PTE Core Reading: Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers
This task gives you the longest text in the Reading section, up to 275 words, and asks a multiple-choice question about its content or tone where more than one option can be correct. You will see it only 1 to 2 times per test. It deserves attention out of proportion to that count for one reason: it is the only task in the Reading section where choosing a wrong option takes a mark away from you.
At a glance
| Detail | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Items on your test | 1 to 2 |
| Text length | Up to 275 words, the longest in the Reading section |
| What you do | Answer a multiple-choice question on the content or tone of the text, selecting more than one response |
| Skills scored | Reading |
| Scoring method | Partial credit, with a point deducted for each incorrect option chosen |
| Floor | Minimum score is zero for the item |
| Section time | 27 to 37 minutes for the whole Reading section |
How the deduction actually works
Pearson's scoring line for this task gives one point for each correct response, deducts one point for each incorrect response, and sets a minimum score of zero. Read that carefully, because it changes the correct strategy completely.
Selecting an option you are unsure about is not a free bet. If you are right you gain a point; if you are wrong you lose one. So an option is only worth selecting when you judge it more likely right than wrong, and in practice that means more likely than not supported by the text, not merely plausible about the topic.
The floor protects you from disaster: the item cannot score below zero, and the damage cannot spread to other items. But within the item, a scattergun approach reliably converts a decent score into zero. Two confident correct selections beat four selections of which two are right, because the latter nets zero.
This is the opposite of the advice for the two Fill in the Blanks tasks, where there is no deduction and you should fill every gap. Do not carry one habit into the other task. Knowing which task you are looking at is itself part of the technique.
The method
- Read the question first. On a 275-word text, knowing whether you are being asked about content or about tone changes what you look for. A tone question sends you to the writer's adjectives and hedges; a content question sends you to the claims.
- Read the text once, properly. This is the one Reading task where skimming is a poor investment. The distractors are built to be plausible to someone who half-read the passage.
- Take each option in turn and hunt for the specific words that support it. Not a general feeling that it sounds right: the actual clause. If you cannot locate support, that option is not a candidate.
- Sort your options into three piles: supported, contradicted, and not addressed. Select the first pile. Leave the third pile alone, and be strict about it, because unaddressed options are the most tempting distractors, since nothing in the text disproves them.
- Count the cost before you add a borderline option. Ask yourself whether you would bet a mark you already hold on it. If not, leave it.
The distractor patterns worth knowing
- True in the world, absent from the text. A statement can be entirely reasonable and still be unsupported. The question is about the passage, not about the subject.
- Right idea, overstated. The text says a factor contributes; the option says it is the main cause. Watch for words that harden a claim: always, only, the primary, proves.
- Right words, wrong relationship. The option reuses the passage's vocabulary but reverses cause and effect, or attributes a view to the wrong party.
- Tone mismatch. On tone questions, a writer who is cautiously critical is not the same as one who is dismissive. Match the strength of the feeling, not just its direction.
Managing the time cost
The Reading section runs 27 to 37 minutes and contains 13 to 18 items across five task types. This task has the longest text but among the fewest items, so it is genuinely possible to spend a quarter of the section on a task worth a small share of the marks. Read the text once carefully rather than three times anxiously, make your selections, and move on. If you find yourself re-reading the passage a third time, that is a signal to commit to your supported pile and leave.
How to practise it
Practise this task in the question bank with a deliberate extra step: after answering, write one sentence per option saying why you selected or rejected it, quoting the words from the text that decided it. If you cannot quote anything, you were guessing, and that is the habit that costs marks here. Reviewing which of your selections were unsupported guesses matters more than reviewing your total.
Use AI Coach to talk through the reasoning on items you got wrong, and check your section pacing on a full practice test.
Related guides
- Multiple Choice, Single Answer, the same question format without the deduction
- Reading: Fill in the Blanks (drag and drop), where you should guess freely
- PTE Core score to CLB conversion chart