PTE Academic Reading

PTE-A Reading Module

What is it? This section of the PTE exam contains passages and questions based on your reading skills. It contains a single timed section. For each question, you’ll have to read the instructions carefully before answering it.

Alert: The section allots you 32-35 minutes. Please check the timer on the screen. It depends on you to manage all the sections within the time limit. In other word, the items are not ‘time bound’ but the entire section is.

Section overview:

Item	Task	Number of Items	Prompt length	Scoring	Skills assessed
Multiple choice, choose single answer	Only one response from many given is correct. Choose that correct one after reading the passage.	2 - 3	text up to 110 words	Correct / Incorrect	reading
Multiple choice, choose multiple answers	More than one response is correct from many given. Choose the correct ones after reading the passage.	2 - 3	text up to 300 words	Partial Credit ( For Each Correct Response. Point Deducted For Incorrcet Option Chosen )	reading
Reorder paragraphs	On the left hand side, many sentences or paragraphs will be placed in a random order. Drag and drop them to the right side in a correct order.	2 - 3	text up to 150 words	Partial Credit ( For Each Correctly Ordered Adjacent Pair )	reading
Reading Fill in the blanks	The passage appearing on the screen will have several gaps. Below the passage you have different words. Drag and drop the words that you think are correct and fill the blanks.	4 - 5	text up to 80 words	Partial Credit ( For Each Correctly Completed Blank )	reading
Reading and writing Fill in the blanks	From a drop down box, choose the correct word that you think should be the correct answer for the sentence with the gap.	5 - 6	text up to 300 words	Partial Credit ( For Each Correctly Completed Blank )	reading and writing

Multiple-choice question, single answer:

What is it?
You will be presented with a passage. You need to go through the text carefully. Down to the text is a question with multiple options. You need to select (by clicking) only one which you think is the right answer.

What is the prompt length?
The text could be up to 110 words

How are you judged?
Your reading skills

Tip:
Read the question first so that you know what you should focus on. After having a glance at the question and the options, start reading the text. Choose only one option which you think is right.

Alert:
On an average, you should not be spending more than 2 minutes on each question.

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Multiple -choice, multiple answers:

What is the prompt length?
The text could be up to 300 words

How are you judged?
Your reading skills

Tip:
Read the question first so that you know what you should focus on. After having a glance at the question and the options, start reading the text. Choose more than one option which you think are right.

Alert:
On an average, you should not be spending more than 2 minutes on each question

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Re-order paragraphs:

What is it?
You will be presented with several paragraphs in a random order on the left hand side with a blank space on the right hand side. You need to drag the paragraphs from the left side and put them in order into the blank space on the right hand side.

What is the prompt length?
The text could be up to 150 words

How are you judged?
Your reading skills

Tip:
Carefully read all the paragraphs. Generally, paragraphs with connectors and adverbs don’t come as a first paragraph. If you have ‘years’ mentioned in your paragraphs, the chronological order may help set you the paragraphs in the right order.

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Reading-fill in the blanks:

What is it?
On your screen will be a passage or a paragraph(s) with several blanks. Just below the text, you’ll have several words. You need to drag and drop a proper word in a proper blank. You will get point for each correctly placed word.

What is the prompt length?
The text could be up to 80 words

How are you judged?
Your reading skills

Tip:
Try to understand the entire sentence that has a blank. Check whether the blank requires a noun, verb, or an adjective. Pick the words accordingly.

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Reading and writing -fill in the blanks:

What is it?
On your screen will be a passage or a paragraph(s) with several blanks. Each blank will have a dropdown option filled with several words. You need to select the word that you think is the right one.

What is the prompt length?
The text could be up to 300 words

How are you judged?
Your reading and writing skills

Tip:
You should have good practice of reading as it makes the task easier. This item also requires good vocabulary because many times, the words are synonyms and you require intense knowledge of which word goes better for the blank.