The 8 words PTE students misread most in Read Aloud and Repeat Sentence
Across 195 RealPTE students who practised Read Aloud and Repeat Sentence, the most misread word was “assignments” (60 students); 8 words were misread by at least 20 students each, in at least 3 different questions.
The 8 words students misread most
| # | Word | Students who misread it | Times misread | Likely difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | assignments | 60 | 103 | Silent letters |
| 2 | agricultural | 41 | 54 | Word stress (long word) |
| 3 | work | 35 | 45 | v / w sounds |
| 4 | bibliography | 30 | 47 | Word stress (long word) |
| 5 | students | 29 | 40 | Consonant cluster |
| 6 | came | 24 | 38 | Vowel sound |
| 7 | medicine | 23 | 27 | Word stress (long word) |
| 8 | years | 22 | 24 | -s ending /s, z, ɪz/ |
Each word was misread by at least 20 different students in at least 3 different questions. Short function words (the, a, of …) are left out.
Difficulty types in the list
| Likely difficulty | Words in the list |
|---|---|
| Word stress (long word) | 3 |
| Silent letters | 1 |
| v / w sounds | 1 |
| Consonant cluster | 1 |
| Vowel sound | 1 |
| -s ending /s, z, ɪz/ | 1 |
How this data was collected
- Sample: 195 students · 3,546 attempts · 9 October 2026 to 21 October 2026.
- Read Aloud and Repeat Sentence attempts scored by RealPTE's speech engine.
- A word counts when the engine marked it wrong, nearly right or unclear (word marks on each attempt).
- “Likely difficulty” is read from the spelling, not measured from the recordings.
- AI scores are RealPTE's practice estimates on Pearson's 10–90 scale, not official PTE scores; Pearson's own scoring can differ.
- Every figure on this page is based on at least 20 different students; smaller groups are not shown. Only totals are published, never a single student’s results.
- The report is about students’ practice and results. It does not show any test questions or question text.
- Recalculated every week from new practice; the update date above shows the latest run.
Questions students ask
Which word do PTE students misread most in Read Aloud and Repeat Sentence?
In RealPTE practice it was “assignments”: 60 different students misread it. The full list of 8 words is above.
What counts as misread?
The scoring engine compared each recording with the text and marked a word wrong, close but not right, or unclear. Skipped words are not counted here, only words the student said differently.
How should I practise these words?
Most words in the list share a sound pattern (word stress (long word) is the most common). Say each word slowly, then inside a full sentence, and record yourself in Read Aloud practice.
Cite this data
RealPTE practice data, October 2026. “The 8 Words PTE Students Misread Most in Read Aloud (Practice Data)”. https://realpte.com/pte-data/pte-misread-words
You are welcome to quote these figures with a link to this page.
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