costs nothing. Create your account.

IELTS, PTE Academic and TOEFL iBT are trademarks of their respective owners. Lingo Copilot is not affiliated with or endorsed by them. All scores in our app are AI estimates for practice, not official scores.