PTE Academic · Reading · R4
PTE Academic Reading: Fill in the Blanks (Drag and Drop)
Reading: Fill in the Blanks shows a short passage with several gaps and a word bank below it. You drag the right word from the bank into each gap; the bank has more words than you need. PTE Academic includes 4 to 5 of these items, and they count towards Reading.
- Items per test
- 4–5
- Response
- Drag words from one shared bank into the gaps
- Word bank
- More options than gaps
- Timing
- Shares the Reading part timer
- Scores
- Reading
How it works
- 1A passage appears with gaps and a word bank underneath.
- 2You drag a word into a gap; you can move it again later.
- 3Each word from the bank can be used once.
- 4Leftover words are distractors and are not used.
Sample task
Original sample · not from an official test
Sleep researchers have found that teenagers' body clocks naturally ___(1) later than adults'. Schools that ___(2) their start times have reported better attendance and ___(3) grades. Word bank: shift, delayed, higher, run, raised, cancel
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Outline: (1) run, (2) delayed, (3) higher
'Body clocks run later' is the natural verb. 'Delayed their start times' fits the meaning of starting later. 'Higher grades' is the usual collocation; 'raised grades' needs a person as the subject.
Tips that work
- Decide the word class each gap needs before looking at the bank. That often removes half the options.
- Fill the gaps you are surest of first, so fewer words remain for the harder ones.
- Read the completed passage once to check each sentence sounds natural as a whole.
- Build collocation lists by topic (research, economy, environment) to spot natural pairings quickly.
Common mistakes
- Using a word that fits one gap but is needed more for another.
- Ignoring small grammar signals such as 'a' versus 'an' or a plural verb.
Questions candidates ask
Is there negative marking?
No. Each gap is marked right or wrong on its own.
How is this different from the dropdown task?
Here all gaps share one word bank, so choosing a word for one gap removes it from the others.
Does this task count towards Writing?
It is listed as a Reading task. The dropdown version, Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks, is the one that also feeds Writing.
Other PTE Academic Reading tasks
PTE Academic overviewPTE Academic Reading: all partsPTE Academic full mock testsPTE Academic articles on the blog