How Listening Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers works
You see a question and a list of options, then hear a recording of 80 to 120 seconds, often a lecture or academic talk. It plays once. You choose all the options you believe are correct. More than one is right, but you are not told how many.
This is the longest recording among the multiple choice items in PTE Academic, and that is what makes it hard. In the reading version you can reread the passage as often as you like. Here, once a detail has gone past, the only record of it is your notes.
What is scored
You earn a point for each correct option you select and lose a point for each incorrect option you select. Your score for the item cannot fall below zero. That rule changes how you should answer: an option you are unsure about is a gamble that can erase a point you already earned.
The practice tool on this page applies the same rule, so your result shows you exactly what an extra guess cost or gained.
How to answer
- Read the question first, then the options. Use any time before the audio starts. The question tells you what kind of information to track, such as causes, findings or the speaker's opinion.
- Pull one or two key words from each option. You will not remember seven options in full, but you can listen for their core ideas.
- Take notes in the order you hear things. A long recording covers several points, and your notes let you rebuild the talk afterwards.
- Match meaning, not words. The speaker will usually paraphrase. If an option says costs fell and the speaker said it became cheaper, that is a match.
- Select only what you can support. If you are confident about two options and unsure about a third, the safer choice is often to stop at two.
Common mistakes
- Choosing an option because it repeats a word from the recording. Distractors often reuse vocabulary while changing the meaning, for example turning a possible effect into a proven one.
- Selecting options that are true in general but were never said by the speaker.
- Picking every option that seems partly right, which invites minus marks.
- Stopping notes halfway through when the talk feels easy. The last third of a recording often holds a conclusion or a contrast that decides an option.