Read Aloud
- About 30 to 40 seconds to prepare, then roughly 35 to 40 seconds to read.
- Machine-scored
- Original practice material
Read this aloud at your normal pace, all the way to the end.
Coastal erosion is not a single process but several acting together. Waves remove material from the base of a cliff, rainfall weakens the rock above, and the unsupported section eventually collapses. Engineers can slow this with barriers, though sediment that would have moved along the coast is then trapped, and beaches further along begin to disappear instead.
Press record, read it aloud, then press again.
One free take on this device · no account · no card
Watch: erosion, sediment, unsupported, barriers.
This is the task sayit matches most closely: the words are on screen in the exam too, so the analysis can compare what you said against them, word by word and sound by sound.
What the machine listens for
- Content: whether the words you said match the words on screen. Every word missed, added or replaced costs you.
- Oral fluency: an even pace with no hesitation, no repetition and no false starts. Smooth beats fast.
- Pronunciation: whether each sound is close enough to a standard English target for the recogniser to place it.
Described in our own words from the published format. Pearson's scoring guides are copyrighted and are not reproduced here.
- Preparation
- 35 seconds
- Recording
- About 40 seconds
What this page practises
This is the PTE task sayit matches most closely. Record the passage in read mode and the analysis compares what you said against the script word by word and sound by sound, which is exactly what the exam does for two of its three criteria. An estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.How to do Read Aloud well
Use the preparation time to find the phrases
Read it silently and mark where you will breathe, usually at commas and clause boundaries. A passage read in sensible chunks scores better than one read word by word at any speed.
Start immediately when the microphone opens
The recording stops after a fixed time and a three-second silence at the start can cost you the last clause. Begin as soon as the tone ends.
Do not go back
If you misread a word, keep going. Repeating it inserts a false start, which is scored against fluency, and the single wrong word costs less than the repair.
Say every ending
Plural s, past tense d, and the final consonants of function words. These are where an automated recogniser hears a mismatch most often.
Common Read Aloud mistakes
Reading too fast
Speed produces slurred endings and merged words. The score rewards evenness, not pace.
Stopping to correct
A self-correction is a hesitation. Continue through the error.
Flat delivery
A monotone read still loses pronunciation marks. Let the sentence rise and fall where the meaning does.
Running out of recording
If you start late or pause mid-passage, the clip ends before the final words and the content score falls.
Straight answers
Does Read Aloud affect my reading score too?
Yes. It is one of the integrated tasks, so the same recording contributes to both speaking and reading. That makes it worth more practice time than its share of the test suggests.
What if I do not know how to pronounce a word?
Say your best attempt at normal speed and keep going. A single approximate word costs far less than the pause while you think about it.
Can sayit score this the way PTE does?
Not identically — no third-party tool has Pearson's scoring model. What sayit gives you is the same underlying evidence for two of the three criteria: every word against the script, every sound against its target, your pace, and where you paused.
Hear the sounds an automated scorer hears
Record one item and read the per-sound breakdown — the endings and clusters a recogniser marks as a mismatch. Free, nothing blurred.