Should I do IELTS or PTE?

The Australian, UK and New Zealand Governments accepts both IELTS and PTE for certain visas and permanent residency, so in theory, the requirements and scores for both should be the same. Having been an examiner of IELTS and having studied the PTE test for a couple of years, I think the AI in Pearson’s PTE was designed to imitate the human examiner in some ways. But it is a computer, so it is not very chatty or empathetic, hence the PTE is all about pleasing the ‘computer master’.

Natives or near native-speakers should get very similar results in each test which is the intention of immigration departments- to get a reliable and consistent scores for all immigrants.

However, there seems to be ways to manipulate the PTE computer- silly templates that make no sense and strange techniques that would make a human examiner laugh. They do work but they need to be combined with the lottery system of taking the same test over and over at the same PTE centre. You can get an 80 or more with templates but it might cost you around $6000 in cram schools fees and taking the test multiple times.

I have had PTE candidates get in the high 80s or even 90 on the first test sitting after less than 4 hours with me but these candidates had solid English ( Irish and Filipinos) and just needed to take the test as it was designed to be taken. If you are a native speaker or near native, please don’t use templates!

For most people IELTS speaking is easier if you remember it is just a conversation, but for some more introverted people who spend a lot of time online PTE might make them feel more comfortable.

This is a sample of a 8 speaking test in IELTS. He’s not perfect in his delivery but clearly he can manage any topic and is easy to understand.

The other thing to weigh up is your Academic vs General English. In IELTS you will get the choice of doing the General or Academic test, while only Academic PTE is accepted by the respective immigration departments.

Some migrants who may be tradies or work with their hands so they are not fast on a computer are told that PTE will be easier for them. This means learning a bunch of academic words that, quite frankly, most Australians would struggle with. For these candidates IELTS General would be much better because it is about writing a letter similar to an email they probably already write at their work and then the first two reading sections are often menus, schedules, contracts and documents about work, renting an apartment or following safety instructions. In short, these candidates are already familiar with the language.

So, one test isn‘t easier than the other. It all depends but choosing the right test might be the difference between passing in a few weeks or wasting thousands of dollars.