PTE Reading & Writing Fill in the Blanks: Tips and Strategy

How the task works

Format

A passage with several gaps, each with a dropdown list of four or five words

Timing

No separate timer — it shares the Reading part timer

Scored on

Each correctly completed gap

Counts for

Reading and Writing

Strategies that help

• Read the whole sentence first: the right word must fit both the meaning and the grammar.
• Check the word class the gap needs — noun, verb, adjective or adverb — and remove options that don’t fit.
• Look for collocations: words that naturally go together (“make a decision”, “heavily dependent on”).
• Watch prepositions and connectors around the gap; they often decide between two similar options.
• Don’t spend too long on one gap — choose your best answer and move on to protect your Reading time.

Common mistakes

• Choosing a word that fits the meaning but not the grammar (wrong tense or word form).
• Reading only a few words around the gap instead of the whole sentence.
• Losing several minutes on one difficult gap.

Example

The new policy had a significant ____ on local businesses. (effect / affect / effective / affected)

After “a significant” you need a noun, so only “effect” fits the grammar.