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PTE Academic · Listening · L5

PTE Academic Listening: Multiple Choice, Single Answer

Listening Multiple Choice, Single Answer plays a short recording once and asks one question about it. You choose the single correct option from the list, and there is no negative marking. PTE Academic includes 2 to 3 of these items in the Listening part, and they count towards your Listening score.

Items per test
2–3
Recording
Played once
Response
Choose one option
Scoring
Correct or incorrect; no negative marking
Scores
Listening

How it works

  1. 1The question and answer options are shown on screen.
  2. 2The recording plays once.
  3. 3You choose one option.
  4. 4Only one option is correct.

Sample question

Original sample · not from an official test

You hear: "We originally planned to survey two hundred households, but after the pilot study showed many families were away in summer, we moved the survey to October and reduced the sample to one hundred and fifty." Why did the researchers change their plan?

  1. AThe pilot study was too expensive.
  2. BMany families were unavailable in summer.
  3. COctober was the end of the funding period.
  4. DTwo hundred households refused to take part.
Show answer

Answer: Many families were unavailable in summer.

The speaker links the change directly to families being away in summer. Cost, funding and refusals are not mentioned.

Tips that work

  • Read the question stem first and decide what it asks for: reason, attitude, detail or main idea.
  • Listen for signal words such as 'but', 'after' and 'because'; answers often follow them.
  • Distractors often repeat words from the audio in the wrong relationship. Check the meaning, not the vocabulary.
  • Choose an answer even if unsure; there is no penalty for a wrong choice.

Common mistakes

  • Selecting an option because it contains a number heard in the recording.
  • Deciding too early and missing a correction later in the audio.

Questions candidates ask

Is this different from the Reading version?

The question style is similar, but the input is a recording you hear only once.

Should I take notes?

Brief notes on reasons and changes of plan help, but keep your eyes on the question to know what to listen for.

Where can I practise it?

EnglishHub has exam-style practice for this task with one-play audio as part of its PTE Academic practice sets.

Other PTE Academic Listening tasks

PTE Academic overviewPTE Academic Listening: all partsPTE Academic full mock testsPTE Academic articles on the blog