PTE Highlight Incorrect Words
A transcript is shown while the recording plays, and several words differ from what is spoken. You click the ones that differ. It feeds Listening and Reading and carries negative marking.
Read along with your eyes, not your memory
- Put your cursor or finger at the start of the transcript before the audio begins.
- Track the text word by word as the speaker goes.
- Click the moment you hear a difference — do not wait and come back.
- If you lose your place, look ahead to where the speaker is now rather than back.
Losing the position is the main failure here, and it is unrecoverable backwards. The audio does not wait.
Given the penalty
- Click only what you genuinely heard differ. A wrong click cancels a right one.
- The substitutions are often similar-sounding rather than random — *affect* for *effect*, *contract* for *contrast*.
- Do not click a word because it looks out of place; the test is what was said, not what reads oddly.
Practising this item with the transcript visible and the audio at normal speed trains the one skill it needs: following text and sound at the same time.
Highlight Incorrect Words — FAQs
2 questions
Yes. This and the multiple-answer items are the two that penalise wrong selections.
Several, but the number is not stated — click what you hear.
More listening question types
Summarise Spoken Text
50–70 words, 10 minutes
Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers
Negative marking applies
Fill in the Blanks
Type the missing words as you listen
Highlight Correct Summary
Pick the paragraph that matches
Multiple Choice, Single Answer
One answer, no penalty
Select Missing Word
Predict how the recording ends
Write from Dictation
The best-value item in the test
Sources
Written from the test board's own published material and checked on 1 October 2026.