Question-type guide
FIB-RReadingWeight 6% Reading:22%
Fill in the Blanks (Drag and Drop)
You drag words from a bank below the text into the blanks in the passage. The bank usually has more words than there are blanks.
Format
- 4-5 blanks
- Text is no more than 80 words
- The word bank has more options than blanks, so there are distractors to rule out
Scoring criteria
- Scored per blank: 1 point for each correctly filled blank
Scoring dimensions are condensed and paraphrased from Pearson's official PTE Core scoring guide for readability; refer to the official documentation for the exact wording.
Answering technique
- 1Read the whole text for the gist first, then look at the bank and rule out words that clearly don't fit by part of speech or meaning
- 2Fill the blanks you're sure of first; leave the uncertain ones for last and narrow them down by elimination
- 3Watch grammar cues around the blank: articles, prepositions and tense all restrict what kind of word can go in
- 4Before you drag, read the sentence with the word in place silently and confirm both grammar and meaning work
Common pitfalls
- Being led astray by a distractor in the bank
- Looking only at meaning and not checking the grammar fits