Reading section of PTE

Reading section of PTE evaluated the ability of the candidate to identify the main idea of the passage and understand the supporting details along with its key vocabulary. This section of the PTE exam takes around 30-40 minutes to complete. A variety of question types is used to evaluate a wide range of reading skills.

Types of the question in the PTE Reading section

1. Multiple-choice, choose a single answer

In this task of Multiple-choice questions and choose a single answer, there will be a comprehension. After reading the first text, which would be of up to 110 words, you will be presented with a question and several response choices. Then you must choose the one answer that best fits the blank in the question.

2. Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers

In this task, you will be presented with another question but here you have to select multiple correct responses from the given list of options. The passage can include as many as 300 words.

3. Re-order paragraphs

In this task, you will be presented with several paragraphs given in an incorrect order. After reading and understanding the paragraphs, you will have to re-arrange them in such a way that it looks in a logical order. The length of this passage can be up to 150 words long. Several text boxes will appear in front of you in random order. Put those text boxes in the correct order.

4. Fill in the blanks

For the first fill-in-the-blank task, you will encounter a short text which is up to 80 words, that has multiple words removed. You will also be provided with a word bank of options for filling in the given blanks. Using context clues and general reasoning skills, you must drag and drop the correct words into their rightful place.

5. Reading and Writing: Fill in the blanks

The second fill-in-the-blank task also asks you to select the right words to complete sentences with missing text. The passage of this task includes up to 300 words. To fill in the blanks, you will be asked to select from among a list of four options included in a drop-down menu, rather than a word bank.

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Preparation tips for the Reading section of PTE

• Keep practising your English grammar through trial and error.
• Read widely on academic topics to develop a broad range of vocabulary. Read and practice them with academic subjects and articles as much as is possible for you every day to build up an excellent PTE academic vocabulary.
• Read and read every day to increase your ability to read comprehension speedily.
• Learn collocations, idioms and common expressions. This will help you a lot during the test.
• Learn to manage your time, you may eat up a lot of time in reading the passage only, so, better, develop good reading skills during the preparation phase.
• You should start preparing for the reading section with the academic subjects, including humanities, natural sciences and social sciences as this section includes authentic texts.
• Practice with sample papers and understand what is your weakness. When you know your weakness, you will know where to put more efforts to improve.

Useful tips during the PTE Reading Exam

For the reading section of the PTE Academic, the trick to be used is fluency in reading, focusing, and understanding the texts. You will be using these skills at a time while attempting the exam, but while practising you will have to learn them one be one. Here we have mentioned few tips for each task of Reading section of PTE: 

1. Multiple-choice, Choose Single Answer

• First, understand the main idea of the passage and focus on keywords to find the correct answer.
• Focus on the frequency words such as always, sometimes, never many, all, often, never, only etc. with the help of these words you may find the correct answer easily. 
• There is no negative marking in this task so answer the question, even if you are not sure with the help of guessing, don’t leave it blank.  
• Use the process of elimination in the task to cut down the answer choices as much as possible. 
• Go through the questions before you start reading the text to know exactly what kind of information you have to search in the text. 
• Keep in mind the order of the questions and the order of the answers in the passage will not be the same. The answer will be anywhere in the passage. 
• Practice to paraphrase, which means conveying the meaning using different words

2. Multiple-choice, Choose Multiple Answers 

• This question has negative marking, which means you will be penalised if you answer them wrong, so don’t select options if you are not entirely sure. If you are unsure of the answer then it is better to leave it.  
• Pay attention to any nouns, adjectives, dates, activities or any repeated activity mentioned there.

3. Re-order paragraphs 

• First, search for the headline and understand the major idea of the paragraph. 
• Remember that the sentence starting with pronouns like she, he, him, her, they, those, them, etc will never be the first sentence.  
• Look for contradictory phrases such as with, however, but, also, although, furthermore, moreover, besides etc. Find the sentence before it. 

4. Fill in the blanks 

• Begin both the fill in the blank tasks by quickly skimming the given text to understand the main idea of the passage.
• There is no negative marking in this task, so answer all the questions by guessing even if you are not sure. 
• Read on the parts of speech before and after the blank properly, it will help in finding the missing word. 
• Not always, but many times, missing words will have a synonym in the given text. 
• Be calm while inserting your answer and always double-check. To ensure that you have entered the correct answer before submitting it.

Are you tensed about the PTE exam? We have prepared this guide for you to improve your skills to score well: How to improve PTE academic score? Tips and Strategies

So, now you are totally informed about the reading section of the PTE and also we have mentioned all the tips and tricks you can take advantage of and crack the reading module well and score high.

All the best..!!

Would you like to know more about other section as well? Here are all your answers

Listening section of the PTE

Writing section of PTE

Speaking section of PTE