Reading Fill in the Blanks — Strategy Guide

What is Reading Fill in the Blanks?

You see a passage with several blanks and a list of words at the bottom. Drag the right word into each blank. Tests Reading only.

Format & Timing

• Word bank: usually 8–10 words for 4–5 blanks (more options than blanks)
• Time per question: ~2 minutes
• Number per exam: 4–5

How It Is Scored

• 1 point per correct blank. No negative marking.

The 3-Pass Technique

1. First pass — read the whole passage ignoring blanks. Get the topic.
2. Second pass — easy blanks first. Words you are 100% sure about. Lock those in.
3. Third pass — eliminate. For remaining blanks, eliminate words from the bank you have already used or that don't fit grammatically.

What to Look For

• Collocations: "make a decision" not "do a decision". Memorise common collocations.
• Part of speech: noun, verb, adjective. The blank's grammar role tells you the category.
• Singular/plural: "a" or "an" before blank → singular noun.
• Tense: verb tense must match the surrounding sentence.

Common Mistakes

• Spending 5 minutes on one blank — move on, return at the end.
• Ignoring grammar clues (article, tense) — half the blanks have grammatical narrowing.
• Not reading the full sentence around the blank — context matters more than vocabulary.

Practice on ClearMyPTE

Drill in Reading practice. Build a personal collocation list — the same word pairs repeat across the question bank.