Negative Marking in PTE

The PTE exam is renowned for its use of artificial intelligence to assess their exams – which means that test results are assured to be fair, reliable, and objective. Some predominant questions related to marking that students often have regarding the test is its negative marking scheme, like

• What is negative marking in PTE?
• How does negative marking affect your PTE test preparation?
• How is negative marking in PTE used to determine your final score?

Read below to find the answers to these pressing questions and more.

What is Negative Marking in PTE?

Negative marking is when you will incur a loss of one mark upon answering a question incorrectly. This means that one must be especially careful when answering these types of questions to avoid affecting their PTE score card negatively.

What Types of Questions Have Negative Marking?

Only two types of questions can incur negative markings in the PTE. The two questions on which an incorrect answer can suffer negative marking are as follows:

1. Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers (Listening and PTE Reading), and
2. Highlight Incorrect Words (PTE Listening)

Now let us take a closer look at each of these, one by one:

1. Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers: This type of question has several correct answers out of the given choices. Thus, you will receive one mark (+1) for choosing the correct answer. In case you choose the wrong option, you will incur one negative mark i.e. (-1). The lowest mark that can be awarded for one question is 0. You will encounter this type of question in both the Listening section as well as the Reading section.

How is Negative Marking used to determine the overall score?

To clarify how negative marking is used to assess the overall score of such a question, consider the following example question from the Reading Section.

Question: Which of the following statements are true?

Options:

1. The Capital of Japan is Kyoto.
2. Australia is both a country and a continent.
3. Africa is one country.
4. The United States of America has 50 states.
5. Russia is the largest country in the world.

Of these statements, statements A and C are FALSE. Meanwhile, statements B, D, and E are TRUE. Therefore, to score the maximum possible marks, you will be required to select options B, D, and E to get +3 Marks.

However, if you select options A or C, due to incurring one negative mark, your overall score will be reduced. So if you were to select A (-1), B(+1), and D(+1), your total marks would be (+1). If you select multiple wrong options, like Options A, B, and C, your total would be -1. However, you will be awarded a zero for the question, as the total marks cannot go below a zero.

To score the maximum possible marks in Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers type questions, you can select all the options that you believe are correct. Do not select an option if you are not sure of its correctness or if you are guessing. By avoiding negative marks, you can get the most out of these question types.

If you are not able to score the full marks on this question type, you can still receive partial marks for the correct options chosen by avoiding negative marking. There is no negative marking for failing to select ALL the correct options.

NOTE:

• The Multiple Choice Type question with a single correct answer does not have negative markings.
• Making multiple incorrect choices on one question will not reduce your score below zero.

1. Highlight Incorrect Words.

In the Listening section of PTE Academic, you will encounter the second type of question with the possibility of negative marking. You will receive a recording of a passage being read out loud, alongside a transcript of the passage. In the transcript, some words will be different from the passage being read. The goal is to highlight all of the incorrect words as instructed.

If you highlight a correct word, you will be allotted one negative mark on your overall score for the question. Thus, to maximize your score in this section, highlight only the choices which you are certain are incorrect. Similar to the previous section, the score will not go below zero.

For example,

If the audio recording says: Queen Elizabeth is the longest-serving monarch in British History.

However, the transcript says: that Queen Elizabeth is the longest-serving monarch in English History.

Here, you must click and highlight the word “English” as it is incorrectly transcribed. For this, you will receive One Mark (+1). However, if you highlight any of the other words in the sentence, you will incur One Negative Mark (-1).

Therefore, by understanding the nuances of negative marking in the PTE, you can ensure that you get the most out of these question types. Preparation and practice will allow you to ensure that you do not lose out on points through the tricky process of negative marking.

Also Check

• PTE Score Chart
• PTE Training
• PTE Exam Dates