Strategies to deal with P2: Multiple Choice, Single Answer

Part 2: Multiple Choice, Single Answer shows up in both the PTE Academic and PTE Core, which contributes to the Reading skill. Students need to read the text on the screen and pick the best option to answer the question asked. In this article, you will be exploring a unique strategy to help face this item type efficiently on your test day.

Fundamental information

• Task: After reading the paragraph, answer a multiple-choice question by selecting only one correct response
• Prompt length: Text up to 300 words
• Recommended timer: 2.5 minutes
• Frequency: 1-2 questions
• Skills assessed: Reading

If you have read other strategies, you may already why we have 2.5 minutes as a Recommended timer to complete each question given that Part 2: Reading lasts for 29-30 minutes containing all item types. The purpose of that timer is for students to better practice and get familiar with the question type, so on their test day, they will likely spend around that time completing each question, which increases their chances of finishing all questions on time. Of course, we may face some questions harder than others, so we can slightly adjust the amount of time we need for each specific question. For details regarding our time management strategy, please read it here.

A unique step-by-step strategy

In this item type, there is only one correct response. So if PTE takers choose it correctly, they will get points. Otherwise, they will lose points. Our unique strategy is developed to help students face this question type effortlessly and aim for a higher score in their Pearson Test of English. 

Question number 1, Part 2: Multiple Choice, Single Answer will go with us until the end of this strategy as we will use it as an example to put the following step-by-step instructions into use. FREE users on the PTE Practice Platform can access it, so make sure that you open our practice website and get everything ready for a more effective reading.  

Step 1: Skim through the question and answers

The purpose of this step is to find keywords in the question and understand the basic content of all answers before finding corresponding information in the text. Later, we will compare all information gathered to come up with the final response that we believe it is the best option.

When we read the text, we don’t have enough time to read every single word. However, we can skim through the text by only focusing on the keywords we find in the question, which is enough to pick the correct response. It takes much less time but is still effective. Thus, in our sample question, what are the keywords you found? 

To us, we took notes on dream connections, waking life, and affect work behaviours. In other words, there may be negative or positive impacts of dream connections and waking life on work behaviours. 

To increase the possibility of picking the correct response, PTE takers should take a few seconds to briefly review all answers as well because it provides more information about the negative or positive impacts, which will be mentioned in the text. As we see, we have three options starting with the subject “They”, which means the dream connections and waking life, and the rest of each response is either the negative or positive impact that we will see in the text. 

Recommended timer: 30 seconds to skim through the question and all responses is our recommendation as we should spend around 2.5 minutes for each Part 2: Multiple Choice Single Answer in the Pearson Test of English Academic. Let’s practice as much as you can to get used to the recommended timer, and you will definitely feel at ease applying it on your test day. 

Step 2: Take notes while reading

In this step, we will read the text and take notes on information related to the keywords we found from the question in the previous step. Students should bear in mind that we do not have enough time to read every single word, skimming through is the best choice in this case.

We already shared a detailed strategy on how to take notes effectively in a very limited time, and we recommend students stop here for a while and devote their time to exploring this note-taking strategy. 

If you already read our note-taking strategy, go visit the PTE Practice Platform, choose question number 1 Part 2: Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer and start taking notes. Once you finish, you can check our following notes:

• Dream meaning ascription promotes awe and resilience
• Connect the dots between dreams and reality gives rise to awe
• Make work stressers seem less daunting, bolstering resilience and productivity

What do you think when you see our notes? There are some key essential points PTE takers need to remember and apply while sitting for the PTE.

• Grammar, spelling or punctuation mistakes are okay because Pearson DO NOT evaluate your notes. We need to do it as quickly as we can, even using short forms or taking notes in any way that you can review them again easily.
• Only focus on the keywords we found in the question, which are all we need to find the correct option. If students see any information fall out of that range, ignore it.

Recommended timer: Students should practice utilising the next 70-90 seconds (after the first 30 seconds to read the questions and responses) to skim through the text and take notes. By doing so, we have the rest 30-50 seconds to pick the correct answer, which is our last step.

Step 3: Pick the correct answer

It’s time to compare our notes and the information we have from the question and all responses.

Here are our notes, we paste them here for better display and comparison.

• Dream meaning ascription promotes awe and resilience
• Connect the dots between dreams and reality gives rise to awe
• Make work stressers seem less daunting, bolstering resilience and productivity

Apparently, the third option is the correct answer, it talks about how dream connections and waking life (reality) help reduce work stressors and enhance resilience as well as productivity, which is the same information we took notes from the text.

Recommended timer: The last 30-50 seconds will absolutely be enough to find the only correct option. In order to do that, students need to put enough effort and time into practising on a daily basis. The more you do, the more skilled you gain to complete each question successfully. 

Live-interactive PTE Practice Platform

The PTE Practice Platform offers PTE takers thousands of practice questions, 2-hour mock tests, and especially instantly detailed feedback for all question types and estimated scores after taking the mock tests. Students can use their estimated scores to plan their studies and focus on their weaknesses for improvement. When it comes to instantly detailed feedback, students immediately receive feedback for all question types, especially for Speaking and Writing question types we use the same grading elements that Pearson uses to evaluate students’ skills. 

Here is sample feedback of Part 1: Write Essay, we evaluate your practising answers based on Content, Form, Grammar, Vocabulary, Coherence, and Linguistic Range, which are the same grading elements that Pearson uses to assess your English proficiency. You can review a video sample here for a better understanding.

If students practice Part 2: Multiple Choice, Single Answer, they will receive the following feedback.

Whether you pick a correct response or not, the platform highlights the information proving the correct answer. With this feedback, students know why Option 3 is correct so they can learn from their mistakes even if they pick an incorrect response.

Wait no more, let’s visit the PTE Practice Website, create your FREE account and start experiencing all the features to help you obtain your PTE desired scores.