PTE Core Reading: Multiple Choice, Single Answer
You read a text of up to 110 words and answer a multiple-choice question about its content or tone, selecting one response. You will see this 1 to 2 times per test. Of the five Reading task types this is the most straightforward: a short text, a single correct answer, and no deduction for getting it wrong. That combination means it should be treated as marks you do not drop, rather than as a task needing elaborate technique.
At a glance
| Detail | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Items on your test | 1 to 2 |
| Text length | Up to 110 words |
| What you do | Answer a multiple-choice question on the content or tone of the text, selecting one response |
| Skills scored | Reading |
| Scoring method | Correct or incorrect |
| Penalty for a wrong answer | None |
| Section time | 27 to 37 minutes for the whole Reading section |
Do not confuse it with its multiple-answer sibling
The Reading section contains two multiple-choice tasks and they need opposite instincts.
Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers has a longer text, up to 275 words, allows more than one selection, and deducts a point for each incorrect option chosen. There, restraint is the skill.
Multiple Choice, Single Answer, this task, has a shorter text, takes one selection, and is simply marked correct or incorrect. There is no deduction. So the strategy is the reverse: never leave it blank, and if you are down to two options, pick one.
Checking which of the two you are looking at, before you start answering, takes a second and prevents the most costly error on either task.
The method
- Read the question and the options before the text. On a text this short, knowing what to look for saves more time than a clean first read gains you. Note whether the question is about content or about tone.
- Read the text once, fully. At 110 words there is no need to skim, and skimming is where careless errors come from.
- Locate the part of the text the question points at and read it again closely. Single-answer questions usually turn on one or two sentences.
- Eliminate rather than select. With one correct answer, ruling out the wrong options is often faster and safer than arguing yourself into a favourite. Reject any option you can show the text contradicts or does not address.
- For tone questions, weigh the strength of the language. Options often differ by degree rather than direction: cautious against enthusiastic, critical against dismissive. Find the writer's hedges and intensifiers and match them.
- Answer, always. There is no penalty. If two options survive elimination, choose the one with better support in the text and move on.
What the distractors look like
- Half right. The option states something the text supports, then adds a clause it does not. Read the whole option, not the first half.
- Too strong. The text says a factor may contribute; the option says it is the cause. Absolutes such as all, never, and only are worth a second look.
- Word-matched but wrong. The option repeats striking vocabulary from the text while changing the relationship between the ideas. Vocabulary overlap is not evidence.
- True but irrelevant. The option answers a question the item did not ask. Re-read the question stem before committing.
Time management
The Reading section runs 27 to 37 minutes and holds 13 to 18 items. This task has one of the shorter texts in the section and only 1 to 2 items, so it should be one of the quicker things you do. If you find yourself spending a long stretch on it, that time is coming out of the Fill in the Blanks tasks, which together account for most of the section's marks. Eliminate, choose, move.
How to practise it
Practise in the question bank, and when you review, focus on the wrong options rather than the right one. For each distractor, name why it fails: unsupported, overstated, word-matched, or off-question. Those four categories cover most of what you will meet, and being able to name them turns a slow re-read into a quick check.
Because the reasoning here overlaps closely with its multiple-answer sibling, review the two together. Use AI Coach for items where you cannot see why your choice was wrong, and use a full practice test to confirm this task is not eating time it does not deserve.
Related guides
- Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers, the same format with a deduction attached
- Reading and Writing: Fill in the Blanks, the highest-frequency Reading task
- PTE Core score to CLB conversion chart