The Reading Items in PTE requires a test taker to understand the academic passages and answer the questions. The total time allotted for the entire Reading Section is 32-41 minutes, and therefore, item wise, there is no specific time considered. Nevertheless, you should not be spending more than 2 minutes on MCQs.
The item of MCQs tests your capability to analyse, understand, and evaluate the passage. After reading the passage, you need to select only ONE option from many. You need to click on the option you think is correct. You can deselect the same option by clicking again on it. However, once you press ‘next’, the item gets changed and you cannot come back.
Scoring
The response is marked either correct or incorrect. No score is allotted to no response or incorrect response. There is no partial negative marking for the MCQs of Multiple Choice, Single Answer.
Strategies
Understanding a passage requires a ‘quick eye and brain’ to parse through the entire text. The text may vary from 150 to 300 words. The MCQs become easy if you are an ardent reader! However, you can still develop your reading skills by reading a lot of newspapers, academic articles, and understanding the meaning and context of each word from the content. In addition, the general tips that can help you are mentioned below:
Stay cool and calm: Read the passage for fun; don’t try to fetch every information in every word. It is observed that if you read the passage lightly, without any pressure, you grasp more from it.
Kick-off the strangers: It is quite possible that you come across many unfamiliar words in the passage. Don’t cry foul over it! Just pass them by guessing their meanings. If even guessing ‘bothers’ you, replace the word with ‘something,’ and carry on. Sticking on one word will eat up a lot of time, and you may end up in finishing just half of the test.
What’s first? A hen or an egg? The million dollar question is ‘What should I read first -the questions or the passage?’ Well, it depends on an individual. While some feel comfortable reading the entire passage, others prefer going for the question and options first. Whichever way you choose, try to finish it within 2 minutes. A small advice is that you may read the passage first if the passage is small; in other case, if the passage is lengthy, you may head toward reading question and options.
Fish out those hints! Keywords are the ‘hints.’ You need to pick these lovely hints and try to match them with the passage given. Keywords could be in the form of years, technical terms, proper nouns, or anything that is unique in the passage.
Overconfidence: You may take the passage lightly, but never the questions! PTE is clever; it can get you a twisted question and very confusing answers. Try to read between the lines and identify the truth. Don’t jump on the conclusion with your overconfidence as it’ll only bring your score down.
Greed: In MCQs with multiple choices and multiple answers, two of the given options are generally correct; three answers is also possible, but four or more is very less likely to happen. Keep your greed of marking more than two at bay, if you want to score high in PTE Reading. Mark the third or fourth one only if you are dead sure.
Freeze: If you ‘freeze’ at one place simply because you did not get the concept, sentence, or a word, you lose marks. As mentioned in the tips above, you may simply ignore the unknown words in the passage by simply guessing them. If you are stuck at one place, you are never sure to complete the Reading section in time.
Types of MCQs in PTE Reading:
- Multiple Choices, Single Answer
- Multiple Choices, Multiple Options
What type of passages we have?
PTE Reading Section has passages from authentic sources. The sources could be from subjects of humanities, social science, natural science, cultures, history, and at times healthcare or medical. Nevertheless, you should be prepared for any topic as it should not come as a surprise and bother you. |
| Source: PearsonPTE.com -only for educational purpose |
Multiple Choices, Single Answer
The first Reading Item in PTE is Multiple Choices, Single Answer.What does it mean?
As the label suggests, on the left side, you are given with a passage from some academic subject and an image (optional; i.e. you may or may not get an image with the passage). On the right side, you have a question and options that vary from 4-6.The item of MCQs tests your capability to analyse, understand, and evaluate the passage. After reading the passage, you need to select only ONE option from many. You need to click on the option you think is correct. You can deselect the same option by clicking again on it. However, once you press ‘next’, the item gets changed and you cannot come back.
Scoring
The response is marked either correct or incorrect. No score is allotted to no response or incorrect response. There is no partial negative marking for the MCQs of Multiple Choice, Single Answer.
Strategies
Understanding a passage requires a ‘quick eye and brain’ to parse through the entire text. The text may vary from 150 to 300 words. The MCQs become easy if you are an ardent reader! However, you can still develop your reading skills by reading a lot of newspapers, academic articles, and understanding the meaning and context of each word from the content. In addition, the general tips that can help you are mentioned below:
Stay cool and calm: Read the passage for fun; don’t try to fetch every information in every word. It is observed that if you read the passage lightly, without any pressure, you grasp more from it.
Kick-off the strangers: It is quite possible that you come across many unfamiliar words in the passage. Don’t cry foul over it! Just pass them by guessing their meanings. If even guessing ‘bothers’ you, replace the word with ‘something,’ and carry on. Sticking on one word will eat up a lot of time, and you may end up in finishing just half of the test.
What’s first? A hen or an egg? The million dollar question is ‘What should I read first -the questions or the passage?’ Well, it depends on an individual. While some feel comfortable reading the entire passage, others prefer going for the question and options first. Whichever way you choose, try to finish it within 2 minutes. A small advice is that you may read the passage first if the passage is small; in other case, if the passage is lengthy, you may head toward reading question and options.
Fish out those hints! Keywords are the ‘hints.’ You need to pick these lovely hints and try to match them with the passage given. Keywords could be in the form of years, technical terms, proper nouns, or anything that is unique in the passage.
Things that can KILL your score in MCQs
If you now know the ‘dos,’ you should be aware of ‘dont’s’ as well. Here are a few things that you should refrain yourself from practicing.Overconfidence: You may take the passage lightly, but never the questions! PTE is clever; it can get you a twisted question and very confusing answers. Try to read between the lines and identify the truth. Don’t jump on the conclusion with your overconfidence as it’ll only bring your score down.
Greed: In MCQs with multiple choices and multiple answers, two of the given options are generally correct; three answers is also possible, but four or more is very less likely to happen. Keep your greed of marking more than two at bay, if you want to score high in PTE Reading. Mark the third or fourth one only if you are dead sure.
Freeze: If you ‘freeze’ at one place simply because you did not get the concept, sentence, or a word, you lose marks. As mentioned in the tips above, you may simply ignore the unknown words in the passage by simply guessing them. If you are stuck at one place, you are never sure to complete the Reading section in time.
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