Scores and results
Understand the 10–90 scale, what each range meets for study and Australian visas, which tasks feed each skill score, and what to practise after a result.
PTE reports exact scores on the 10–90 scale, not bands. IELTS: Pearson concordance study, PTE Academic (enhanced) vs IELTS Academic, July 2025. CEFR: Pearson’s Understand your score page. Study ranges: Pearson’s PTE Academic scores page. Visa minimums: Home Affairs. Checked 21 Oct 2026.
| PTE overall | IELTS (official) | CEFR (Pearson) | What the range meets |
|---|---|---|---|
| 79–90 | IELTS (official)8.0 (79–85)8.5 (86–89)9.0 (90) | CEFR (Pearson)C1 (79–84)C2 (85–90) | What the range meetsSuperior English (Australia)Home Affairs per-skill minimums for tests from 7 August 2025: Listening 69, Reading 70, Writing 85, Speaking 88. Tests before that date needed 79 in every skill. |
| 71–78 | IELTS (official)7.5 | CEFR (Pearson)B2 (71–75)C1 (76–78) | What the range meetsAbove Pearson’s typical rangesAbove the 57–67 postgraduate minimums Pearson cites. Institutions set their own minimums, so check the course page. |
| 63–70 | IELTS (official)7.0 | CEFR (Pearson)B2 | What the range meetsPostgraduate entryInside Pearson’s 57–67 postgraduate range. Proficient English (Home Affairs) from 7 August 2025: Listening 58, Reading 59, Writing 69, Speaking 76; before that, 65 in every skill. |
| 55–62 | IELTS (official)6.5 | CEFR (Pearson)B1 (55–58)B2 (59–62) | What the range meetsUndergraduate entryInside Pearson’s 51–60 undergraduate range and the lower end of its 57–67 postgraduate range. |
| 47–54 | IELTS (official)6.0 | CEFR (Pearson)B1 | What the range meetsCompetent English (Australia)Home Affairs per-skill minimums for tests from 7 August 2025: Listening 47, Reading 48, Writing 51, Speaking 54. Tests before that date needed 50 in every skill. |
| 39–46 | IELTS (official)5.5 | CEFR (Pearson)A2 (39–42)B1 (43–46) | What the range meetsFoundation entryInside Pearson’s 36–50 foundation range; below most degree and visa minimums. |
| 24–38 | IELTS (official)4.5 (24–30)5.0 (31–38) | CEFR (Pearson)A1 (24–29)A2 (30–38) | What the range meetsBelow foundation entryMostly below the 36–50 foundation minimums Pearson cites. |
A PTE report gives one overall and four skill scores on the 10–90 scale, and the overall is not an average.
Pearson’s Score Guide describes the report as an overall score plus four communicative skill scores: Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing. Each sits on the 10–90 scale and is graded against the Global Scale of English. The overall reflects performance on every question in the test, so it is a number of its own rather than a sum of the four.
Integrated tasks explain the gap. Pearson credits each one to two skills at once: Repeat Sentence feeds Listening and Speaking, Summarize Written Text feeds Reading and Writing, and Write from Dictation feeds Listening and Writing. A strong answer on one of them lifts two skill scores, so the overall can land above or below the mean. The exam pattern lists every task.
Key points
Each university sets its own overall minimum, while Australian visa levels set a minimum for every one of the four skills.
Pearson’s scoring guidance for institutions says they set their own minimum scores, and gives typical ranges: foundation courses 36–50, undergraduate degrees 51–60 and postgraduate degrees 57–67. Read the course page for the exact number and any skill minimum, because those ranges are only Pearson’s summary. The accepted universities page lists sourced minimums by country.
Home Affairs reads the four skill scores, not the overall. For tests taken from 7 August 2025, Competent, Proficient and Superior English each have their own minimum per skill, set highest for Speaking and Writing, as the table above shows. Timing, validity, sending and rescores are covered on PTE results, so this page stays with what the numbers mean.
Key points
Fix a weak skill by practising the tasks that feed it, including integrated tasks scored in another part of the test.
A low skill score points to a set of tasks, not to one part of the test. Pearson’s Score Guide credits Repeat Sentence, Retell Lecture and Summarize Group Discussion to Listening as well as Speaking, and scores them on content, fluency and pronunciation. A weak Listening score can therefore come from how you speak, not only from the answers you choose.
Pick the two or three tasks that feed the weak skill hardest and practise them before spending another full mock. Reading moves with Highlight Correct Summary and Highlight Incorrect Words. Writing moves with Summarize Written Text, Summarize Spoken Text and Write from Dictation, not only the essay. The question types pages break down each task.
Key points
The facts that frame every PTE Academic score report, from Pearson’s Score Guide.
The overall score and each of the four communicative skills sit on the same 10–90 scale.
Every PTE Academic test has 65 to 75 questions across 22 question types.
Scores are graded against the Global Scale of English, Pearson’s scale of English proficiency.
Which tasks feed each skill, from the task pages of Pearson’s PTE Academic Score Guide. Integrated tasks move two skills at once.
| Feature | What it reflects | Key tasks |
|---|---|---|
| Speaking | What it reflectsContent (does the response answer the task), oral fluency and pronunciation. | Key tasksRead Aloud, Repeat Sentence, Describe Image, Retell Lecture, Summarize Group Discussion, Respond to a Situation. |
| Writing | What it reflectsContent, form, grammar, vocabulary and spelling; the essay adds development, structure and coherence, and general linguistic range. | Key tasksWrite Essay, Summarize Written Text, Summarize Spoken Text, Write from Dictation. |
| Reading | What it reflectsComprehension, scored on correct answers or partial credit; Summarize Written Text is the one trait-scored task. | Key tasksFill in the Blanks (both kinds), Multiple Choice, Reorder Paragraphs, Summarize Written Text, Highlight Correct Summary, Highlight Incorrect Words. |
| Listening | What it reflectsCorrect answers on the Part 3 tasks, plus content, fluency and pronunciation on the speaking tasks that also feed Listening. | Key tasksEvery Part 3 task, plus Repeat Sentence, Retell Lecture, Summarize Group Discussion and Answer Short Question. |
Most results arrive within two business days and some take up to five working days, per Pearson’s help centre; results flagged for extra review can take longer. A score is valid for two years from the test date, and Home Affairs accepts results up to three years old for some visa subclasses. The PTE results page has the full rules.
No. Every score sits on the 10–90 scale, but the overall score is not the arithmetic average of your Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing scores, so it can land above or below the mean of the four.
Only in three question types: Reading Multiple Choice (Multiple Answers), Listening Multiple Choice (Multiple Answers) and Highlight Incorrect Words. Each wrong pick deducts one point, but the score for that question cannot fall below zero; no other task carries negative marking.
