Strategies to deal with P3: Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer

Part 3: Multiple Choice Multiple Answer is a listening question that PTE takers need to pick all correct answers from given options. This item type appears in both the PTE Academic and PTE Core, which contributes to the Listening skill. At the end of this strategy, PTE takers will learn how to deal with this question type effectively.

Fundamental information

• Task: PTE takers select more than one correct response by answering a multiple-choice question after listening to an audio recording
• Prompt Length: 40-90 seconds for the PTE Academic, and 50-90 seconds for the PTE Core
• Recommended timer: 3 minutes
• Frequency: 1-2 questions
• Skills assessed: Listening

Except for Part 3: Summarize Spoken Text, all other item types don’t have specific timers. However, in the preparation period, it’s genuinely crucial to practice following a specific timer, which helps us be able to complete all questions on time. Otherwise, it will be very easy to fall off track, some test-takers use more time than necessary to answer one question than others leading to not having enough time to complete other questions. It’s also the reason why we researched and recommended three (03) minutes for each question. To find Time Management Strategy for other item types, students can explore this article: “PTE Time Management Strategy”.

A unique step-by-step strategy

For each correct response, PTE takers get one point. On the contrary, if students pick an incorrect answer, they will lose one point. Our strategy is developed on how to help students achieve the highest score possible, so make sure that you read every step rigorously and apply it to practice on the PTE Practice Website.

Step 1: Skim through the question

In the seven preparation seconds before the audio plays, PTE takers have to utilise it to quickly review the question to find the kind of question asked and the main subject that is talked about. It’s super easy to identify the kind of question by simply checking on one of the following words: which, what, why, how, who.

This is our sample Question that will go with us until the end of this strategy. Question number 1, Part 3: Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer on the PTE Practice Website. PTE takers have access to it free of charge, so make sure that you open the practice platform the whole time while reading this article and apply our guide to practice. For your advance information, this is a challenging one, and its audio lasts for around 90 seconds.

In this sample question, the kind of question is “What aspects”, and the main subject is “the juvenile Gorgosaurus’s feeding behaviour”. In seven preparation seconds, we only have enough time to skim through these pieces of information, which are clues to help us take notes more efficiently and later pick the correct responses. 

Time Management: 7 seconds. When these seven seconds are up, students need to get their minds back to the playing audio and completely concentrate on the recording. Only a few seconds of distraction could possibly lead to losing the main key points, and of course, we will miss correct responses or pick incorrect ones.

Step 2: Take notes while listening

In the PTE Academic and PTE Core, test-takers are only able to listen to the audio recordings once in all item types. Moreover, it’s a listening question, which could be up to 90 seconds long, we will surely not remember all key points if we only take notes when the audio recordings finish. We already shared the unique note-taking strategy that PTE takers need to read it first for effective note-taking. 

If you already read the above Listening note-taking strategy, let’s give the sample question a try. Take a visit to the PTE Practice Website and do it for real, and make sure that you use the kind of question “what aspects” and the main subject “the juvenile Gorgosaurus’s feeding behaviour” as the clues. We strongly recommend students try their best first before checking our notes.

Here are our notes, are yours similar?

• 75.3 million years and 5.5 foottall creature
• Equivalent to a turkey in final feast, yield to river’s currents
• Fossil time capsule detail in science
• Providing a unique glimps into the nuances of the feeding behaviour
• Opting for the hind limb of two small featured dinosaurs
• Fossil evidence challenge prevailing notions dietary shirt as they matured
• Offer fascinating wondow into the evolutionary for growth
• Enriches our understanding of ecology and navigate landscapes of earth realm

What do you think when you see our notes? There are several crucial points that you need to bear in mind while taking notes.

1. Grammar, spelling or punctuation mistakes are no problems because Pearson DOES NOT assess your notes. We just need to do it as quickly as we can, even using short forms or any way that we are able to recall information later.
2. PTE takers only need to focus on the subject and related information, others fall out of that range and could be ignored. However, we can only do this if PTE takers review the question in the beginning to identify the subject and related information. 

This is the transcription for your reference:

Around 75.3 million years ago, Earth bore witness to a poignant episode featuring a 5.5-foot-tall juvenile Gorgosaurus, a precursor to the formidable Tyrannosaurus rex. Picture this young predator savoring the Cretaceous equivalent of a turkey drumstick in its final feast, ultimately yielding to a river's currents. Swift geological intervention preserved the dinosaur's carcass, creating a fossilized time capsule detailed in Science Advances under François Therrien's leadership from the Royal Tyrrell Museum.  This groundbreaking discovery unveils the first tyrannosaur skeleton with impeccably preserved stomach contents, providing a unique glimpse into the nuances of the dinosaur's feeding behavior. Contrary to expectations, the juvenile Gorgosaurus made a distinctive culinary choice, opting for the hind limbs of two small, feathered dinosaurs instead of the anticipated large herbivores associated with its adult counterparts. This fossilized evidence challenges prevailing notions and reaffirms the tangible reality of dietary shifts in tyrannosaurs as they matured—a phenomenon predicted from existing fossil evidence. Beyond its paleontological significance, this revelation offers a fascinating window into the evolutionary challenges faced by these ancient apex predators, underscoring the imperative for growth and adaptation before undertaking bone-crushing feasts on megaherbivores. It enriches our understanding of tyrannosaur ecology and the intricate strategies they employed to navigate the dynamic landscapes of Earth's prehistoric realms, adding a vibrant layer to our planet's ancient narrative.

Again, if you haven’t taken notes yet, please stop here to do it first before moving on to the next Step – Pick the correct response.

Time Management: The maximum length of each Part 3: Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer is 90 seconds which we use to listen to the audio recording and take notes at the same time. However, it’s rare that we have a question for up to 90 seconds, so in most cases, it will be around 60 to 80 seconds long. When the audio finishes, PTE takers should spend the next 30 - 40 seconds to organise all key points to ensure successfully picking correct answers later. Totally, we spent around 02 minutes in this step.

Step 3: Pick the correct answers

It’s time to pick correct answers by simply comparing your notes with all answers. Which answer has corresponding information with your notes should be chosen. Otherwise, let’s skip all irrelevant answers. One thing to bear in mind is that because this is a multiple-answer question, so we have at least two correct answers. 

Let’s review our notes again:

• 75.3 million years and 5.5 foottall creature (1)
• Equivalent to a turkey in final feast, yield to river’s currents (2)
• Fossil time capsule detail in science (3)
• Discovery unveil the first skeleton stomach contents (4)
• Providing a unique glimps into the nuances of the feeding behaviour (5)
• Opting for the hind limb of two small featured dinosaurs (6)
• Fossil evidence challenge prevailing notions dietary shirt as they matured (7)
• Offer fascinating wondow into the evolutionary for growth (8)
• Enriches our understanding of ecology and navigate landscapes of the earth realm (9)

After comparing with all the answers, we come to a conclusion that we pick:

• Answer 1 because of Note (6);
• Answer 2 because of Note (7);
• Answer 4 because of Notes (4) and (5);
• Answer 5 because of Note (3).

Time Management: It hinges on the length of the question to determine how many seconds we have left to compare our notes with all the answers in order to pick the correct ones. We usually spend approximately 02 minutes for listening to the audio and re-organising all the key points, which offers us around one more minute to solve the puzzle. Apparently, if you face difficult questions while practising on our PTE Practice Website, you can use a couple more seconds to complete it because we designed that, specifically for Part 3: Multiple Choice Multiple Answer, even if the timer runs out, the platform only shows feedback and results after the users click the Submit button.

Things to avoid

• Choose all options: As you already know for each incorrect answer, you will lose one score. The number of correct answers varies from 2 to 4. Thus, it’s supper risky to choose all options.
• Waste the preparation time: We only have 07 seconds in the preparation, but it could win you lots of scores as it helps you take better notes leading to correct answers.

Live-Interactive PTE Practice Website

The PTE Practice Website is designed to provide the best simulation of the Pearson Test of English (Academic and Core) to support students across the world prepare affordably and effectively for the test. You are invited to create a FREE account and experience all question types with instantly detailed feedback.

Here are some major benefits of becoming our Premium members:

• Thousands of practice questions;
• At least 10 Mock tests with estimated scores:
• Instantly detailed feedback for all item types;
• Feedback offers the same grading elements as what Pearson uses to evaluate your skills;
• An integrated dictionary;
• And lots of other supportive features for self-study.

Regarding our instantly detailed feedback, we designed the way same as Pearson designed the test to evaluate your answers. For example, as we already know if you pick an answer incorrectly in Part 3: Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer, you will lose scores. The below image shows feedback for our sample question in this article. In detail, we picked three correct answers, one incorrect answer, and neglected one correct answer, so the website graded us only 50% - the same as Pearson would do, you got 02 points of out 04, which is equal to 50%.

When it comes to Part 1: Speaking & Writing, for example, Part 1: Retell Lecture we evaluate your practising answers based on Content, Oral Fluency, and Pronunciation, which are the same as what Pearson uses to assess your skills as well. 

For a better understanding, you can review this video sample feedback. However, the best experience is still to practice on the Live-interactive PTE Practice Platform for free.