PTE Academic · Guides · October 24, 2026 · 7 min read

PTE Fill in the Blanks: drop-down, drag-and-drop and listening tips (2026)

PTE Academic has three Fill in the Blanks tasks: Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks (you pick a word from a drop-down list for each gap), Reading: Fill in the Blanks (you drag words from a box into the gaps) and Listening: Fill in the Blanks (you type the missing words while a recording plays). All three are scored gap by gap: every correct gap earns a point, and a wrong gap simply earns nothing. There is no negative marking in any of them, so never leave a gap empty.

The three tasks at a glance

The number of tasks of each type changes from test to test; Pearson gives ranges, and these are the ranges described for the format since August 2025. The full layout of the test is in the PTE exam pattern guide.

Reading & Writing FIB is one of the heaviest tasks in the Reading part: it appears often and each gap is a separate point. It also tests the vocabulary and grammar you will need in writing, which is why it carries “Writing” in its name.

Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks (drop-down)

Each gap has a drop-down list, usually of four words. Often all of them belong to the same word family or look alike, and only one fits both the meaning and the grammar of the sentence.

Here is part of a practice task from Nomto (try it in the trainer):

Trees also help to [2] rainwater, reducing the pressure on drainage systems during heavy storms. [3] these benefits, many cities have lost tree cover in recent decades… Some local councils are now trying to [4] this trend by planting thousands of young trees each year. … many die because nobody is responsible for [5] after them.

[2] admit / adopt / attend / absorb · [3] Thanks to / Despite / Because of / Due to · [4] reverse / recover / return / revise · [5] caring / taking / looking / seeing

The key: absorb, Despite, reverse, looking. Notice what each gap tests:

• [2] is meaning: the only verb that describes what happens to water is absorb.
• [3] is logic. The text has just listed benefits, and then says cities lost trees anyway. That is a contrast, so Despite; the other three would make the benefits the cause of the loss.
• [4] is collocation: you reverse a trend.
• [5] is a phrasal verb: look after means take care of; take after means resemble.

Read the whole sentence, and often the next one, before you choose. Gap [3] cannot be solved from its own sentence at all.

Reading: Fill in the Blanks (drag-and-drop)

The text is shorter, and the words for all the gaps sit together in one box with a few extra words that fit nowhere. In this practice task from Nomto (open it here) the box holds seven words for four gaps:

Composting turns food scraps and garden waste into a dark, rich material that improves soil. The process [1] on tiny organisms… a compost heap needs a [2] of “green” materials… It should also be turned regularly so that air can [3] the centre. A heap that smells bad is usually too wet and needs more [4] material.

Box: balance, dependent, depends, dry, reach, reaches, slowly

The key is depends, balance, reach, dry. The extra words are traps of grammar, not meaning: dependent is an adjective and would need is; reaches cannot follow can. When two forms of the same word are in the box, one of them is almost always the distractor, so the part of speech decides.

Listening: Fill in the Blanks (type-in)

You see the transcript with some words missing and hear the recording once. You type each missing word into its gap. In this practice task from Nomto (try it) the gaps fall on attention, thirst, difficult, cautious and sessions.

Spelling counts here. A misspelled word is a wrong word, and so is the wrong form: if the speaker says sessions and you type session, that gap earns nothing.

How the scoring works, with a worked example

All three tasks give one point per correct gap, with nothing taken away for a wrong one. That has two practical effects. First, a guess can only help you, so fill every gap. Second, each gap is independent: getting one wrong does not cost you the others.

Say you do the three Nomto tasks above:

Each wrong gap cost exactly one point, nothing more. A guessed answer that happened to be right would have counted in full.

Your result on the 10–90 scale is not a simple sum of these points. How raw points turn into the scale is explained in the PTE score chart.

Tips that work for all three

1. Read the sentence to its end before choosing. Many gaps depend on a word after them: a preposition (depends on), an object, or a second clause.
2. Check the grammar first, then the meaning. After a you need a singular noun; after can a base verb; before a noun often an adjective. This alone usually removes two options.
3. Watch linking words. However, despite, although and because gaps are logic questions. Ask whether the two ideas agree or contrast.
4. Learn collocations, not single words. Reverse a trend, raise a question, meet a demand, pose a risk. The drop-down options are often words that mean similar things but do not go with the noun.
5. Keep an eye on the clock in Reading. Reading is timed as a part, so a long struggle with one gap is time taken from the next task. In Nomto’s trainer a drop-down task gets about two minutes and a drag-and-drop task about a minute and a half, which is a sensible pace.
6. In Listening, type as you hear. Type the word the moment you hear it, even roughly, then fix the spelling after the recording ends. Waiting until the end means trying to remember five words at once.
7. Check plurals and endings. -s, -ed, -ing change the word. Look at the words around the gap: several or many before it means a plural.
8. Never leave a gap empty. With no negative marking, an empty gap is a certain zero and a guess is not.

Common mistakes

• Choosing the word that “sounds right” alone, without checking the sentence after it.
• Picking the familiar word over the correct one: care after feels natural to many learners, but English says look after.
• In drag-and-drop, putting two similar forms into two gaps because both look possible. Usually only one belongs.
• In Listening, typing the word you expected instead of the word you heard.

Is there a template or a trick?

No. Fill in the Blanks is a vocabulary and grammar task, and lists of “common answers” do not carry over to new texts. What carries over is a habit: grammar check, meaning check, read the next sentence. Building collocation knowledge by reading academic texts helps more than any list.

Common questions

Is there negative marking in PTE Fill in the Blanks? No. In all three versions each correct gap earns a point and a wrong or empty gap earns nothing.

How many fill in the blanks are there in PTE? The ranges described for the current format are 5–6 Reading & Writing drop-down tasks, 4–5 Reading drag-and-drop tasks and 2–3 Listening tasks. The exact number varies from test to test.

Does spelling matter in Listening Fill in the Blanks? Yes. A misspelled word does not count. Spelling does not matter in the two Reading versions, because you choose or drag ready-made words.

What is the difference between drop-down and drag-and-drop? In the drop-down version each gap has its own short list of options, usually four. In drag-and-drop all the words for the passage share one box, with a few extra words that fit nowhere.

Practise all three in exam conditions

Nomto’s PTE trainer has all three tasks with their own timing: Reading & Writing drop-down, Reading drag-and-drop and Listening type-in. Each answer is marked by the key, gap by gap, just as described above, and the review explains why the right word fits and why the others do not. When you want to see how Fill in the Blanks fits with everything else, take a section or full mock test and get a report on all four skills. For the tasks with negative marking, read the guides to Highlight Incorrect Words and listening multiple choice.

PTE Academic™ is a trademark of Pearson. Nomto is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Pearson.