Free PTE Core Reading Multiple Choice Practice

PTE Core Reading has two multiple choice tasks, and they score differently, which is the most important thing to know about them.

Multiple Choice, Single Answer uses a text of up to 110 words and gives no mark for a wrong or unanswered response — guessing is free. Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers uses a text of up to 275 words and deducts one mark for each incorrect option selected. Those two rules point in opposite directions.

Want to FINALLY Pass the PTE Core Test And Achieve Your Goals? Get Your FREE Lume Account Today to Unlock… ✅ 10,000+ PRACTICE QUESTIONS with detailed answers ✅ FREE MOCK TESTS with fast & accurate AI scoring ✅ Get BETTER SCORES with a PERSONALIZED study plan GET YOUR FREE ACCOUNT NOW (Limited seats available!)

Key Takeaways

• Single Answer: text up to 110 words, no penalty for a wrong answer — always answer.
• Multiple Answers: text up to 275 words, one mark deducted for each wrong option selected.
• On Multiple Answers, select only the options you can point to in the text; two confident selections beat four hopeful ones.
• The number of correct options is not stated, so counting is not a strategy.
• Both tasks contribute to your Reading score.

The two tasks side by side

	Multiple Choice, Single Answer	Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers
Text length	Up to 110 words	Up to 275 words
Correct options	Exactly one	More than one, number not stated
Scoring	1 mark if correct; 0 if wrong or unanswered	1 mark per correct option, minus 1 per incorrect option
Minimum score	0	0 — the deduction cannot take you below zero on the item
Guessing	Free — always guess	Costly — only select what you can evidence
Skill	Reading	Reading

Single Answer: practice set 1

Beavers alter watercourses rather than simply inhabiting them. A family dams a small stream and maintains that dam continuously, which raises the local water table, kills some standing trees, and creates the shallow sunlit water that supports amphibians. Downstream the dam slows the flow. In catchments studied after reintroduction, peak flows following heavy rain were measurably lower, and water leaving beaver ponds carried less sediment than water entering them.

What is the main point of the text?

Option	Verdict
(A) Beavers prefer shallow sunlit water to fast-flowing streams.	Wrong — the shallow water is a result, not a preference the text states
(B) Beavers modify the watercourses they occupy, with measurable downstream effects.	Correct — matches both halves of the text
(C) Beaver reintroduction reduces sediment in rivers overall.	Wrong — the text compares water entering and leaving ponds, not rivers overall
(D) Dams built by beavers require continuous maintenance to remain effective.	Wrong — true detail, but not the main point

Option D is the standard Single Answer trap: a true statement that does not answer the question asked.

Single Answer: practice set 2

Hedonic pricing reads the value of a park out of house prices: if two otherwise identical houses differ only in their distance from a park, the price difference is taken as the market’s valuation of park access. The method is elegant and the data are abundant. Its weakness is that it captures only what property markets capitalise, which means it values a park to the people who can afford to live near it and registers nothing for the bus passenger who visits weekly.

According to the text, what is the limitation of hedonic pricing?

Option	Verdict
(A) The data required are difficult to obtain.	Wrong — the text says the data are abundant
(B) It only measures value that is reflected in property prices.	Correct — “captures only what property markets capitalise”
(C) It overstates the value of parks in wealthy areas.	Wrong — not claimed; the text says it registers nothing for non-residents
(D) It cannot distinguish between two identical houses.	Wrong — reverses the method’s premise

Multiple Answers: practice set 3

Employers have become more willing to fund training than a decade ago, though the reasons are less altruistic than they appear. The primary driver is retention: staff who receive training stay longer, and replacing an experienced employee costs several times the price of a course. A second factor is the speed at which technical skills age, which means a workforce hired five years ago may lack capabilities that did not exist when they were recruited. There is a persistent gap between what companies fund and what employees ask for. Firms prefer training specific to their own systems, because it contributes immediately to productivity. Employees tend to prefer transferable qualifications, which are more valuable precisely because they are portable. This tension accounts for the fact that so much corporate training is compulsory rather than requested, and it explains why take-up of voluntary schemes is often lower than the budget assumes.

Which of the following are stated in the text? Select all that apply. Incorrect selections lose marks.

Option	Verdict	Evidence or reason
(A) Retention is the main reason employers fund training.	Correct	“The primary driver is retention”
(B) Replacing an experienced employee costs more than a training course.	Correct	“costs several times the price of a course”
(C) Employers prefer transferable qualifications.	Wrong	Reversed — employees prefer those; firms prefer system-specific training
(D) Voluntary training schemes are often less used than budgeted for.	Correct	“take-up of voluntary schemes is often lower than the budget assumes”
(E) Most corporate training is now delivered online.	Wrong	Not mentioned anywhere in the text
(F) Technical skills lose value more quickly than they used to.	Wrong	The text says skills age quickly, not that the rate has increased

Three correct options and three wrong ones. A candidate selecting all six scores 3 minus 3, which is zero. A candidate selecting A and B alone scores 2. Selecting fewer options with confidence beats selecting more with hope.

Multiple Answers: practice set 4

The growth of home delivery has changed the traffic mix in city centres in ways planners did not anticipate. Vans now account for a larger share of vehicle movements than private cars in some districts, and because they stop frequently and unpredictably, their effect on traffic flow is considerably greater than their numbers suggest. Several cities have established consolidation centres on the edge of the controlled zone, where parcels from multiple carriers are combined and delivered by a single vehicle. The engineering is straightforward; the difficulty is commercial, since carriers compete on delivery speed and are reluctant to hand over the final leg to a shared operator. Where consolidation has worked, it has usually been because the local authority made access to the zone dependent on using the shared service, rather than because carriers chose to cooperate.

Which of the following are stated in the text? Select all that apply.

Option	Verdict	Evidence or reason
(A) In some districts vans make up a larger share of movements than cars.	Correct	Stated directly
(B) The technical design of consolidation centres is not the main obstacle.	Correct	“The engineering is straightforward; the difficulty is commercial”
(C) Carriers have generally welcomed consolidation.	Wrong	They are “reluctant to hand over the final leg”
(D) Consolidation has succeeded mainly where authorities made it a condition of access.	Correct	Stated in the final sentence
(E) Delivery vans cause more pollution per kilometre than cars.	Wrong	Not mentioned

Distractor types in both tasks

Type	Example above	Defence
Reversal	Employers prefer transferable qualifications	Check who holds which position
True but not the question	Dams require continuous maintenance	Re-read the stem before selecting
Scope inflation	Reduces sediment in rivers overall	Check what exactly was compared with what
Plausible but absent	Training is now delivered online	Point to a line, or do not select it
Added claim	Skills lose value more quickly than they used to	Watch for comparatives the text never makes
Contradiction of a stated fact	The data are difficult to obtain	Scan for the sentence that addresses it

Method for Single Answer

1. Read the stem first, then the text. The text is short enough that one careful pass is enough.
2. Answer in your own words before reading the options.
3. Eliminate options that are true but do not answer the stem — usually one of the four.
4. Always select something. There is no deduction and no mark for a blank.

Method for Multiple Answers

1. Read the stem, then the whole text once.
2. Take each option separately and try to point to the line that supports it.
3. Select only options you can evidence. Do not select on the strength of plausibility.
4. Ignore how many you have selected. The number of correct options is not given, and choosing a count is not a strategy.
5. If an option is a comparative or a superlative the text never makes, leave it.
6. Two confident selections score 2. Four selections with two right and two wrong score zero.

What loses marks

Error	Task	Cost
Leaving Single Answer blank	Single	A free mark thrown away — there is no penalty
Selecting every plausible option	Multiple	Each wrong selection cancels a right one
Guessing a count of correct answers	Multiple	The number is not fixed and not given
Selecting on general knowledge	Both	Only what the text states counts
Not re-reading the stem	Single	Picks the true-but-irrelevant option
Missing a reversal	Both	The most common Multiple Answers error

FAQ

Is there negative marking in PTE Core Reading?

Yes, but only on Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers, where each incorrect option selected deducts one mark. Multiple Choice, Single Answer has no deduction — a wrong answer scores the same as no answer, so you should always answer it.

Should I guess on PTE Core multiple choice?

On Single Answer, always — guessing is free. On Multiple Answers, no: select only the options you can point to a line for, because a wrong selection cancels out a correct one.

How many options are correct in Multiple Answers?

It varies and it is not stated. That is deliberate, so counting is not a usable strategy. Judge each option on its own evidence rather than trying to reach a number.

Can negative marking take my score below zero?

No. The deduction applies within the item and the item score cannot fall below zero, so a fully wrong set of selections costs you that item’s marks but nothing beyond it.

How long are the texts?

Up to 110 words for Multiple Choice, Single Answer and up to 275 words for Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers. The longer text is one reason the Multiple Answers task takes more time per mark.

What is the most common mistake on these tasks?

Reversal on Multiple Answers — an option that swaps who holds which position, such as attributing the employees’ preference to the employers. Checking who is the subject of each claim catches most of them.

Related practice resources

• PTE Core Reorder Paragraphs practice
• PTE Core Reading Fill in the Blanks
• PTE Core practice test with answer key

Want to FINALLY Pass the PTE Core Test And Achieve Your Goals? Get Your FREE Lume Account Today to Unlock… ✅ 10,000+ PRACTICE QUESTIONS with detailed answers ✅ FREE MOCK TESTS with fast & accurate AI scoring ✅ Get BETTER SCORES with a PERSONALIZED study plan GET YOUR FREE ACCOUNT NOW (Limited seats available!)