PTE Reading -- FILL IN THE BLANKS -- Scoring Technique

PTE Reading – Fill in the Blanks - Scoring Technique

This is one of the easiest topics to score in relatively much lesser time in the PTE Academic. You will be given a paragraph comprising of 3-5 sentences approximately with a few missing words, generally 4-5 in number.

Few words will be placed at the bottom of the screen inside separate boxes and all you are supposed to do is to drag and drop correct words to correct place in the paragraph.

The number of words provided for you to respond (6-8) would generally be more in number just to create some confusion. Ensure you fill in all the blanks as there is no negative time for this type of question.

Sample Paragraph:

Science blogs serves a dual purpose. First, they connect scientists to each other, _____(1)______ as modern day intellectual salons. Even _____(2)______ scientific papers are now beginning to _____(3)______ blogs as references. Second, they connect scientists to the general _____(4)______, offering a behind-the-scenes _____(5)______ at how science progresses.

Words to be chosen from: public, formal, look, view, world, cite, prescribed, serving.

• Try to quickly understand the main idea of the paragraph
• How science blogs connect Scientists to themselves and also to the general public.

• Think of the words that usually come together and make some sense.
• (4) – The words ‘general’ & ‘public’ mostly go together.  

• Fill in the easy ones first. Filling the difficult ones would become easier.
• (1) – It can take only ‘serving’, out of the available words. Having any other word there would leave the 1^st sentence grammatically incorrect and with no meaning at all.
• (3) – A difficult call between ‘cite’ (word meaning – refer to) and ‘view’. But clearly the former is a better option as it is closer to the portion of the sentence following itself (..blogs as references).

• Discard the options which you think are grammatically incorrect.
• (2) – An easy choice between ‘formal’ and ‘public’. Scientific papers are mostly ‘formal’ (word meaning - official). You can also discard ‘public’ as its usage would look more appropriate in the 4^th blank position.

• Go through the text and ensure that it is meaningful.
• (5) - Nothing else except ‘look’ fits in here.  Most of the words have already been taken, so this was pretty much simple.

Answers:(1) – serving; (2) – formal; (3) – cite; (4) – public; (5) – look  

Go through some other examples which might be a bit easier. If you find this section difficult, I would suggest you to start reading a novel (of 300-400 pages) online on your area of interest. Also, going through a basic grammar book would improve your knowledge about basic verbs, tenses, adjectives, nouns, adverbs etc. in general.  

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