How do you know PTE Academic’s computer marking works?

PTE Author
PTE Author
Video thumbnail for the video, 'Learn how PTE Academic uses AI to mark tests'
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How do we know automated scoring works

Are you thinking of taking PTE Academic, or have you recently taken it, but you are wondering how it is that a computer can mark your test?

Well, firstly the test has been designed by humans, all leading experts in their field. Our human experts design and write the questions, quality assure them, and then score them. At this point, computers are trained to use the patterns of highly trained language experts to attribute scores to questions. When the computer marks correlate highly with the human scores, we then allow the computer to mark test scripts from across the world.

As a result of our processes and technology, the computer behaves like an expert human examiner – but without any possible bias, lack of concentration, or variation between individual examiners.

The scoring criteria are exactly the same as human scoring – test takers are marked on their delivery, clarity, relevance, the accuracy of grammar, and appropriateness of vocabulary.

Want to hear more?

Take a couple of minutes and listen to one of our leading independent advisors, Dr. Alistair Van Moere, a member of Pearson’s Technical Advisory Group, as he explains how it all works.

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About the Author

Dr. Alistair Van Moere is the Chief Product Officer at MetaMetrics Inc. where his role is to drive innovation in assessments and learning and to help individuals and organizations make sense of measurement and test scores. Through the Lexile® Framework for Reading, Alistair’s work extends to over 35 million learners in 180 countries, who get connected with learning resources at their level and have their progress monitored against standards. 

Learn more about the PTE Technical Advisory Group.

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