My PTE results are taking longer than 5 days — what should I do?

First, check whether five working days have actually passed — Pearson's stated window is "usually within two days, but up to five working days", and working days exclude weekends and public holidays. If you are still inside that window, there is nothing useful to do except log into myPTE directly rather than waiting for the email, and check your spam folder. Past five working days with no score and no notification, contact Pearson customer support through the help centre form.

Check myPTE, not your inbox

The notification email is not the score. It can be filtered to spam or blocked by a university address — Pearson's own advice, if nothing has arrived after five working days, is to check your junk folder before contacting them. The score itself lives in your myPTE account.

Log in and look at the test itself rather than refreshing your mail. If the score is there, download the report and move on; you have been panicking about an email, not a delay.

Why results get held

A hold is almost always procedural rather than disciplinary. Pearson names two causes itself: a result flagged for additional review to make sure it is accurate, and security checks to verify your identity. Its retake policy adds a third — holding duplicate Pearson accounts, which it says will delay the release of future test scores. Anything beyond that is guesswork.

None of these mean you failed, and none of them mean you are accused of anything. They mean a human is looking at something before the score is finalised.

How to contact Pearson properly

Use the official help centre contact form and have your Registration ID, test date and test centre ready. Include the deadline you are working to — a visa lodgement date or an offer expiry — because it is genuinely relevant information, even though Pearson publishes no policy of prioritising cases by deadline.

Keep it to one channel. Raising the same query through the form, email and phone tends to create duplicate tickets that slow the answer down.

Do not book a panic resit

You cannot book another PTE test until your outstanding score is released anyway, so a resit is not available as a hedge even if you want one. Spending the wait comparing test centre dates is wasted energy.

If your deadline is genuinely at risk, tell the receiving institution or agent now that your result is pending with Pearson. Universities deal with delayed English results constantly and will usually note the file rather than reject it — but only if you tell them before the deadline, not after.

PTE AI is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Pearson. PTE Academic is a trademark of Pearson. All practice material here is original and written for this site.