Lesson 7 of 146 min read
Fill in the Blanks
Type missing words into a transcript while the recording plays. Learn the scoring rule, Academic/Core skill split and a worked example.
What does the task look like?
A short recording plays once, and as it plays, a transcript of it appears on screen with several words removed and replaced by empty text boxes. You type each missing word into its box while you listen, using the words around each gap and the grammar of the sentence to work out what belongs there.
Not the same task as Reading's Fill in the Blanks
The Reading section has its own, differently-scored Fill in the Blanks tasks (one uses dropdown menus, the other drags words from a word bank) built on a written passage you read rather than a recording you hear. See Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks in the Reading course for that task in detail.
Both exams describe the same note-taking allowance for this task: while the audio plays; you can use the erasable noteboard as well as type directly into the gaps, so you're not limited to typing alone if you'd rather jot a word down first and copy it across.
The missing words are almost always content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives or numbers that carry the meaning of the sentence) rather than small function words like 'the' or 'and', which stay printed on screen around each gap. That's a useful thing to expect going in: you're listening for the word that answers a question the surrounding sentence is asking, not for any word at all.
Why does this task score different skills in each exam?
Academic and Core run this task with the same mechanics, 2–3 items, each built on a 30–60 second recording, but they attribute it to different skills, and that difference is worth knowing before you decide how much time to give this task in your revision plan.
PTE Academic
PTE Academic scores this task for Listening only. It does not contribute to your Writing score, even though you're typing words into gaps.
PTE Core
PTE Core scores this task for Listening and Writing, one of a handful of places where the attribution to Listening or Writing differs between exams. Spelling accuracy here therefore has a double effect on your Core score.
Core candidates: treat spelling as a Writing task, not just a Listening one
If you're taking PTE Core, a misspelled but correctly-heard word costs you on two skill scores at once here, not one. It's worth double-checking each typed word against the sentence's grammar before you move on, the same care you'd give a Writing task.
It's easy to overlook this split when you're building a revision plan, because the two tasks look identical on screen and feel identical to practise. If Writing is your weaker skill on PTE Core, treat this task as extra Writing practice rather than pure listening drill, the spelling habits you build here transfer directly to Write from Dictation later in this course.
How is this task scored?
| Your answer | Points |
|---|---|
| Correctly spelled word in a gap | +1 point |
| Incorrect or misspelled word, or a blank left empty | 0 points |
There's no negative marking on this task in either exam, an incorrect attempt simply scores 0 for that gap, the same as leaving it blank. That makes guessing free: if you're unsure of the exact word, write your best attempt at what you heard rather than leaving the box empty.
The scoring rule is published in the PTE Academic Score Guide (p.44) and the PTE Core Score Guide (p.38).
How do you listen and type at the same time?
- Read the visible transcript before the audio starts: Use whatever time you have before playback to read the sentences around each gap. Knowing the grammar and topic in advance means you're listening for a specific word, not the whole sentence.
- Predict the word type for each gap: A gap after 'a' or 'the' needs a noun; a gap after 'to' often needs a verb. Predicting the part of speech narrows down what you're listening for and helps you catch it even at natural speaking speed.
- Type as you hear it, then keep listening: Don't pause on a gap you're unsure about, type your best guess quickly and move your attention back to the recording so you don't miss the next gap entirely.
- Check spelling against the sentence, not just the sound: A homophone spelled the wrong way (their instead of there, its instead of it's) scores 0 even though it sounds identical to the correct answer. If time allows, glance back over your typed words for grammatical fit.
- Review all the gaps together once the recording ends: With the whole transcript visible on screen, read it through once you've filled every gap, checking that each word you typed keeps the sentence grammatically sound; a mismatched verb form or a plural where a singular is needed is often easier to spot on a second read than while you're still listening.
A worked Fill in the Blanks example
Practice item: a city recycling scheme (original audio script, not a real exam recording)
Full transcript: what you actually hear, read aloud once; you cannot replay it:
"The city's new recycling scheme asks residents to sort household waste into three separate bins: paper, glass and plastic. Officials say the change should reduce landfill waste by up to forty percent within two years, and bins will now be collected on a fortnightly schedule instead of weekly."
Transcript as it appears on screen while the audio plays, type the missing word in each gap:
"The city's new recycling scheme asks residents to sort household waste into three separate bins: paper, glass and (1)______. Officials say the change should reduce landfill waste by up to (2)______ percent within two years, and bins will now be collected on a (3)______ schedule instead of weekly."
Answer: (1) plastic (2) forty (3) fortnightly
Gap 1 follows a list pattern ('paper, glass and ___'), so the missing word has to be another recyclable material named in the recording. Gap 2 follows 'up to', which signals a number, and 'percent' immediately after confirms it's a quantity rather than a word like 'significantly'.
Gap 3 sits before 'schedule instead of weekly', a contrast that tells you the missing word has to be a different collection frequency, fortnightly is the only option that makes that contrast make sense, and spelling it correctly is what earns the point, not just recognising the word.
Common mistakes on this task
- Leaving a gap empty because you're unsure, since there's no negative marking; an empty gap and a wrong guess score exactly the same, so a guess can only help.
- Writing a synonym instead of the exact word used in the recording, the gap needs the word actually spoken, not a word with a similar meaning.
- Getting so absorbed in one gap that you miss the audio moving on to the next one, keep your attention moving with the recording, not fixed on your own typing.
- On PTE Core, forgetting that spelling errors here also count against your Writing score, not only Listening.
- Second-guessing a word you heard clearly and changing it to something that 'sounds more likely' from context alone, trust what you actually heard over a guess based on the topic.
Because every gap is scored independently, one wrong or empty gap has no effect on the others, there's no reason to let an early mistake rattle you into rushing the rest of the item.
Continue learning
Related lessons and more practice
Try a full set in Listening practice. Next in this course: Highlight Correct Summary, a task that only appears in PTE Academic.
For the differently-scored Reading version of Fill in the Blanks; see Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks and Reading: Fill in the Blanks in the Reading course.