Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers gives you a passage and a question with more than one correct option, and it punishes an incorrect selection rather than ignoring it. That single design choice changes how you should read: every option is a separate claim to prove or reject, not an item on a list to skim past. This guide sets out the format, the scoring, and a worked example that shows the reasoning behind each selection.
Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers Practice Questions
Read the passage and select all correct answers. More than one option is correct. Practise with answers and explanations for PTE Academic. Review your mistakes and repeat each question to build confidence.
PTE Core version of this page187 questions · PTE Academic
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What Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers is
Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers (Reading) is one of the five question types in the PTE Academic Reading section, and it also appears on PTE Core. You read a passage, then answer a question by selecting every option the passage supports — the number of correct options is not shown to you, so you cannot rely on a fixed count.
The task looks similar to a standard multiple-choice question, but it behaves very differently. In a single-answer question, picking a wrong option simply fails to score. Here, picking a wrong option actively subtracts from your item score, which means the safe strategy is not "select anything plausible" but "select only what the passage actually proves."
Format and timing
The passage you read for this task is shorter on Core than on Academic, and there are fewer items on Core as well, but the interaction and the scoring rule are identical across both exams.
As with the other Reading tasks, there is no dedicated timer for a single item. The whole Reading section runs about 23-30 minutes on PTE Academic and about 27-37 minutes on PTE Core, and every task type inside it draws from that shared clock.
| Detail | PTE Academic | PTE Core |
|---|---|---|
| Items per test | 2-3 | 1-2 |
| Passage length | Up to 350 words | Up to 275 words |
| Assessed skill | Reading | Reading |
| Per-item timer | None — shares the Reading section clock | None — shares the Reading section clock |
How it is scored
Each option you select is scored individually: a correct selection adds one point and an incorrect selection subtracts one point. The item as a whole cannot go below zero, so a very poor set of guesses does not leave you with a negative score, but it will still cost you every point you would otherwise have earned.
Because of this, the highest-scoring strategy is rarely "select as many options as possible". A candidate who correctly identifies two supported options and stops there outscores one who selects four options, two of which are wrong, even though the second candidate technically found the same two correct answers.
Step-by-step method
The steps below are a suggested routine rather than an official procedure. They are built around one idea: under negative marking, an option earns its place only when you can point to the words in the passage that support it.
- Read the question first, before the passage, so you know exactly what claim you are hunting for.
- Read the whole passage once for its overall argument, rather than scanning immediately for keywords.
- Go through the options one at a time and ask, for each: does the passage state or clearly imply this, or does it merely mention a related idea?
- Watch for absolute words in the options — "always", "never", "only", "all" — since a passage that supports a moderate claim rarely supports its absolute version.
- If you cannot find direct evidence for an option after a genuine search, leave it unselected rather than including it for safety.
- Before moving on, recount which options you selected and confirm you can point to a specific sentence for each one.
Worked example
Example (written by LexiPTE). This passage and question are an original exercise, not a real exam item, built to show how to weigh each option against the text.
Passage: "Urban beekeeping has grown quickly in many cities over the past decade, encouraged by local governments keen to support pollinators. However, several ecologists have warned that a high density of managed honeybee colonies in a small area can outcompete wild native bee species for the same limited flowers, potentially reducing overall pollinator diversity even as honeybee numbers rise. Some cities have responded by capping the number of hives permitted per district."
Question: Which of the following does the passage support? Options: (A) Urban beekeeping has become more common in the last ten years. (B) Wild bee species always disappear once honeybee hives are introduced. (C) A high concentration of honeybee hives can hurt native bee populations. (D) Every city now limits the number of hives it allows.
The correct selections are A and C. Option A restates the passage's opening claim about growth "over the past decade" without adding anything the text does not say. Option C restates the ecologists' warning accurately, using "can" rather than a stronger claim, which matches the passage's own hedged language.
Option B fails because of the word "always" — the passage says native bees can be outcompeted, not that they invariably disappear. Option D fails because the passage says "some cities", not every city, have introduced caps. Both B and D reuse vocabulary from the passage while quietly overstating what it actually claims, which is exactly the kind of distractor this task uses most often.
Strategies that work
- Read for the question's specific focus, not the passage's general topic — a passage can be broadly "about" several things the question is not asking about.
- Require textual evidence for every option before selecting it; a plausible-sounding statement is not the same as a supported one.
- Treat absolute language in an option as a warning sign and check it against the passage's actual wording, which is usually more cautious.
- When you are unsure about one remaining option after checking the others, leave it unselected — an unnecessary selection risks a point you have already earned elsewhere in the same item.
Common mistakes
- Selecting every option that mentions a topic word from the passage, without checking whether it actually answers the question.
- Choosing an option because it sounds reasonable in general knowledge terms, rather than because the passage supports it.
- Missing the difference between a hedged claim ("can", "some") in the passage and an absolute version of the same claim in an option.
- Selecting too many options in an attempt to be thorough, which trades certain points for the risk of losing them.
Practice plan
- Practise on short passages first, and for every option you reject, write one sentence explaining exactly why the passage does not support it — this trains the evidence-first habit the task rewards.
- Deliberately practise sets where some questions have two correct options and others have three or four, so you stop assuming a fixed number of correct answers.
- Track your ratio of correct to incorrect selections across practice sets, not just your item-level accuracy, since that ratio is what negative marking actually measures.
- In your last two weeks, time yourself against the whole Reading section rather than this task alone, since the real pressure comes from pacing across five task types, not from any single question.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
No. Because each incorrect selection subtracts a point with the item floored at zero, adding an unsupported option can only reduce your score for that item, never increase it.
No. Pearson does not indicate the number of correct options in advance, which is why each option must be judged on its own evidence rather than against an assumed count.
Yes. Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers in Listening uses the same plus-one, minus-one, floor-at-zero scoring — the reading skill differs, but the scoring logic is shared across both.
It depends on the exam. On PTE Academic this task's passages run up to 350 words, longer than Multiple Choice, Single Answer's 300 words. On PTE Core the gap is wider: up to 275 words here against up to 110 words for the single-answer task.
No official rule requires a minimum number of selections. Select exactly the options you can support with evidence from the passage, even if that turns out to be only one.
Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers FAQ
Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers gives you a passage and a question with more than one correct option. Treat every option as a separate claim: an incorrect selection subtracts a point, so broad or absolute statements deserve extra scrutiny before you select them.
Exam: PTE Academic and PTE Core. Scoring: +1 per correct selection, −1 per incorrect (item floor at zero).
Identify the question's focus before reading the passage in detail. Find explicit evidence for each option rather than choosing what sounds reasonable. Review uncertain selections carefully, since an incorrect choice reduces the item's score.
Selecting every plausible option instead of only the ones with clear evidence. Confusing a detail mentioned in the passage with a detail that answers the question.
Choose a published question, follow its reading instruction, and submit your own response.
Objective questions show the result returned by the server. Speaking and writing feedback appears only when an evaluator is available; the site does not invent a score.
Yes. Use the PTE Academic/Core picker. If this task is unavailable for the selected exam, the page asks you to choose a supported exam.
Academic focuses on English used in study and academic contexts. Core uses everyday and workplace English. Choose your exam in the header so your practice bank follows the appropriate exam.
No. PTE Reading uses a shared section timer. Individual LexiPTE practice is untimed: review the passage at your own pace and submit when you are ready.
Fill-in-the-blanks tasks earn a point for each correct gap. Single-answer questions earn one point for the correct option. Multiple-answer questions deduct a point for each incorrect selection, with a minimum item score of zero. Reorder Paragraphs awards points for correct adjacent pairs.
Yes. Submit an answer, inspect the feedback, then use Show answer for the key and explanation. Try again starts a fresh attempt. Opening an older attempt preserves your current answer; use Back to my answer in the banner at the top of the answer column to return.
Sign in to save submitted attempts to your account. Practice history is kept separately for each question and exam. Guest answers can be checked, but are not added to account history.
No. The points shown help you review an individual exercise. They are not a conversion to the official 10–90 scale, an official score report or a CLB result.
No. Because each incorrect selection subtracts a point with the item floored at zero, adding an unsupported option can only reduce your score for that item, never increase it.
No. Pearson does not indicate the number of correct options in advance, which is why each option must be judged on its own evidence rather than against an assumed count.
Yes. Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers in Listening uses the same plus-one, minus-one, floor-at-zero scoring — the reading skill differs, but the scoring logic is shared across both.
It depends on the exam. On PTE Academic this task's passages run up to 350 words, longer than Multiple Choice, Single Answer's 300 words. On PTE Core the gap is wider: up to 275 words here against up to 110 words for the single-answer task.
No official rule requires a minimum number of selections. Select exactly the options you can support with evidence from the passage, even if that turns out to be only one.