Struggling to score band 8 for IELTS?

Hi, there! Are you planning to migrate to Australia or New Zealand on a skilled visa or student visa? And your English score is the only obstacle that keeps you away from achieving your Dream? Well, you’re in luck! I’m going to tell you about your saviour, PTE….

Yeah, PTE! It’s similar to IELTS and you’ll find that it’s much easier than IELTS in obtaining band 8 and scoring that 20 marks for your Australian point test.

Note: PTE doesn’t have a General test, unlike IELTS. So for both higher studies and migration purposes, you’ll have to do PTE Academic. And it’s still easier than IELTS General, to score band 8.

So what’s PTE Academic?

PTE stands for Pearson Test Evaluation. It’s the English proficiency exam offered by Pearson and the most popular exam of choice of students and immigrants at present.

Why PTE?

• Fast Results

You don’t have to wait 2 weeks to get your test results like in IELTS. You’ll get your results in 1–2 days in most cases and 5 business days in a worst-case. I got mine in less than 24 hours. So you won’t completely lose track of the preparation done if you have to take the exam again. After 2 days you can pick up studies from where you left off.

• Fully Computer-based

We all depend on computers to do our office work and studies on a daily basis and we hardly ever write on paper. So when we are given a pen and paper to write on an exam, we tend to get a little intimidated. So PTE is the perfect solution. Once you get used to the pattern you’ll feel like you’re playing a fun game 😊

• Convenience

It’s a one-day exam, unlike IELTS., where Reading, Listening and Writing are conducted on the same day and you’ll have to go in another day for your Speaking test. PTE is easy to book as well, you just have to log in online and book a slot available at multiple centres. (Only one centre is available in Sri Lanka unfortunately). You don’t have to wait a long time to get a slot either.

• Unbiased

IELTS is subjective. This is a really big deal when it comes to the Writing and Speaking sections. Because your score will depend on the examiner and their standards for band 8 may differ. That’s why even if you improve your weak points based on your past test result, you’ll still fail in the same or a different section, in the next attempt.

You’ll feel like a ‘hamster on a wheel’. Trust me I have read testimonials of people who have taken IELTS 10–12 times just to get their desired score.

But in PTE an AI marks your answers, it will be fair and square to everyone and at every time. It’s just a matter of getting used to the patterns and tricking the AI a little bit.😉 I will tell you all about it in my upcoming blogs.

• Score sharing

Score sharing with universities and state institutions is just one click away and it’s free.

• Simpler English

The most common issue faced by many IELTS test-takers is vocabulary deficiency. Most of the content used in Reading and Listening are from academic texts of various disciplines, hence it’s difficult to understand the meaning of keywords specific to different fields. Similarly to get a good score for Writing, you should be able to write in complex English with an advanced vocabulary in order to get 8.

On the contrary, in PTE, listening tasks are more like extracts from podcasts and reading passages doesn’t make you want to bury your head in a dictionary. You can improve your vocabulary just by going through the repeated questions and that’s more than enough. Yay!

Who accepts it?

It is accepted by Australia, New Zealand, UK, Canada (only universities and colleges) and the USA (only nursing schools).

You can get a complete list of institutions here.

PTE Test Format

The test consists of 4 sections, Speaking, Writing, Reading and Listening respectively. You can get an optional scheduled 10-minute break after the Writing section. Altogether there are 20 test segments.

Don’t be alarmed by the number! Once you start practising, you’ll realize that they are simple tasks that can be tackled easily with some good practice.

Results

To give you an idea about your score, I have compared PTE with the relevant IELTS score.

For your Australian point test, you will get 0 marks for functional, vocational and competent English.

You will obtain 10 marks if you have proficient English, i.e. 65+ in all bands and 20 marks if you have superior English, i.e. 79+.

Bonus: If your spouse has competent English with a skilled occupation, you will obtain 10 additional points.

If you don’t believe me, just read the testimonials on the internet. People who couldn’t score the desired marks in 10–12 IELTS attempts reached their target in 1 or 2 PTE attempts. So the choice is yours.

You can find more information on their official website as well.

In my next blog post, I will share my PTE journey and subscribe to my blog to receive updates on my new posts.

Until then,

Dream Big!