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Part 3 · Listening · HCS

Highlight Correct Summary: Listening PTE question type

You hear a recording and are shown several paragraph summaries. You select the one that correctly summarises what was said.

Exactly one summary is correct. The incorrect ones are built from real-sounding material lifted from the recording, so they are defeated by attention rather than by elimination of the obviously wrong.

Scoring

How Highlight Correct Summary is scored

Correct or incorrect, one point, with no partial credit. Because there is no partial band, a summary that is 95 per cent right scores the same as one that is random.

Skills scored
Listening — contributes to your Listening scoreReading — contributes to your Reading score
Questions per test
2–3 in Listening

This is an integrated item: it counts towards 2 different skill scores at once, which is why its weighting in a full test is higher than a single-skill item.

Watch out

Common Highlight Correct Summary mistakes

  1. 1Choosing the longest summary, which is usually the one carrying the most invented detail.
  2. 2Picking a summary that matches something you remember hearing without checking it against the whole recording.
  3. 3Eliminating one at a time instead of comparing them side by side.

Strategy

Exactly one summary matches, and the item is all-or-nothing. Compare the options side by side rather than one at a time.
Practice Highlight Correct SummarySit a full mock

Questions

Highlight Correct Summary questions, answered

How many Highlight Correct Summary questions are on the PTE Academic?

A PTE Academic has 2–3 Highlight Correct Summary items in the Listening section. Each one is an integrated item, so it counts towards both your Listening and Reading scores.

How is Highlight Correct Summary scored?

Correct or incorrect, one point, with no partial credit. Because there is no partial band, a summary that is 95 per cent right scores the same as one that is random.

What goes wrong most often on Highlight Correct Summary?

Choosing the longest summary, which is usually the one carrying the most invented detail.

Keep going

Related listening question types

All Listening question types · tips for all 22 types · full test format · how PTE scores work.

Scoring figures on this page follow the current PTE Academic official guide. This is an independent practice site and is not affiliated with Pearson.