Voice pitch test for PTE speaking

Adult men usually speak somewhere around 85–180 Hz, averaging about 120 Hz. Adult women usually speak around 165–255 Hz, averaging about 210 Hz. These are commonly cited ranges, and studies report slightly different averages depending on age, language, the reading task and how pitch is measured.

Plenty of healthy voices sit outside these ranges. The ranges are a reference point, not a target.

Not the height of it. Pearson scores pronunciation by whether your speech is easily understood by most regular English speakers, and accents are accepted. Oral fluency is scored on whether your rhythm, phrasing and stress are smooth. Nothing rewards a higher or a lower voice.

Pitch movement is a different matter. Pearson's Read Aloud tips say stressed syllables should sound higher, louder and longer. A reading that stays on one note hides the stress pattern and sounds less natural, so this tool also measures how much your pitch rises and falls.

Typical pitch is the middle (median) of your voiced speech. Usual range runs from your 10th to your 90th percentile, which ignores the odd squeak or creak.

Pitch movement is that range in semitones, the steps of a musical scale, so it compares fairly between low and high voices. As a practice guide from PTE Flow (not a Pearson rule): under 4 semitones tends to sound flat, 4–12 is a natural rise and fall for reading, and more than 12 is very lively.

Your browser records the passage, and the analysis runs on your device using the YIN pitch-detection method on short slices of audio. Quiet slices and isolated octave jumps are ignored so one bad slice cannot skew the result.

The recording is never uploaded or saved. You can play it back on this page, and it is gone when you leave.

Your natural, comfortable pitch. PTE does not score how high or low your voice is. What helps is clear stress: key syllables a little higher, louder and longer, with your voice falling at full stops.

Commonly cited ranges are about 85–180 Hz for adult men (average around 120 Hz) and 165–255 Hz for adult women (average around 210 Hz). Individual voices vary widely.

Read a passage with this tool and check the pitch movement. If your pitch stays within about 4 semitones, the reading probably sounds flat. Practise lifting the key word in each phrase.

No. The audio is analysed in your browser and is never sent to a server. It disappears when you leave the page.

Yes. After recording, tap the download button next to play to save it as a WAV file on your device. You can listen to it later or upload it to an AI tool for more feedback on your pronunciation.

Yes, in a recent version of Chrome, Edge or Safari. Allow microphone access when your browser asks, and read in a quiet room for the most reliable result.

• Pearson Read Aloud test tips (stress, pace)
• Pearson score guide (pronunciation, oral fluency)
• Pearson speaking test format
• YIN pitch estimator (de Cheveigné & Kawahara, 2002)

Last checked against Pearson: 2026-11-02