Common reading question types
PTE Academic
- You can do the test at any point throughout the year. You can book online and up to 24 hours in advance.
- The PTE exam integrates all four skills of speaking, writing, listening and reading.
- The test lasts a maximum of 3 hours and can be done in one single sitting.
- Your score can be submitted to as many institutions as you like, at no extra cost.
- The test is entirely computer-based and is therefore known to be one of the most impartial tests.
- You can take the test in test centres in the UK or in one of the +250 global test centre network worldwide.

PTE Reading section is the shortest
Scoring Guide
It can be useful to have an idea of the scoring guide in the PTE exam, as compared to the IELTS exam. Make sure you are of course aware of the score requirements before taking the exam.
Copyright – Pearson Ltd
Copyright – Pearson Ltd
The Tasks
Reading: Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
What is the task?
This is a multiple-choice item type in which you have to read a text and choose one answer option to a question about the content or tone of the text. It requires test takers to read, analyze, understand and assess a short text on an academic subject.
How long should I spend on this task?
1.5 – 2 minutes.
How many Multiple Choice, Single Answer prompts do I have to complete?
2 – 3
How long is the text?
Up to 300 words.
How is it scored?
Your response is scored as either correct or incorrect. No credit is given for no response or an incorrect response. This question type affects the scoring of reading
Method
- First look at the question and decide if it relates to the main idea, detail, implication or authors purpose.
- Skim read the answer options to get an idea of the main point or gist of the text.
- Next, scan all four answer options looking for key words.
- Read through the text looking for the key words and key points from the answer options and find supporting evidence for one answer, while eliminating the others.
Top Tips for this task
- Do not stress over unfamiliar words. Try to gain an understanding of their meaning through context but do not spend much time on this.
- Do not leave any question unanswered. If unsure, use your best judgement and guess.
- Keep an eye on the clock. This a useful tool for your own time management.
- Do lots of academic reading in your own time.
- When reading highlight key words and build up your bank of vocabulary. Assess the main theme and supporting details.
Reading: Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answer
What is this task?
How long should I spend on this task?
2 minutes.
How many Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer prompts do I have to complete?
2 – 3
How long is the text?
Up to 300 words.
How is it scored?
Negative marking applies to this task, meaning an incorrect selection will gain a -1 score.
This means that you should only select answers you are confident about to ensure you don’t neutralise a positive score. Even though this is a multiple answer task, you won’t be penalised in any way for only selecting one answer. Therefore, if you are only confident about one answer, only select on answer. The lowest score you can get for each score is zero. Don’t make any guesses in this task.
Method
- First look at the question and decide if it relates to the main idea, detail, implication or authors purpose.
- Skim read the answer options to get an idea of the main point or gist of the text.
- Next, scan all four answer options looking for key words.
- Read through the text looking for the key words and key points from the answer options and find supporting evidence for one answer, while eliminating the others.
Tips for the task
- Take note of the overall content or structure to decide how this can help you in answering the question.
- Try to understand any unknown words in the context of their sentence, but don’t worry too much about unfamiliar words.
- Look for irrelevant or incorrect words and try to remove as many options as you can.
- It is likely no more than 3 answers will be correct and often it is only 2.
- Take no more than 2 minutes to read and answer each question.
- Keep an eye on the clock. This a useful tool for your own time management.
- Practice skimming and scanning, under timed conditions.
Reading: Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answer
What is this task?
This is a multiple-choice item type in which you have to read a text and choose more than one answer option to a question about the content or tone of the text. It requires test takers to read, analyze, understand and assess a short text on an academic subject.
How long should I spend on this task?
2 minutes.
How many Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer prompts do I have to complete?
2 – 3
How long is the text?
Up to 300 words.
How is it scored?
Negative marking applies to this task, meaning an incorrect selection will gain a -1 score.
This means that you should only select answers you are confident about to ensure you don’t neutralise a positive score. Even though this is a multiple answer task, you won’t be penalised in any way for only selecting one answer. Therefore, if you are only confident about one answer, only select on answer. The lowest score you can get for each score is zero. Don’t make any guesses in this task.
Method
- First look at the question and decide if it relates to the main idea, detail, implication or authors purpose.
- Skim read the answer options to get an idea of the main point or gist of the text.
- Next, scan all four answer options looking for key words.
- Read through the text looking for the key words and key points from the answer options and find supporting evidence for one answer, while eliminating the others.
Tips for the task
- Take note of the overall content or structure to decide how this can help you in answering the question.
- Try to understand any unknown words in the context of their sentence, but don’t worry too much about unfamiliar words.
- Look for irrelevant or incorrect words and try to remove as many options as you can.
- It is likely no more than 3 answers will be correct and often it is only 2.
- Take no more than 2 minutes to read and answer each question.
- Keep an eye on the clock. This a useful tool for your own time management.
- Practice skimming and scanning, under timed conditions.
Re-order Paragraphs
What is this task?
You have to re-order a number of sentences in order to form a complete paragraph. Your response for Re-order Paragraphs is judged on your ability to understand the organization and cohesion of an academic text.
How long do you have to complete each item in this task?
2 – 2.5 minutes
How many of these prompts will I have to complete?
2 – 3
How do they score you?
Your response for Re-order Paragraphs is judged on your ability to understand the organization and cohesion of an academic text. One point is awarded for each pair of correct matching text boxes. This means even if your whole answer is not right, you get points for correct pairing. This question type only affects the score of your reading.
Method
- Skim each text for the gist of the topic.
- Look for the topic sentence.
- Look for grammatical connectors or logical relationships between the sentences. For example, look for pronouns, articles or transition words which connect one sentence to the other.
- Read the text to yourself in the order that you have sequenced them. Ask yourself if it sounds logical. Does the paragraph sound correct, and the meaning conveyed correctly?
Tips for the Task
- This is a task based on logic. You shouldn’t have to guess.
- Don’t get overwhelmed looking at the sentences as one big chunk, break it up.
- Don’t forget to make pairs as you will get one point for every correct pair.
- Draw on your knowledge of how to organise and structure an essay.
- If you are really stuck, use trial and error.
- Do not stress over unfamiliar words. Try to gain an understanding of their meaning through context but do not spend much time on this.
- Read academic texts at home, taking down new words and their definitions.
- When you read, highlight the main theme and pay attention to connectors used to link sentences together.
Reading: Fill in the Blanks
What is the task?
For this task you are presented with a text with blanks and a selection of words. You have to choose which of the words fits into the blanks.
How long should you spend on each item in this task?
2 minutes
How many of these prompts will I have to complete?
4 – 5
How do they score you?
Method
- Skim the text to get the gist of the argument or topic.
- Read through the text and assess what parts of speech is missing in each blank. Read the words before and after the blank to decide if, for example, a noun or a verb is missing.
- Look at the answer options and choose the matching word for each blank. You can decide based on the grammar, the contextual meaning or whether before or after the blank collocates with a word in the answer options.
- Review to make sure the paragraph sounds logical as a whole.
Tips for the Task
- Look for clue words in order to fill in each blank according to the correct grammatical structure required.
- Look out for collocations – commonly used word combinations by native speakers.
- Match words simply by their meaning and what adds to the logical flow of the text.
- Work on each blank as you go through, moving on to the next one if you get really stuck.
- Eliminate irrelevant or illogical words in the options.
- If you are really stuck, you could try each word in the gap one by one, but this might be quite time consuming.
- Never leave the question unanswered.
- Work on your list of collocations.
- Work on your bank of academic vocabulary by reading academic articles.
Reading/Writing: Fill in the Blanks
What is the task?
This is the second fill in the blank question type. Here they will present you with a text with a number of blanks. This time you have a dropdown with each blank where you have 4 different answers options for each blank. You must decide the correct word based on contextual and grammatical clues.
How long should you spend on each item in this task?
2 minutes
How many of these prompts will I have to complete?
4 – 5
How do they score you?
This is task is judged on your ability to use contextual and grammatical cues to identify words that complete a reading text. This task affects your reading and writing score. There is no negative marking, so don’t leave any blanks empty.
Method
- Skim the text to get the overall gist and main topic.
- Start to read through the text in more detail looking at the answer options for each gap.
- Read either side of the gap to decide the correct answer based on:
-Your grammatical knowledge.
-Your knowledge of collocations.
-Words that match the meaning. - Read each sentence again if time permits as a review.
Tips for the Task
- Look at the words before and after the gap. Then choose words that match the meaning and grammar.
- Eliminate illogical or ungrammatical words in the options and choose the most suitable word.
- If you are struggling with one of the answers, don’t spend too much time on this.
- Move on to the next one and try and select the options you are confident about in the time you have.
- There is no negative marking for this section, so do not leave the question unanswered. Make an educated guess.
- Keep working on your grammatical knowledge and your collocations.
- Practice reading academic texts daily.
- Take note of any new vocabulary and consider the main topic and gist of the text.
So that concludes the detailed breakdown of the five tasks in the Reading section of the PTE exam. If you follow these methods and tips and get lots of timed practice in before the day of your PTE exam, there should be no reason why you can’t be get a high score in the exam.
We will leave you with some things you can do at home and some tips to improve your overall reading skills, to be able to carry out these tasks with ease.
Reading Tips
- Read daily and try to read a wide range of academic material to prepare you for the kind of topics you will come across in the PTE Exam.
- Practice skimming the text, that is reading very quickly for the gist of the text.
- Practice scanning the text, that is reading the text for key words and specific information.
- Increase you range of vocabulary by writing down the definitions of any new words you come across.
- Also make a list of synonyms of the new words to increase your range of vocabulary further.
Please look at our other blog post on each task, which go into more detail on the specific tasks to enhance your knowledge and skills more. You can also check out our definitive guides to the Speaking and Writing and the Listening sections of the PTE Exam.
At Swoosh English, we offer lots of material, including live classes and mock prompts, to assist you in all sections of the PTE exam. Head on over to pte.swooshenglish.com to see what is on offer.
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