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You listen to a short recording and the sound of a beep replaces the final word or phrase. Four options then appear and you choose the one that completes the recording. In PTE Core the task appears 1–2 times inside Part 3, the Listening section, which runs 22–37 minutes and contains 7 question types.
Select Missing Word is a Listening task, not a Reading task. Pearson's Score Guide scores it for Listening only, so nothing here adds to your Reading score.
Listen to the recording and, at the beep, choose the option that best completes it. Only one option is correct: you are answering a single multiple-choice question about the end of a message you have just heard.
| What Pearson counts | Value |
|---|---|
| Correct response (Listening) | 1 point |
| Incorrect response | 0 points |
| Minimum score | 0 |
It is scored correct or incorrect, with no partial credit and no negative marking, so a doubtful answer is always worth submitting.
Two things decide the answer, and only one of them is vocabulary:
The first recording is about public transport and ends like this:
"Due to construction on Main Street, the number 5 bus will be detoured via Elm Avenue until further [BEEP]"
Options: A notice · B tomorrow · C approval · D repair
| Option | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| notice | Correct | "until further notice" is a fixed phrase, and "notice" is the noun the sentence needs. |
| tomorrow | Wrong | A time adverb cannot follow "further"; "until further tomorrow" is not grammatical. |
| approval | Wrong | A decision, not a period of time, so it cannot follow "until further". |
| repair | Wrong | The construction topic makes it feel right, but a bus route is not "until further repair". |
The trap is "repair": it matches the topic and fails the grammar. The topic narrowed the field; the phrase "until further" chose the answer.
It is a Listening task. Pearson's Score Guide places it in Part 3 (Listening) and scores it for Listening only, so nothing about it feeds your Reading score.
One or two. The Score Guide gives the range as 1–2 questions. This practice tool holds 15 recordings, worked through in batches of three.
Correct or incorrect. One point for the correct response and zero for an incorrect one, with no deduction for a wrong answer and no partial credit.
The beep replaces the end of the recording, which is usually a single word or a very short phrase. The gap is always at the end of the sentence, never in the middle.
In the live test the recording is played to you rather than controlled by you. This practice tool lets you play the audio as many times as you like while you are learning the technique.