Editorial policy

Who writes the pages

Pages are written by The PTE Core Free Practice team, who sat PTE Core and built the practice platform. Every page is written and reviewed by a person. We may use software to check spelling, count words or format tables, but no page is published that a person has not written, read in full and checked against the sources below. There are no guest posts, no sponsored articles and no content supplied by advertisers.

What every page is checked against

Exam facts on this site come from Pearson's published material, and immigration facts from IRCC. Specifically:

• Task formats, item counts and timings: Pearson's PTE Core test-format pages.
• Scoring traits, scales and how partial credit works: the PTE Core Test Taker Score Guide (currently the January 2024 edition, version 1).
• The PTE Core to CLB table: the alignment table in the same score guide, cross-checked against IRCC's language test equivalency chart.
• CRS points for language: IRCC's published Comprehensive Ranking System criteria.
• Task-specific guidance, such as the Respond to a Situation advice: Pearson's own articles and test tips.

Where these sources disagree with something a coaching site, a forum or a video says, we go with the source. Where the source is silent, we say so. The clearest case is score weighting: Pearson does not publish how much each task counts toward a skill score, so every figure of that kind on this site is labelled as our estimate, and the score and timing guide explains how the estimate is made.

Original material only

We do not copy text from other preparation sites, and we do not reproduce questions from real PTE tests. Every sample text, sentence, chart, situation and email in the guides was written for the guide it appears in, and the page says so. The practice bank inside the platform is likewise written for the platform. If you find material here that you believe was taken from elsewhere, the contact section below explains what to send and what we will do.

How we describe the test

"PTE Core" is used on this site to describe the exam our material helps people prepare for. We are not affiliated with Pearson and we do not present our material as official, endorsed or equivalent to Pearson's. Practice scores are described as estimates, never as predictions or results. CLB and CRS information is described as general context, never as advice on an individual application. The disclaimer sets out the limits in full.

Dates on every page

Every guide, task page and tool shows two dates in its page data: when it was first published and when it was last reviewed. "Last reviewed" is shown at the top of the page and in the author line at the bottom. It changes only when a person has reread the page against the sources above, not when a typo is fixed or a link is updated. If a page's last-reviewed date is older than the current edition of Pearson's score guide, treat the page with care and check Pearson directly.

When pages are re-checked

• When Pearson publishes a new score guide or changes a test-format page: every task page and method guide is rechecked, starting with the tasks affected.
• When IRCC changes the CLB equivalency table or CRS criteria: the CLB guide, the CRS guide and both tools are rechecked and the data behind them updated.
• At least every six months regardless, each page is reread in full.
• When a reader reports an error, that page is rechecked within the week.

Corrections

If you believe something on a page is wrong, email ptecorefreepractice@gmail.com with the page address, the sentence you believe is wrong, and, if you have one, the source that says otherwise. Here is what happens next:

1. We reply within one business day to confirm we have the report.
2. We check the claim against the sources above, not against other sites.
3. If the page is wrong, we fix it, usually within the week, and update the last-reviewed date. If the error affected a figure that people might have relied on, such as a CLB threshold, we note the change on the page.
4. If the page is right, we tell you why, with the source, so you can check it yourself.

Reports about the practice platform's scoring go the same way: tell us the task, the date of the attempt and what you expected, and we will look at the recording or the answer and explain what the scorer saw.

Advertising and independence

Public pages carry ordinary advertising served by Google AdSense, which is how a free platform pays for its servers. Advertisers have no say in what is written, no page is written to attract a particular advertiser, and no product or service is recommended in exchange for payment. The practice platform itself carries no advertising.

Contact

For corrections, questions about this policy, or anything about how a page was written: ptecorefreepractice@gmail.com, or the other channels on the contact page.