June 18, 2021

Important Update -2020 PTE and IELTS Concordance Report

Pearson has updated the concordance report from the PTE Academic Standards and Measurement team. PTE Academic is accepted by the Australian government as proof of English language proficiency for all visa categories. A lot of visa applicants wonder how this change will affect their visa application progress.

Firstly, let’s take a closer look at what has changed and what hasn’t:

What has not changed:

There have been no changes to the construct and scoring of PTE Academic.

The alignment of PTE Academic to TOEFL and the industry-standard used to describe language proficiency, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), has not changed.

What has changed:

The concordance table between PTE Academic and IELTS Academic test scores has now been updated. (source: https://pearsonpte.com)

In the mid-range, where the test is typically used for academic admissions purposes, the updated concordant scores have been minimally adjusted.
At IELTS 7.5 and above, the concordant PTE Academic scores, while in the same range, are at some points higher on the scale.
At IELTS 6.5 and below the concordant PTE Academic scores, while in the same range, are at some points lower on the scale.

How will this affect visa applications? Please refer to the FAQs provided by Pearson’s official website (source: https://pearsonpte.com).

If the department changes its score requirements accordingly, this will be good news for students who are going to apply for a Temporary Graduate visa – Subclass 485. They only need to score 46 points instead of 50. However, for applicants who want to apply for skilled visas, they will need to work harder to secure their high points. For instance, the score for Superior English level has changed from 79 to 84.

Up to now, there are no updates on the Australian Department of Home Affairs’ website. Please stay tuned with us for more updates.