The present invention relates to a wireless access system supporting 256-ary Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (256QAM), and more particularly, to methods and apparatuses for transmitting and receiving a Physical Multicast Channel (PMCH) to provide Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service (MBMS). According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for receiving a Physical Multicast Channel (PMCH) by a User Equipment (UE) in a wireless access system supporting 256QAM includes receiving a System Information Block (SIB) including information for acquiring a Multicast Control Channel (MCCH), receiving a PMCH carrying an MCCH including Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service (MBMS) control information, and receiving a PMCH carrying a Multicast Traffic Channel (MTCH) including MBMS data based on the MBMS control information. 256QAM is not applied to the PMCH carrying the MCCH, and the UE determines a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) and a Transport Block Size (TBS) using a second table supporting 256QAM to receive and demodulate the PMCH carrying the MTCH.