Are templates allowed in PTE?

What Pearson says about templates

Pearson's Score Guide has one rule that covers templates. An answer with memorised or pre-prepared material counts as an irrelevant answer, and an irrelevant answer gets zero for content.

The same guide says that when content is zero, the answer gets no points at all. On Describe Image, Pearson adds that your fluency and pronunciation won't be scored either.

What Pearson doesn't say

You'll read a lot of claims about templates online, and some of them go further than Pearson does.

There is no list of banned phrases, and no number of learned words that counts as too many. The Score Guide talks about "significant amounts" of memorised material that stop an answer from dealing with the prompt.

Linking words are fine. Pearson's own tips for Summarize Group Discussion tell you to connect your ideas with words like "however", "on the other hand" and "as a result". Those words are part of a structure, and good answers use them.

The claim that templates are safe because a computer marks the test is out of date. On seven question types, a person now checks your content as well.

A structure is not a template

A structure is the order of your ideas. A template is a set of sentences you learn before the test and use whatever the question is.

Here's a quick test. Could the sentence fit any question? If it could, it's a template. If it only makes sense for the image or prompt in front of you, it's your own.

A Describe Image template sounds like this: "The given image gives information about many different aspects. There are several important trends. Overall, the image is very informative." It fits every image, so it tells the marker nothing about this one.

A structure for Describe Image is an order: what the image is, the main feature with numbers, one or two details, then a conclusion. For a line graph of rice prices, your first sentence might be "This line graph shows the price of rice in two countries from 2010 to 2020." Every word comes from the image.

An essay template opens like this: "In this day and age, this issue has become a hot topic of debate. This essay will discuss both sides before reaching a conclusion." A structured opening names the topic in your own words and gives your view: "Many companies now let staff work from home, and I believe this helps workers more than it harms them."

Why templates are riskier since 2025

For tests from 7 August 2025, Pearson says some answers are part-scored by people as well as by its scoring engine.

The Score Guide names seven question types where a human expert reviews your content before the score is final: Describe Image, Re-tell Lecture, Respond to a Situation, Summarize Group Discussion, Summarize Written Text, Write Essay and Summarize Spoken Text. On Write Essay, the expert also reviews development, structure and coherence, and general linguistic range.

When the two scores differ, a second expert settles it. People never score your pronunciation or fluency. The engine still does that on its own.

On an average test, these seven question types carry about 54 per cent of your overall score. Content is the part a memorised answer loses, and it's the part a person now checks.

What to prepare instead, question by question

Prepare the order of your answer and the kind of notes you'll take. Don't prepare the sentences.

The table covers the question types a person checks. Write from Dictation and the reading and listening questions have no content score, so templates don't come into them.

If templates help you keep talking

Most students learn templates for one reason: they're afraid of going silent. In the speaking questions, the microphone closes after three seconds of silence, so a template feels safe.

What they need is fluency, and you can practise it. Read Aloud and Repeat Sentence train a steady pace, because the words are given to you and you can think about rhythm.

Then prepare ideas, not sentences. Practise saying what a bar chart, a pie chart, a map and a process diagram usually show. Say it a little differently each time, so no single version sticks.

If you stumble in the test, keep going. A short restart costs you a little fluency. A memorised answer can cost you the whole question.

Try it on Describe Image

Describe Image is the best place to start. It's worth about 15 per cent of your overall score, more than any other question type, and its content score shows whether you described the image in front of you.

Answer a few in your own words and look at the content score first.