PTE Academic · Speaking
PTE Answer Short Question
You hear a question once. You answer it in a single word or a few words.
A short recorded question plays — what is this job called, what do you use to do that, what is the opposite of this word — and you say the answer out loud. There is nothing to read and no time to prepare. The questions are about things most people know. What makes the task hard is catching the question the first time and finding the word quickly.
How the task works
Three moments, and every one of them is short
There is no preparation time. The question plays, and the recording opens as soon as it ends.
Listen to the question
Listen for the words that decide the answer: who, what, the opposite of, after, highest. Miss one of them and a question you know turns into one you get wrong.
Answer
The recording starts by itself. Say the word you need and stop. You do not have to repeat the question or build a sentence around the answer.
Silence ends it
If you say nothing for three seconds, the recording closes, even if you have not answered yet. Start speaking as soon as you have the word.
How Pearson scores it
One point, for the right word
This task is marked right or wrong. There is no partial credit, and only one thing is marked.
Vocabulary
Whether the word you choose answers the question. An appropriate word earns one point. A wrong word, or no answer at all, earns zero. The computer marks what it hears, so the word has to be said clearly enough to be recognised.
You answer out loud, but in the current version of the test this point counts towards your Listening score, not your Speaking score. What the task checks is whether you understood a question you heard only once.
What usually goes wrong
Where students lose the point
Missing the word that decides the answer
In “Which season comes immediately after summer?” everything turns on “after”. Catch “summer” alone and you may name the wrong season. Keep listening until the question ends.
Offering several guesses
“Surgeon, doctor, nurse” is a list, not an answer. Pearson asks for a single word or a few words, and a list is risky. If you are unsure, pick the one you believe and say only that.
Waiting too long to start
Three seconds of silence close the recording, and they start counting as soon as it opens. If you have a likely answer, say it. Silence always earns nothing.
Choosing a word that only sounds right
Astronomer and astrologer, archaeologist and anthropologist: a word that sounds close is still a different word. Hold on to what the question describes, such as “studies the stars and planets”, and choose the word that fits it.
Worked examples
Questions from our practice, and what to say
Most questions belong to a few familiar kinds: name a person, a thing or a place, give an opposite, or recall something most people learn at school. Here are nine from our practice. Read each question, say your answer out loud, then check it against the one below.
Questions and short answers
- A person What do we call a person whose job is to design buildings? Architect.
- A person What do you call a doctor who performs operations? Surgeon. “Doctor” is not the answer here, because the question asks which kind of doctor.
- A thing What instrument would you use to measure temperature? Thermometer.
- A place What do you call the room at a university where students carry out scientific experiments? Laboratory, or simply “lab”, which means the same.
- An opposite What is the opposite of the word ‘temporary’? Permanent.
- An opposite What is the opposite of the word ‘voluntary’? Compulsory. “Mandatory” and “obligatory” say the same thing in other words.
- Everyday knowledge Which season comes immediately after summer? Autumn, or “fall” in American English.
- A subject What is the name of the science that studies the weather? Meteorology.
- A word for time What word describes a period of ten years? Decade.
What a full answer sounds like
Meteorology.
Strategy tip: Before you look for the answer, notice what kind of word the question wants. “Who” or “a person who” wants a person. “What instrument” wants a thing. “The opposite of” wants one word of the same kind as the word you heard. Once you know the kind of word, there are far fewer words to choose from.
That one word is a full answer to the weather question above. There is nothing before it and nothing after it: no “I think it's”, and no second guess. In this task a short answer is not a lazy answer. It is exactly what the question asks for.
Practising here
Know why an answer was right or wrong
You hear the question once and answer with the same clock as the exam. Then you see the correct answer, what we heard you say, and how you answered.
The same clock as the exam
The question plays once, the recording starts by itself, and three seconds of silence end it. These are the same rules the test uses.
Right or wrong, like the exam
The right word earns the point and a wrong one earns nothing. Nothing makes a miss look closer than it was.
Every accepted answer, not only one
You see the correct answer together with the other ways of saying it, such as “lab” for “laboratory” or “fall” for “autumn”. A good answer is not marked wrong because you used a different word for the same thing.
What we heard you say
Your answer appears as it was recognised. That shows you whether you chose the wrong word or the right word did not come through.
Notes on how you answered
How long you took to start, and a short note if you answered in a full sentence or named more than one possibility. The notes do not change the result. They point to habits worth fixing before the exam.
Common questions
Answer Short Question, answered
How long is the question, and how long do I have to answer?
The question usually lasts between three and nine seconds and plays once. The recording then starts by itself, and you have about ten seconds to answer. If you say nothing for three seconds, the recording closes.
How many words should my answer be?
Usually a single word or a few words. The exam's own instruction is to answer with a single word or a few words. A full sentence is not wrong, but it adds nothing to your answer and uses up time you may need to think.
How is Answer Short Question scored?
By computer, as right or wrong. One trait is marked: Vocabulary. An appropriate word earns one point, and an inappropriate word or no answer earns zero. There is no partial credit.
Does Answer Short Question count towards Speaking or Listening?
Listening. You answer out loud, but in the current version of the test the point goes to your Listening score. The task checks whether you understood a question you heard once.
Can I hear the question again?
No. The question plays once and cannot be replayed. Keep your attention on the audio from its first word to its last.
What if I do not know the answer?
Say your best guess straight away. Silence earns nothing and closes the recording after three seconds, while a sensible guess may be right. What you should not do is list several guesses and hope that one of them counts.
Does it matter if I say “a” or “the” before the word?
No. “An architect” and “architect” give the same answer. Say it whichever way comes naturally, and do not stop to correct yourself.
What kind of questions come up?
General knowledge that most adults share, asked in simple English: jobs, everyday objects, places, opposites, the seasons, and basic science and school subjects. The facts are rarely the hard part. The hard part is catching the question the first time and finding the word quickly.
How do I practise Answer Short Question here?
Sign in, open Answer Short Question and answer with the exam clock running. You see whether your answer was right, the correct answer and the other accepted ways of saying it, what we heard you say, and how long you took to start.
Try it with the real clock
Hear a question once, answer in a word or two, and find out whether it was the right word, and why.