PTE Core Summary Frames for SWT and SST

Summarize Written Text and Summarize Spoken Text look alike, but their word limits are completely different, and mixing them up costs points. This lesson puts both side by side, with a worked example for each.

SWT and SST at a Glance

	Summarize Written Text	Summarize Spoken Text
Input	A passage of up to 200 words	A recording to listen to
Word range for full Form marks	25 to 50 words	20 to 30 words
Range for 1 Form point	5 to 24 or 51 to 60 words	5 to 19 or 31 to 40 words
Time	10 minutes	8 minutes
Number of sentences	No official requirement	Several sentences are fine

Figures are per Pearson's PTE Core Score Guide. Check the latest official guide for current timings.

What the SWT Form Band Actually Asks

The PTE Core instruction for this task is "Read the text. Then write a short 25–50 word summary." The Form band in the official Score Guide is only about length and format: 2 points for 25 to 50 words; 1 point for 5 to 24 or 51 to 60 words; 0 points for fewer than 5 or more than 60 words, or for all capitals, no punctuation, or only bullet points. Nothing says it must be one sentence. That rule belongs to a different PTE test, so don't carry it over to Core.

What you do need is the top Grammar band: "Has correct grammatical structure". One sentence or two are both fine, as long as every sentence is grammatically correct. If one sentence gets tangled, split it into two short, correct sentences rather than forcing a broken one.

Example (cuts to community preschool funding):

Cutting funding from Ontario's community preschool programs will negatively affect early childhood educators and their families, so the city should reconsider this budget decision before it takes effect.

"So" joins the effect and the recommendation, and the whole thing sits inside 25 to 50 words. Two sentences work just as well: "...their families. Therefore, the city should reconsider this budget decision." Both are complete, so Form and Grammar are unaffected. What does cost points is a structural error, such as two full sentences joined with only a comma.

SST: Budget Your Words, Don't Recite a Frame

A fixed three-part frame ("The lecture discusses... It mentions that... In conclusion...") is a poor fit for SST, for three reasons:

It's expensive. You only have 20 to 30 words, and the frame's structure words take 5 to 8 of them, 20 to 40 percent of your answer, without carrying anything from the recording.
It pushes you to invent content. A formula closing line often states a conclusion the speaker never made.
Its opening is often wrong. The recording might be a lecture, an interview, an announcement or a broadcast. A fixed "The lecture discusses" is bound to be wrong some of the time.

Instead, split your 20 to 30 words like this:

Part	Budget	Needed?	Notes
Main point (what the recording is mostly about)	8 to 14 words	Always	Without it, Content drops a band. It must be something the speaker really said.
Supporting point 1	6 to 10 words	Strongly advised	The main reason, detail or example behind the main point
Supporting point 2	6 to 10 words	Only if words remain	After the first two, count. Add it only if you have 6 or more words left.
Structure words (The lecture / It mentions / In conclusion)	0 words	Not needed	They use up words and carry no information

Keep linking words that carry meaning, such as because, although, so, while and rather than. For one or two words each, they show the speaker's cause or contrast. The test is simple: if you can delete a word and the reader still knows what the speaker said, it shouldn't be using your budget.

SST Worked Example

Main ideas in the recording (job interviews): What a manager is looking for in a job interview is your thoughts, emotions and story, not just answers to questions. Being able to communicate and describe your thoughts, emotions, experiences and stories is what matters.

In a job interview, managers look for your thoughts, emotions and personal stories rather than simple answers, so the ability to communicate these experiences clearly matters most.

That's 27 words, inside the 20 to 30 range, and every word carries information. The only non-content words are "rather than" and "so", and they carry the recording's contrast and cause. There's no "The lecture discusses" and no invented conclusion.

Two more points from the Score Guide:

At 31 to 40 words, Form drops from 2 points to 1, so count your words every time.
SST's Spelling trait allows one spelling or typing error for full marks. If you heard a word but can't spell it with confidence, use a synonym you can spell.

A Shared Method for Both Tasks

Find the main idea. It's usually at the start or the end.
Find 1 or 2 supporting points: specific examples, figures or reasons. Skip detail that goes on too long.
Cut repetition. If the original says something twice, keep it once.
Rebuild the sentences. Bring SWT down to 25 to 50 words and SST to 20 to 30. Any number of sentences is fine, as long as each one is grammatically complete.

The only difference between the two is the word range: 25 to 50 for SWT, 20 to 30 for SST.

See the method applied end to end in the SWT worked example and the SST worked example, then try Summarize Written Text practice and Summarize Spoken Text practice.

Format Rules for Both Tasks

No all capitals. A response written entirely in capitals scores 0.
Don't leave out punctuation. Missing necessary punctuation, such as the full stop at the end of a sentence, costs points.
No bullet points or fragments. Write in full sentences.