For many nurses planning to work or register in Australia, the PTE Academic exam is one of the final hurdles before reaching their goal. And while every section matters, Speaking and Listening are often where candidates feel the most pressure.

Nurses communicate constantly throughout their day. Whether you’re discussing a patient’s condition with a doctor, explaining medication instructions, or responding to an emergency situation, clear communication is a core part of the profession. Because of this, English language requirements for healthcare professionals are understandably high.

The good news is that success in the PTE isn’t necessarily about speaking perfect English. Many high-scoring candidates still have accents. What usually makes the difference is understanding how the test works and applying the right strategies consistently.

If you’re preparing for the PTE in 2026, here are some practical Speaking and Listening strategies that can help nurses perform with greater confidence.

Understand How Speaking and Listening Work Together

One mistake many candidates make is treating Speaking and Listening as completely separate skills. In the PTE, they are closely connected.

Tasks such as Repeat Sentence and Retell Lecture require you to listen carefully before responding. If your listening accuracy drops, your speaking score is likely to be affected as well. This is why simply practising pronunciation isn’t enough. You also need to train your ears to recognise different accents, sentence structures, and speech patterns.

Spending even 20 to 30 minutes each day listening to English podcasts, healthcare webinars, or Australian news broadcasts can help improve comprehension over time.

Master the Repeat Sentence Task

For many nurses, Repeat Sentence can be one of the most challenging parts of the exam. You’ll hear a sentence only once and then need to repeat it as accurately as possible.

The key isn’t trying to memorise every individual word. Instead, focus on understanding the overall meaning and identifying groups of words rather than isolated vocabulary. Your brain naturally remembers phrases better than individual terms.

Don’t Rush During Read Aloud

Many candidates assume speaking faster will make them sound more fluent. Usually, the opposite happens. When nerves kick in, people tend to rush through passages, skip punctuation, and stumble over difficult words. This can negatively affect fluency and pronunciation scores.

Think about how experienced nurses communicate with patients. They don’t race through instructions, they speak clearly and at a pace that allows understanding. Apply the same principle during Read Aloud. A calm, consistent pace generally performs much better than speaking quickly and making mistakes.

Develop a Structure for Retell Lecture

Retell Lecture often feels intimidating because candidates are required to listen, take notes, organise information, and speak within a short period. Without a structure, it’s easy to lose track of your ideas.

Many successful candidates use a simple framework:

Introduce the topic
Mention the main points
Summarise the conclusion

Your response doesn’t need to include every detail from the lecture. The goal is to communicate the key information logically and fluently. For nurses, this approach can feel quite familiar. In clinical environments, summarising information clearly and efficiently is already part of everyday practice.

Pronunciation Matters More Than Accent

One concern many internationally qualified nurses have is their accent. The reality is that PTE does not require an Australian, British, or American accent, what matters is clarity.

Examiners and automated scoring systems are assessing whether words are understandable and pronounced correctly. A strong accent can still achieve excellent scores if speech remains clear and consistent.

Rather than trying to change your natural accent, focus on:

Correct word stress
Clear vowel sounds
Proper pronunciation of common English words
Consistent pacing

Trying to imitate a completely different accent often creates unnecessary confusion and inconsistency.

Improve Active Listening Skills

Listening in the PTE exam isn’t passive. You can’t simply hear information and hope to remember it later. Active listening involves focusing on key ideas, identifying important details, and predicting what information may come next.

A useful exercise is listening to short news reports or healthcare discussions and then summarising them aloud in your own words.

This develops two skills simultaneously:

Listening comprehension
Spoken response organisation

Both are essential for high PTE scores.

Learn to Take Fast Notes

Several listening tasks require note-taking. The challenge is that candidates often try to write everything they hear. That’s rarely effective. Good note-taking is about capturing keywords rather than full sentences.

For example, if a lecture discusses infection control procedures, your notes might only include:

hand hygiene
patient safety
contamination risks
compliance standards

These prompts are often enough to trigger memory during your response. The less time you spend writing, the more attention you can devote to listening.

Strengthen Your Listening With Healthcare Content

Many nurses spend most of their study time using generic English materials. While these resources are useful, incorporating healthcare-related content can be particularly valuable.

Medical podcasts, nursing education videos, healthcare conferences, and clinical discussions expose you to:

Professional terminology
Different speaking speeds
Technical vocabulary
Real-world communication scenarios

This not only helps with PTE preparation but also supports future workplace communication. You’ll often find that the listening skills developed through professional content transfer well to exam situations.

Manage Exam-Day Nerves

Even candidates who perform well during practice sessions can struggle on exam day. Nervousness affects concentration, memory, pronunciation, and listening accuracy.

A common pattern is that candidates become fixated on one mistake and allow it to affect the next question. Instead, if you miss a word or make a small mistake, keep moving.

Many candidates who achieve high scores still make occasional errors. What matters is maintaining consistency across the entire exam.

Practise Under Real Test Conditions

One of the biggest differences between practice and the actual exam environment is noise. PTE test centres can be surprisingly busy. Multiple candidates are speaking at the same time, often only a few metres away from one another. This catches many first-time test takers off guard.

Try practising occasionally in environments with background noise rather than always studying in complete silence. Doing so helps build focus and makes the real test environment feel less overwhelming.

Final Thoughts

For nurses preparing for the PTE in 2026, success in Speaking and Listening isn’t simply about having strong English skills. It’s about understanding the exam format, developing reliable strategies, and practising consistently.

Focus on clear communication rather than perfection. Build active listening habits, strengthen note-taking skills, and learn how to structure your responses under time pressure.

Most importantly, remember that improvement comes gradually. Some days your practice scores will feel encouraging, and other days they may not. That’s a normal part of the preparation process.

With the right approach and consistent effort, achieving the required PTE score can become a realistic and achievable step towards your nursing career goals in Australia. For comprehensive and professional guidance, you can get in touch with our PTE instructors at EnglishWise. With us find dedicated support tailored to your unique skills and goals.