Fill in the Blanks: Dropdown — PTE Core Practice Questions

On PTE Core, Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks is the only Reading-section task that scores two skills at once. You read a passage of up to 200 words and pick the right word for each gap from a dropdown menu. Because Pearson counts every correct blank toward both your Reading and Writing scores, it is worth more practice time than its position in the section suggests.

What Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks tests

Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks (Dropdown) gives you a passage with several gaps, each with its own dropdown list of word choices. You pick the option that fits the grammar and meaning of the sentence. PTE Core passages run up to 200 words, shorter than the up to 300-word passages used in PTE Academic.

The task sits in the Reading part of PTE Core, but Pearson's Core Score Guide lists it under both Reading and Writing. Choosing the right word draws on vocabulary and grammatical control as well as comprehension, so the dual listing makes sense. On PTE Academic the same task type counts toward Reading only, so the dual scoring is specific to Core and worth remembering when you plan practice time across skills.

Format and timing

Each PTE Core test includes 5-6 Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks items. There is no separate clock for the task; it shares the overall Reading section clock, which runs 27 to 37 minutes for the five Core reading task types combined.

Because there is no per-item timer, pacing is your own decision. Leaving a rough budget per item and moving on when a gap is not obvious protects the rest of the Reading section from running short.

How it is scored

Scoring is partial credit: you earn one point for every blank you fill correctly, with no penalty for a wrong choice and no negative marking. Filling nine blanks with seven correct answers scores seven, whatever you chose for the other two.

Because the task counts toward Writing as well as Reading, a wrong choice affects two skill scores from a single mistake, not one. Guessing is still free of penalty, so leave no blank unanswered.

Step-by-step approach

Read the whole passage once before opening any dropdown, so you understand the topic and tone.

• Read the full sentence around each gap, not just the words next to it.
• Open the dropdown and eliminate options that break the grammar first (wrong part of speech, wrong tense, wrong preposition).
• Among grammatically possible options, choose the one that fits the meaning of the sentence and the passage as a whole.
• Answer every gap, even an uncertain one, because there is no penalty for a wrong guess.
• Reread the completed sentence once to confirm it reads naturally.

Example (written by LexiPTE)

Example (written by LexiPTE), not a real exam item. Passage: 'Our office will [gap 1] closed on Monday for building maintenance. Staff who need to [gap 2] documents that day should collect them on Friday instead.'

For gap 1, the dropdown offers 'be', 'is', 'being' and 'been'. 'be' is correct after 'will', because the modal 'will' needs the base form of the verb. For gap 2, the options include 'access', 'accessing', 'accessed' and 'accesses'; 'access' is correct after the structure 'need to'.

This works because each choice is decided by the grammar of its own sentence first, then checked against the topic (an office closure notice) so the completed passage still reads like something a workplace would actually send.

Strategies

These habits are our recommendations for keeping accuracy high without letting this task eat into the time you need for the other four Core reading tasks.

• Practise noticing what part of speech a gap needs before reading the dropdown options.
• Build a working list of prepositions and collocations that commonly trip up dropdown choices, such as 'responsible for' or 'depend on'.
• Treat this task as vocabulary and grammar practice combined, since each gap usually turns on both.
• Skim rather than reread the whole passage for every gap, to keep momentum inside the shared Reading clock.

Common mistakes

Most lost points on this task come from reading the gap too narrowly or from poor pacing, not from unknown vocabulary.

• Choosing a word that fits in isolation but breaks the sentence's tense or agreement.
• Overthinking gaps and running out of time for the other Core reading tasks sharing the same clock.
• Leaving a gap unanswered instead of guessing, and losing a free point.
• Ignoring the passage topic and picking the most 'common' sounding word rather than the one the context requires.

Practice plan

Because this task scores Reading and Writing together, track it in both skill logs. Spend the first week on grammar-focused drills covering parts of speech and collocations, then move to timed passages that mix grammar and meaning gaps.

If your target Express Entry programme needs a Writing minimum as well as a Reading minimum, prioritise this task over single-skill reading tasks, since a consistent result here supports two scores at once.

IRCC converts your PTE Core Reading and Writing scores separately into Canadian Language Benchmark levels. On the Reading scale, CLB 7 needs a score of 60-68, and CLB 5 needs 42-50; on the Writing scale, CLB 7 needs 69-78 and CLB 5 needs 51-59. The Federal Skilled Worker Program and Canadian Experience Class for TEER 0 or 1 occupations both require CLB 7 in every ability, while Canadian Experience Class TEER 2 or 3 occupations require CLB 5. Because this task moves both scores together, a plan that raises it also narrows the gap to whichever of the two skills is currently your weaker one.