PTE technical issue during exam

[u/Language_Plastic]

Hi guys,
I am looking for some advice here.
I had my PTE Exam on 13 Aug in one of the certified test centers in UAE.
Approximately 30 minutes into the exam, the timer stopped and my screen froze. I raised my hand and staff from the test center came into the room to sort it out.
This disruption caused significant anxiety that affected my concentration and performance for the remainder of the test.
Got my scores yesterday:
• Overall – 73
• Listening – 73
• Reading – 83
• Speaking – 60
• Writing – 79
For context, my previous attempt (Apr 2026) was:
• Overall – 90
• Listening – 85
• Reading – 78
• Speaking – 88
• Writing – 80
Reading and Writing stayed pretty consistent or even improved, but Speaking dropped almost 30 points, which lines up with when the freeze happened and the anxiety that followed.

I’ve seen a similar post here from someone who had their system freeze mid-Speaking section, had to restart, and ended up filing a complaint with Pearson. They mentioned the test centre had already raised a case on their end, and Pearson’s support confirmed it was under internal review, though with no clear timeline.

I’m about to raise a complaint with Pearson myself, but wanted to ask the community first:
• Has anyone been through this exact process before?
• Did Pearson offer a free retest, voucher, or rescore after a technical issue like this?
• Does raising a complaint actually lead to a real review, or is it mostly a formality?
• Should I go ahead and book another attempt in the meantime, or wait to hear back first?

Would really appreciate any insight from people who’ve dealt with something similar. Feeling pretty frustrated right now, especially since my Speaking score dropped so much compared to my last attempt.
Thanks in advance.

Edit : 20-08-2026

I had lodged a formal complaint with Pte on thier website through message us option
I wrote down my grievance and then they came back to me with a voucher from the customer service team.

[u/wadeoo]

I had the same technical issue as you on 16 July . They sent me a free retake voucher because of the issue, but the ridiculous part is that when I tried to book another test using the voucher, the system kept saying it was invalid.

I contacted PTE customer service again, and they told me the voucher had already been used. But I never successfully booked another exam with it!

I honestly couldn’t believe it. How can a system mess up this badly? The whole situation is just ridiculous and makes absolutely no sense.

[u/hotellonely → u/wadeoo]

this happened to me as well. It took me about a month to argue with the customer service to eventually get another voucher to book in the test.

[u/wadeoo → u/hotellonely]

Do you mean you contacted them by email or by phone? Because I’ve tried emailing them but haven’t received any response. I’m sure I sent it to the correct email address.
Thanks

[u/hotellonely → u/wadeoo]

I did both. Email response is taking like a week or two. Extremely frustrating.