The 79+ threshold sits at the top of the PTE scoring scale — and for most Australian skilled visa subclasses, it's the number that separates a successful application from another year of waiting. If you've just registered for the test and have roughly 30 days to prepare, the worst thing you can do is open YouTube, watch a few random videos, and call it a study session.
What you need is a sequence. Practice the right skills in the right order, and the score compounds. Practice randomly, and you'll plateau fast.
Here's the roadmap.
Why 79+ Is Both Hard and Very Achievable
PTE Academic scores each communicative skill — Speaking, Writing, Reading, Listening — on a scale of 10 to 90. A 79 in every category is classified as "Expert" level. That sounds intimidating, but PTE is a computer-scored test, which is actually your advantage. There's no examiner having a bad day. The scoring algorithms reward specific, learnable behaviours — and once you know what those behaviours are, you can train for them directly.
Week 1 — Understand the Test, Not Just the Topics
Do not touch practice questions in Week 1. I know that feels counterintuitive. But most first-time candidates fail because they practise the wrong things at full speed before they understand what's being measured.
Your Week 1 tasks:
- Download the official PTE Academic Preparation App and read every task-type description.
- Watch the official Pearson scored sample responses and note why each one scores high.
- Learn how enabling skills work. PTE is unusual: your Speaking score affects your Reading score. Your Reading score affects your Writing score. Understanding this web changes your preparation priorities completely.
- Take one untimed diagnostic test. Don't worry about the score — you want a map of your weak spots.
By Sunday of Week 1, you should be able to name every task type, explain what it scores, and identify your two biggest skill gaps.
Week 2 — Speaking and Writing First (Always)
Speaking and Writing carry the heaviest enabling-skill weight. Improvements here ripple through your overall score faster than anywhere else.
Speaking focus: Repeat Sentence and Describe Image are your highest-volume tasks. For Repeat Sentence, drill your short-term phonological memory — listen to a sentence once, hold it, reproduce it. Aim for 10 minutes of drilling every single day this week. For Describe Image, use a fixed template: overview → key feature → comparison → conclusion. Describe the same image three times until the template is automatic, then move to new images.
Writing focus: Summarise Written Text (one sentence, under 75 words) and Write Essay (200–300 words). For Summarise Written Text, practise combining the main idea and one supporting detail into a single grammatically clean sentence. For the essay, master a three-paragraph structure: position statement → two developed arguments → restatement. Time yourself. Every attempt should be under 20 minutes.
Daily rhythm this week: 30 min Speaking drills → 30 min Writing drills → 10 min vocabulary (academic word list, 10 words per day).
Week 3 — Reading and Listening Under Timed Conditions
By now your enabling skills are stronger, which means your Reading and Listening scores will respond faster to focused work.
Reading: Re-order Paragraphs and Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks lose candidates the most points. For Re-order, practise identifying topic sentences (they introduce, not refer) and pronoun anchors (a pronoun like "they" must follow its noun). Do five Re-order tasks daily — timed.
Listening: Summarise Spoken Text and Highlight Correct Summary are the big-ticket items. For Summarise Spoken Text, practise a two-column note system: left column for main ideas, right column for key details. You have 10 minutes to write 50–70 words, so the bottleneck is note quality, not writing speed.
Daily rhythm this week: 45 min Reading timed tasks → 45 min Listening timed tasks → review every wrong answer before bed.
Week 4 — Full Tests, Gap Closing, and Exam-Day Protocol
Stop learning new strategies. You're consolidating now.
- Take a full-length timed mock test every second day (Days 22, 24, 26, 28).
- On off days, target only the task types where your mock scores are still below 79.
- On Day 29: rest, light vocabulary review, nothing timed.
- On Day 30 (exam eve): confirm your test-centre address and check-in time, prepare your valid passport (the only accepted ID), and sleep by 10 p.m.
One exam-day non-negotiable: PTE penalises you for not attempting a question far more than for attempting it badly. If time is running out, guess and move on. A rough answer scores higher than a blank.
The Mindset That Makes the Plan Work
A 30-day push like this only works if you treat every daily session as non-negotiable. Forty-five to ninety minutes of focused, deliberate practice beats four hours of passive re-reading every time. The computer doesn't care how many hours you logged — it scores what you produce in the room.
You now have the sequence. The score is yours to claim.
Want the task-type templates, scored sample answers, and mock tests that go with this plan? That's exactly what PTE Master is built around — come inside and let's get you to 79+.
