PTE Score for Australia: Every English Bar From Visa to Registration

The PTE score for Australia is not one number. A PTE Academic 47 is enough for the Department of Home Affairs to grant you a Subclass 500 student visa, and it is not enough to get you admitted anywhere. The 58 to 64 that gets you admitted will not register you as a nurse. The 63 that registers you as a nurse would not have been accepted for the Master of Teaching you were also considering, because the teaching regulator does not accept PTE at all.

Australia has at least four English bars, set by four different bodies for four different purposes. Indian applicants clear one, assume the question is settled, and meet the next one at the worst possible moment. Every figure below was read at the body that sets it, on 23 July 2026, and where a bar changed recently the old numbers are given too, because the date you sat your test decides which table judges you.

Why is there more than one English requirement for Australia?

Because four organisations are asking four different questions. Home Affairs wants to know whether you can survive a classroom. Your university wants to know whether you can pass its assessments. A health or teaching regulator wants to know whether you can be trusted with a patient or a room full of children. And Home Affairs asks again years later, when you apply for a post-study work visa or count points for permanent residence.

Here is every bar in one place, in the two tests Indians actually sit.

Read the PTE column again and notice something the market never mentions. The student visa reads only your overall score and ignores your components entirely. The 485 reads your overall score and every component. The skilled migration points test reads only the components and has no overall score anywhere in it. One score report, three different readings, all by the same department.

That is why speaking quietly decides most of these outcomes. A PTE 63 built on 76 speaking registers you as a nurse. The same PTE 63 built on 55 speaking does not, even though the overall is identical.

What PTE score is required for an Australia student visa?

PTE Academic 47 overall, if you sat the test on or after 7 August 2025. That is the whole answer for the visa, and it is far lower than most people assume, because they have been quoted an admission number by mistake.

The full table Home Affairs publishes for the Subclass 500 covers nine tests, and it gives two concessions for students who package English tuition in front of their main course.

If you sat your test on or before 6 August 2025 you are judged against the older scale instead, which was PTE 50, IELTS 6.0, TOEFL iBT 64, CAE 169 and OET grade B in each component. The PTE number moved because the test itself changed on 7 August 2025, not because Australia softened. Pearson rebuilt PTE Academic around that date, added two new question types and ran a concordance study of 1,522 test takers, after which Home Affairs re-cut every number. In Pearson’s own words, some requirements went up and most came down.

Six rules around the score matter more than the score itself.

• Two years. The test must have been completed within the two years before you lodge, if you are at Regular Evidence level. If you are at Streamlined Evidence level and the Department later asks, the two years run to the date of decision instead.
• Nothing taken at home counts. Home Affairs names the refused versions itself, and the list is IELTS Online, LANGUAGECERT Academic Online, OET@Home, CELPIP Online, MET Digital taken at home, and TOEFL iBT Home Edition.
• TOEFL has two catches. From 21 January 2026 you must select “Taking TOEFL for Australia” when you register, or the result is not valid for Australian visa purposes at all. And no TOEFL iBT taken between 26 July 2023 and 4 May 2024 is accepted, because the version offered in that window was never an approved test.
• Ten and twenty weeks are a floor, not a rounding. Fifteen weeks of ELICOS gets you the 10-week concession, not something in between.
• Cambridge C1 Advanced gets no concession at all, because Home Affairs will not accept a C1 result below the IELTS 6 equivalent.
• The Department can ask at any time. Even when the Document Checklist Tool says you do not need to attach English evidence at lodgement, Home Affairs states it can request it later while your application is being processed.

There are nine exemptions, and two matter to Indian applicants. If your principal course is a registered post-graduate research course you need no English test for the visa at all, which is a quiet advantage of the PhD and research degree route. The often-quoted exemption for five years of study in English does not help most Indians, because the countries where that study must have happened are Australia, the UK, the USA, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the Republic of Ireland. India is not on the list. The rest of the Subclass 500 file, the funds evidence and the document pack, sits on the Australia student visa guide.

What English score does an Australian university actually want?

More than the visa, almost always, and the university decides for itself. Six admissions pages read on the same day give a spread rather than a standard.

Two mismatches in that table will cost somebody an intake this year.

Monash accepts a three-year-old test. Home Affairs accepts two years. So a Monash offer can be perfectly valid on a test your visa case officer will not look at. Neither is wrong. They are different clocks, and the shorter one wins.

Monash accepts IELTS Online. Home Affairs, Sydney and UNSW do not. An applicant who sits IELTS Online because it was convenient can hold a genuine Monash offer and still have no result that supports a Subclass 500.

Melbourne adds a third condition almost nobody reads. Your test must be taken in your country of citizenship, your last country of education, or your current country of residence or employment, so flying to a neighbouring country for an easier slot is not allowed except where the test is not offered at home at all.

For how these institutions differ on everything else, see the comparison of Australian universities for Indian students and the masters in Australia guide.

Why is the registration bar higher than the admission bar?

Because a regulator is protecting a patient, not assessing a student. And in Australia the regulator’s number does not wait until you graduate. It climbs backwards into admission.

Deakin’s Bachelor of Nursing for international students states the mechanism plainly.

It is an Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) accreditation requirement that applicants meet the English language requirements of the ANMAC Accreditation Standards leading to initial registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) at commencement of their course.

Deakin University, Bachelor of Nursing for international students

Deakin’s published numbers are the Ahpra numbers to the point. IELTS 7.0 overall with 6.5 in writing, or PTE 63 with 76 in speaking, or OET 350 in listening and writing and 360 in reading and speaking. You cannot start the degree without them, so a nursing applicant is judged against a registration standard before sitting a single class.

The Ahpra scores themselves changed on 23 April 2026.

Ahpra calls this an alignment with Home Affairs and says it does not change the level of proficiency required. Compare it with the table it replaced and you can see what actually moved for PTE. Overall came down from 66 to 63 and listening from 66 to 58, but speaking went up from 66 to 76 and writing from 56 to 60. A candidate comfortably registrable in March 2026 on a listening-heavy 66 can be short in July on the same overall. If you sat on or before 22 April 2026 the old table still judges you, and if you are combining two sittings across the change, the first must meet the old table and the second the new one.

Four things about this bar matter more than the numbers.

• Every National Board wants the same scores, with one exception for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board. Nursing, medicine, physiotherapy, pharmacy and psychology read off the same table, and the Nursing and Midwifery Board simply points to Ahpra’s list.
• Any profession-specific OET is accepted, whichever profession you are registering in. OET for nurses is a convenience, not a rule, and a nurse who sat the medicine version is not disqualified.
• You may combine two sittings within 12 months, but each must meet the standard on its own, and results from different providers can never be combined. IELTS One Skill Retake is accepted and is not counted as an extra sitting, which makes IELTS the only test here with a second chance at a single component.
• Results are valid two years before you lodge, extended if you have since been working continuously as a registered practitioner or in a relevant health, disability or aged-care role in a recognised country. Continuously means at least 26 weeks full-time equivalent per year.

Now the part that catches Indian health graduates hardest. Ahpra’s alternatives to sitting a test all require education in a recognised country, and the list of 30 does not include India. An Indian nursing or medical degree, however completely it was taught in English, opens none of them. The advanced education pathway needs at least six years of full-time equivalent study in a recognised country, so a two-year Australian master’s on its own does not open it either. For an Indian health graduate the test pathway is effectively the only pathway.

Compare engineering. Engineers Australia asks for IELTS 6 in each band, or PTE 47 listening, 48 reading, 51 writing and 54 speaking, and it waives the test entirely if you graduated from an Australian institution with two academic years of study, at least 92 weeks, in a CRICOS-registered institution at AQF level 6 or above. Same country, same two-year degree, opposite outcome. The engineer walks free and the nurse still sits the test.

Teaching is the highest bar of all and the strangest. AITSL asks for an IELTS Academic Test Report Form showing at least 7.0 in reading and writing and at least 8.0 in both speaking and listening, on a single report form, taken within three years. It accepts no PTE, TOEFL or OET at any score. If your plan involves registering as a school teacher, IELTS is not a preference, it is the only test that exists for you, and you have to know that before you book anything.

The registration process itself is covered on nursing, MBBS and health courses in Australia, and the skills assessment side sits with qualification recognition and skills assessment.

What English score do you need for the 485 post-study work visa?

IELTS Academic 6.5 overall with at least 5.5 in every component, or PTE Academic 55 overall with 40 in listening, 42 in reading, 41 in writing and 39 in speaking. Both figures apply to tests taken on or after 7 August 2025, and both the Post-Higher Education Work stream and the Post-Vocational Education Work stream use the identical table.

The scores are not the problem. The clock is. Home Affairs requires the result to have been achieved in the 12 months immediately before the day you apply, the shortest window anywhere in the system. The test that got you your student visa will be three or four years old by graduation, so almost every 485 applicant sits a fresh one. Budget for it in your final semester rather than meeting it as a surprise.

Home Affairs accepts IELTS One Skill Retake and the MET Single Section Retake here, provided the retake is completed before you lodge, and the same five passports are exempt. Everything else about the 485 sits on the 485 post-study work visa page.

What PTE and IELTS score do you need for Australia PR?

This is where the market is most out of date. The flat PTE 65 for Proficient English and PTE 79 for Superior English that Indian forums still quote were retired on 7 August 2025. The points test now reads each component separately, and the components are not symmetrical.

There is no overall score in this table at all. Home Affairs reads only your four component scores, so a PTE 79 overall built on an 88 in reading and a 62 in speaking is worth nothing extra. Superior English now needs 88 out of 90 in speaking and 85 in writing, and those two are where Indian candidates most often lose the twenty points they were counting on.

The window is three years, not two, and results on the old scale can still be used for visa purposes until 6 August 2028 depending on the subclass, so an older test is not automatically dead. OET carries points-test numbers too, which nurses and doctors who already sat it for registration can reuse. Proficient English on OET is 350 listening, 360 reading, 380 writing and 360 speaking. Ahpra confirms the reuse works the other way as well, saying that a test sat for a skilled migration visa in the past two years can be used for registration without sitting again.

Should an Indian applicant sit PTE, IELTS or OET?

PTE is what most Indians heading to Australia sit, and for the visa and the points test that is a reasonable default. Home Affairs accepts it for the Subclass 500, the 485 and the points test, as do Ahpra, Engineers Australia and every university sampled here. The single place it collapses is school teaching, where AITSL takes IELTS and nothing else.

OET is worth considering only for a health profession. It is accepted for the student visa, the 485, registration and the points test, and its content is clinical rather than academic, which many nurses find easier than writing an argumentative essay about urban planning. Do not sit OET for a business or engineering degree.

Ahpra also settles an argument that fills Indian forums. It says the required scores across all its accepted tests are benchmarked to equivalent levels and that it is not easier to achieve the required score on one test than another. Choose on convenience, results speed and where the test is accepted, not on a rumour that one is softer.

On speed and cost, these are the figures each test owner publishes.

Two notes on that table. India is genuinely faster than the global norm for paper IELTS, which is 13 days, but the UKVI paper version is still 13 days even in India, so booking UKVI by mistake costs you a week you did not budget for. And the OET timings are for the test centre versions. OET@Home returns results in 48 hours too, and neither Home Affairs nor Ahpra accepts it, so that speed is worthless. We have not quoted a TOEFL turnaround or an OET rupee fee, because neither is published on the test owner’s own site.

How long is a PTE or IELTS score valid for Australia?

There is no single answer, because each body runs its own clock from its own starting point. Seven clocks, all running at once.

PTE has one extra rule the others do not, and it is a hard one. Pearson says your score report is valid for two years from the test date, after which you cannot access it or send it to anyone. An IELTS Test Report Form is only recommended to be treated as two years old and an institution may accept an older one with evidence you maintained your English. A PTE score simply stops existing.

What can you do if your score is under the bar?

For the visa, package English tuition in front of your main course. Enrol in at least 10 weeks of ELICOS, a Foundation program or an eligible Pathway program and the visa bar drops from PTE 47 to 39, or from IELTS 6.0 to 5.5. At 20 weeks of ELICOS it drops to PTE 31 or IELTS 5.0. Give every CoE code in your application, not just the main one, because a packaged course you fail to declare may leave the visa covering only the CoE you did provide.

Be clear about what this buys you. ELICOS lowers the visa bar only. The university still wants its own number at the end of the bridging course, which is exactly why these are sold as packaged conditional offers. If you are 0.5 of an IELTS band short of admission, a 10-week ELICOS is a realistic plan. If you are two bands short of a nursing degree’s 7.0, it is not.

For a single weak component, IELTS One Skill Retake is the only mechanism of its kind. You re-sit one skill within 60 days of a computer-delivered test, and the retake is accepted by Home Affairs for the 485, by Ahpra without counting as a second sitting, and by Melbourne, Monash, UNSW, QUT and Engineers Australia. PTE has no equivalent, though MET offers a Single Section Retake that Home Affairs accepts. Most Indian candidates are strong in reading and weak in speaking, and for a lopsided profile that difference alone may decide which test you book.

Finally, the bar is a property of the course, not of Australia. The same student who cannot clear a nursing 7.0 clears an engineering 6.5 comfortably. The guide to courses in Australia and the full picture of studying in Australia are the right places to make that call.

Sources

• Department of Home Affairs, Student visa (subclass 500) (both English score tables split at 7 August 2025, the 10 and 20 week ELICOS concession columns, the two year validity rule for Regular and Streamlined Evidence levels, the refused at-home test list, the TOEFL registration rule from 21 January 2026 and the 26 July 2023 to 4 May 2024 exclusion, the Cambridge C1 paper-only window, the LANGUAGECERT certificate and report rule, and all nine exemption categories)
• Department of Home Affairs, Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485), Post-Higher Education Work stream (the overall and per-component table for tests from 7 August 2025 and the earlier scale, the 12 month window, the One Skill Retake and Single Section Retake rules, and the five exempt passports; the Post-Vocational Education Work stream page carries the identical table)
• Department of Home Affairs, Competent English, Proficient English and Superior English (the per-component points test scores for every accepted test on both scales, the three year window, and the 6 August 2028 cut-off for old-scale results)
• Ahpra, Accepted English language tests (Table 1 for tests on or before 22 April 2026 and Table 2 for tests from 23 April 2026, the five accepted tests, the two sittings in 12 months rule, the IELTS One Skill Retake allowance, the two year validity with its work and study extension, the at-home refusal with the OET computer-based exception, and the benchmarking statement; page reviewed 23 April 2026)
• Ahpra, English language skills registration standard (the four pathways, the six years of full-time equivalent education in the advanced education pathway, and the list of 30 recognised countries, which does not include India; standard effective 18 March 2025)
• Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, English language skills (the 2025 standard and the April 2026 transition arrangements policy, and the Board’s direction to use the Ahpra list of accepted tests)
• AITSL, Secondary School Teacher Applicant Checklist (ANZSCO 241411), July 2026 (Criterion 2, IELTS Academic 7.0 in reading and writing and 8.0 in speaking and listening on a single Test Report Form within three years, the One Skill Retake allowance, and the four years of higher education alternative in six named countries)
• Engineers Australia, Prepare your Migration Skills Assessment application, January 2026 (per-component minimums on both scales, the three year validity with the verifiability condition, and the exemption for two academic years or 92 weeks at AQF level 6 or above in a CRICOS-registered institution)
• Deakin University, Bachelor of Nursing for international students (IELTS 7.0 with 6.5 writing, OET 350 and 360, PTE 63 with 76 speaking, and the ANMAC accreditation requirement that applicants meet the NMBA English standard at course commencement)
• UNSW, English language requirements (faculty by faculty IELTS, TOEFL and PTE tables, the Master of Teaching requirement of IELTS 7.5 with 8.0 in speaking and listening and PTE 73 with 79 in listening and speaking, the two year rule, the refusal of IELTS Online, and the programs where no English waiver is available)
• University of Melbourne, English language requirements (Levels 1 to 3 across seven tests, the 24 month single-sitting rule, the test centre requirement, and the condition that the test be taken in the country of citizenship, last education or current residence; tables in force for applications from 17 November 2025)
• Monash University, English language requirements (IELTS 6.5 with 6.0 bands, PTE 58 with no communicative skill below 50, the three year time limit and its extension, and the acceptance of IELTS Online and PTE Academic UKVI)
• University of Sydney, English language requirements (IELTS 6.5 with no band below 6.0, tests no more than two years old at course commencement, IELTS Online not accepted, and LanguageCert and Cambridge not accepted for courses with external registration or accreditation requirements)
• QUT, Bachelor of Nursing (IELTS 7.0 with 6.5 writing, PTE 66 with 60 writing and 76 speaking, and TOEFL iBT Australia 98 with no sub-score below 24)
• Pearson, PTE scoring help centre (results usually within two days and up to five working days, and the two year hard expiry after which scores cannot be accessed or assigned)
• Pearson, New DHA visa requirements for PTE Academic (the 7 August 2025 change, the 1,522 participant concordance study, and the rule that tests taken before that date are judged against the previous requirements)
• Pearson India, PTE Academic (standard test fee INR 18,000, being 15,254 plus 18 per cent GST, and booking as little as 48 hours in advance)
• IDP IELTS India, IELTS results (IELTS on paper 7 days in India, IELTS on computer 1 to 2 days, IELTS for UKVI on paper 13 days, the eTRF within 2 working days, and the two year recommendation on validity)
• IDP IELTS India, IELTS test fee (INR 19,000 for both Academic and General Training, on paper or on computer)
• IELTS, getting and sharing your results (IELTS on computer 1 to 5 days and IELTS on paper up to 13 days as the global figures)
• OET, results and scoring (the 0 to 500 scale in ten point increments mapped to grades A to E, grade B at 350, OET on computer within 48 hours, OET on paper as little as 5 days in India against 12 days elsewhere, and the statement that validity is set by the recognising authority)

Related reading. Put the score to work with the Australia student visa and Subclass 500 document pack, see where the admission bar sits course by course in the guide to Australian universities, and check what your degree is worth to a regulator in qualification recognition and skills assessment.