PTE Listening Multiple choice multiple answers Tips and Tricks | Top 11

PTE Listening Multiple choice multiple answers question type is the cousin of the same type in the PTE reading section. You will listen to an audio and based on that answer a multiple choice question. The question will have more than one correct option. In this article we will share some great tips and tricks to help you ace this question type.

PTE Listening multiple choice multiple answers tips and tricks

Let’s look at our Top 10 tested and proven PTE Listening Multiple choice multiple answers Tips and Tricks.

Read the question and options before the audio beings

This is a very important. Though you won’t be able to read the question and all the options thoroughly and understand them one hundred percent, even then this will be helpful. This will put you mind in the right frame for listening. You will know exactly what information you need from the audio.

Visualize while listening for better understanding

The next point in PTE Listening Multiple choice multiple answers tips and tricks is: Visualize!

There are two things that you must do as you are listening to the audio in PTE Listening multiple choice multiple answers questions. First one is that you must visualize what you are listening – this is like drawing a mental picture corresponding to the words in the audio. This approach makes it easier to remember as well as understand the relationships between different parts of the speech that you have just heard.

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Take notes of important points

This is the second tip related to how you should approach listening in this and other PTE Listening questions. The audio in these questions can be fairly long and therefore it is unrealistic for most people to think they can remember everything in the audio. Therefore, you should take notes. We don’t mean try to write down everything – this is not an exercise in taking long dictations. You should pick and note down what is important – that helps you remember the key theme and the main ideas in the audio.

Validate all options one by one

This means that before you submit your answer check the other remaining options as well. Sometimes in a hurry you can overlook a subtle point that might make one of the remaining options the correct one.

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Don’t spend too much time on any one question

This is the other side of the previous tip. Time management is very important in the reading and listening section of PTE exam as you will only have an overall section timer. So, don’t get stuck at any question and spend too much time there. Do your best in the time you have allocated for each question, and then move to the next question.

PTE Listening Multiple choice multiple answers Tip - Time management

Beware of negative marking

The PTE Listening Multiple choice multiple answers carry negative marking. This means if you select an option that is not correct you will receive a negative point for that, as a result your total score for a question of this type can come down to zero. Therefore, don’t make random guesses, but make sure to select at least one option.

Keep an eye on the options while listening to the audio

This is a good way to shortlist some options while listening. The options that seem to contain the information mentioned in the audio can be included in the shortlist. Then once the audio ends, you can look into them in more detail.

Practice with a variety of authentic audios every day

In PTE Academic you will find questions from various academic scenarios. These audios will have different accents, different pace of speaking, different level of complexity. Therefore, you must expose your ears to a wide variety of such audios while practicing. PTE Mock Tests preparation packages contain a large number of such authentic questions.

Answer based on your notes

One of our earlier tips was to take notes. Now that you have taken notes you should base your answer on what is in those notes. Of course you will have to combine it with you have also understood while listening. In general it is a good approach to validate the options against what is contained in the notes.

Don’t use your general knowledge

Let’s say you already know the topic discussed in the audio, and you know it in great depth. According to you the correct options should be A and B, but what you have heard in the audio points to options C and D. In that case ignore your prior knowledge and select options C and D.

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Validate answers exactly against what is explicitly mentioned in the audio

In all multiple choice questions some options are similar to each other. These options are placed there to confuse you. Therefore, check all aspects of each option, and only when everything in it matches the information in the audio should you select it.

All the tips and tricks are useless if you don’t do some focused practice before the exam. Get the most reliable PTE practice materials based on the latest pattern by signing up for one of the PTE Mock Tests packages. You will receive scored mock tests with detailed result report, and plenty of other practice tests and materials.